Zeno De Rossi is an eclectic drum and percussion player. His biography is filled with activities and includes a number of musical projects. He has been cooperating with some of the most interesting contemporary musicians, such as Vinicio Capossela (with whom he constantly works), Franco D’Andrea, Marc Ribot, Fabrizio Bosso, Gianluca Petrella, Ares Tavolazzi and Otello Savoia (just to mention some double-bass players) and many more.
The musical project named “Shtik” has not very much to do with this background. As a matter of fact it includes something very personal. A rich collection of passions and memories, kept alive since his childhood that, combined together, become atmosphere, sound and music.
Zeno's love for traditional Jewish music comes from the Yiddish culture, where music is a familiar element accompanying everyday life, with its sad and happy moments (how could we forget the moving and ironic melancholy of the small wind band in the beautiful film “Train de Vie” by Mihaileanu? –writer's note). But, also and especially, memory. Those warm sounds and melodies, frequently in a minor key, but which are never too sad, with a bit of irony. This was the soundtrack of his childhood, when he used to listen to his father Toni's LPs or while he played the double bass. He inherited his love for Jewish music and for jazz. This flashback to childhood is dedicated to him; a childhood lived through the eyes and the heart of a refined musician. It is a "fictitious letter", telling what frequently notes are more able to tell than words.
Shtik: 11 covers, originally re-interpreted, whose unique leitmotiv seems to be that they were taken out of Zeno's bag of memories. They are an interesting blend of free jazz, moving melodies and dancing rhythms, including Ornette Coleman and Cole Porter's standards, traditional melodies taken from the Yiddish musical “Fiddler on the roof” and other more rare or even forgotten pieces. The pleasure of listening to this CD over and over makes us realize that there is much more. The real protagonist is the atmosphere, also thanks to the live ensemble sound, resulting in a blend of emotions, happiness, melancholy, rhythm and good taste, reminding one of old and precious "cellars", where all the greatest jazz players started their careers, where you can play together with passion and time never passes.
The creator of the project is supported by a group of friends, who are also high-level musicians. They are Kyle Gregory (trumpet), Daniele D’Agaro, Achille Succi, Francesco Bigoni, Nicola Fazzini and Piero Bittolo Bon (saxophones), Pasquale Mirra (vibes), Enrico Terragnoli and Alessandro Stefana (guitars), Alfonso Santimone and Giorgio Pacorig (piano) and Danilo Gallo and Stefano Senni (bass guitar). Together they form the "new family of musicians" of the El Gallo Rojo, the label that hosted and realized De Rossi's musical project, perfectly in accordance with the original features of their other productions.
The opening track is a perfect choice, according to the atmospheres told by De Rossi in the booklet. It is a piece by Ennio Morricone that was excluded from the soundtrack of "Once upon a time in America". The piece is performed and elegantly coloured with Yiddish-style shades by Achille Succi's clarinet. Each track hides some jewel in its arrangement or in the instrumental performance, such as the curious and original Bolero-like performance of the traditional “Chavalah”. The standard “I heard it over the Radio” is enriched by a duet between Danilo Gallo (creator of the label “El Gallo Rojo”) and Stefano Senni, with some experiments that overcome the classical schemes of the double- bass. It is Zeno himself that defines Cecile Taylor's “Luise” as "fulgurating" for its intensity and beauty. Whatever version one listens to, his opinions are definitely true, and his refined performances, combining rhythm, piano counter-parts and the warm sound of the clarinet and the bass clarinet are definitely a worthy solution. “Tradition” is the more traditional track that tempers itself through a performance of modern jazz, “My yddishe momme” is built like a moving ballad, “Sabbath prayer” oscillates between mystic and sensual shades, where the trumpet never fades, notwithstanding the full rhythmical bases on which it moves. "Have Nagila" is another traditional Jewish track with its free jazz style, though in the beginning it seems to develop like a Bossanova. A worthy finale is Cole Porter's standard, with the rhythms and sounds vaguely reminiscent of the 60’s and softened with an enjoyable and refined irony.
"It is serious or with a sly irony, wise or carefree. It seems to hide the burden of a secret, which can't be understood by whoever has not shared the history of a people that was able to maintain the spaces and mysteries of the desert from where it comes ". These words by Moni Ovadia about the atmospheres created by the Yiddish music are perfectly suited to this CD.
A special note also goes to the graphic project, which is nice, ironic, temperate and original. These are also the features of Zeno De Rossi's public image that, in his website, has been able to characterize himself with the same original appeal.