Francesco Turrisi

Si Dolce è il Tormento

Diatribe Recordings

Rating: 4/5

Turin-born, Dublin-resident pianist Francesco Turrisi does not easily fit into any category, drawing on everything from early and renaissance music, Italian folk and the sounds of the wider Mediterranean. But jazz is the vessel it's all poured into and Turrisi seems to be hinting at a new path to the jazz waterfall via the forms and textures of the traditional Italian repertoire. His first Irish recording, inspired by the early music he has performed with the group L'Arpeggiata, features drummer Sean Carpio and bassist Dan Bodwell, who provide sympathetic support for the leader's delicate, ruminative compositions, along with Brendan Doyle on clarinet, who makes it sound like he has been playing this music all his life. A delightful, unusual, decidedly un-Irish jazz recording.