Imaginary Friends

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The quintet members have an easy familiarity with one another that allows them to make music of a restrained, even fragile beauty…Andy Milne (piano), Drew Gess (bass) and Marker Ferber (drums)... — BBC Music Magazine, May 2019, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 1st Feb 2019
Catalogue No: 7701817
Label: ECM
Length: 60 minutes

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Alessi: Iram Issela

Work length9:47

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Ralph Alessi (trumpet), Ravi Coltrane (soprano saxophone), Andy Milne (piano), Mark Ferber (drums), Drew Gress (double bass), Ravi Coltrane (tenor saxophone)
Recorded: 2018-05-31
Recording Venue: Studios La Buissonne, Pernes-Les-Fontaines

Alessi: Oxide

Work length5:38

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Ralph Alessi (trumpet), Ravi Coltrane (soprano saxophone), Andy Milne (piano), Mark Ferber (drums), Drew Gress (double bass), Ravi Coltrane (tenor saxophone)
Recorded: 2018-05-31
Recording Venue: Studios La Buissonne, Pernes-Les-Fontaines

Alessi: Improper Authorities

Work length6:06

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Ralph Alessi (trumpet), Ravi Coltrane (soprano saxophone), Andy Milne (piano), Mark Ferber (drums), Drew Gress (double bass), Ravi Coltrane (tenor saxophone)
Recorded: 2018-05-31
Recording Venue: Studios La Buissonne, Pernes-Les-Fontaines

Alessi: Pittance

Work length6:17

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Ralph Alessi (trumpet), Ravi Coltrane (soprano saxophone), Andy Milne (piano), Mark Ferber (drums), Drew Gress (double bass), Ravi Coltrane (tenor saxophone)
Recorded: 2018-05-31
Recording Venue: Studios La Buissonne, Pernes-Les-Fontaines

Alessi: Fun Room

Work length8:25

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Ralph Alessi (trumpet), Ravi Coltrane (soprano saxophone), Andy Milne (piano), Mark Ferber (drums), Drew Gress (double bass), Ravi Coltrane (tenor saxophone)
Recorded: 2018-05-31
Recording Venue: Studios La Buissonne, Pernes-Les-Fontaines

Alessi: Imaginary Friends

Work length6:10

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Ralph Alessi (trumpet), Ravi Coltrane (soprano saxophone), Andy Milne (piano), Mark Ferber (drums), Drew Gress (double bass), Ravi Coltrane (tenor saxophone)
Recorded: 2018-05-31
Recording Venue: Studios La Buissonne, Pernes-Les-Fontaines

Alessi: Around The Corner

Work length4:01

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Ralph Alessi (trumpet), Ravi Coltrane (soprano saxophone), Andy Milne (piano), Mark Ferber (drums), Drew Gress (double bass), Ravi Coltrane (tenor saxophone)
Recorded: 2018-05-31
Recording Venue: Studios La Buissonne, Pernes-Les-Fontaines

Alessi: Melee

Work length10:26

$1.10

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$2.05

Ralph Alessi (trumpet), Ravi Coltrane (soprano saxophone), Andy Milne (piano), Mark Ferber (drums), Drew Gress (double bass), Ravi Coltrane (tenor saxophone)
Recorded: 2018-05-31
Recording Venue: Studios La Buissonne, Pernes-Les-Fontaines

Alessi: Good Boy

Work length3:42

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

Ralph Alessi (trumpet), Ravi Coltrane (soprano saxophone), Andy Milne (piano), Mark Ferber (drums), Drew Gress (double bass), Ravi Coltrane (tenor saxophone)
Recorded: 2018-05-31
Recording Venue: Studios La Buissonne, Pernes-Les-Fontaines

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Trumpeter Ralph Alessi’s first two ECM albums as a leader - Baida (2013) and Quiver (2016) - justly earned him high praise. The New York Times lauded the “elegant precision and power” of Baida, while The Guardian extolled Quiver, pointing to the leader’s “flawless technique and ability to draw on jazz tradition while avoiding its cliches.”

After those quartet discs, Alessi’s third ECM album, Imaginary Friends, presents him fronting a longtime working quintet in its first recording since 2010. Alessi’s bandmates include a kindred spirit in saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, a studio and stage partner of the trumpeter’s since they were students together at the California Institute of the Arts in the late ‘80s. They are joined by pianist Andy Milne and drummer Mark Ferber, both making their ECM debuts, plus bassist Drew Gress, who played on Baida and Quiver.

The nine Alessi compositions of Imaginary Friends include an irresistible highlight in “Iram Issela,” with its rich seam of bittersweet melody and exceptional soloing by Coltrane setting the scene for an album of quicksilver beauty.

Reviews

May 2019

The quintet members have an easy familiarity with one another that allows them to make music of a restrained, even fragile beauty…Andy Milne (piano), Drew Gess (bass) and Marker Ferber (drums) create a shifting, ephemeral sound that permeates the whole album.

March 2019

Alessi sees the ECM traditions of meditative patience and sonic detail as presenting new challenges to this long-bonded group’s modus operandi, and that much is evident in the attentive empathy of the improvising, and the tantalising pacing of the compositions. On ‘Iram Issela’, Alessi’s lovely sound gently unfolds a long, delicately skipping intro of quick runs and gleaming falsetto notes over the restrained piano chording of Andy Milne (an Alessi associate from their time together in Steve Coleman’s groups), and Coltrane slowly exhales a tenor solo of swelling heat as Mark Ferber’s drumming builds to a long-postponed ensemble theme. The slow-rocking, distantly Kenny Wheeler-ish ‘Oxide’ and the stealthily bass-introduced, free-floating title-track confirm how closely bonded Alessi and Coltrane are when soloing together, while ‘Fun Room’ shows just how deviously and infectiously swinging this band can be. Imaginary Friends raises an already high bar for Ralph Alessi on ECM.

Imaginary Friends

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