Guida, Claudio / Testa, Marcello ONE Plus ONE – “Platform One” – [dEN Records]

Thurston Hunger   6/6/2014   CD, Jazz

Pristine recording, especially of Marcello Testa’s acoustic
bass, you can see the wood grains in it while listening.
And Testa’s playing is so strong and catchy, your mind may
add in drum fills. His partner in sound here is tenor sax
Claudio Guida, heavier on the sweet smoke more than blistering
fire. “Monky Tonky” has a possible salt peanuts taste, on
several tracks Teata’s bass almost trips a funk wire,
(check out “Steps” after its walk-on intro and wisftul
beginning, also check the short “Dub Over”) but clearly the
overall mood is polished and tuneful jazz. “Promenade” lets
Guida walk like Steve Lacy alone among some clouds. I
thought the composition of “Three Secrets of a View” was
the apex here, so beautiful. I enjoyed Guida’s electronics
adding more to the equation of One Plus One on “Saxobit”
(blurring ambient edges) and on the outset of “Eclipse”
(fuzzy farewell in space). Like “Three Secrets” the duo
excel in the sort of somber ballad style, so “Norvegian
Mood” and “No Sad Title Found” (all three notably Testa
compositions). 2012 Italian release and again really
excellent engineering on this dEN recording.
-Thurston Hunger