Accordionist Simone Zanchini and the musicians of the Frankfurt Radio Big Band pay tribute to and transform half a dozen works by the legendary Italian film composer Nino Rota.
“First the music, then the instrument!” This is what Simone Zanchini, from the Rimini area, insists on, because: “I am a musician who plays the accordion – not an accordion player who plays jazz.” Nino, the 25th album of the now 46-year-old, makes that immediately and unmistakably clear. This is where all the overwhelming diversity that Zanchini has studied, discovered and further developed in his musical experience comes together - and not only for his often vilified, but actually quite wonderful instrument.
The basis of ‘Nino’ is above all the music Rota wrote for Federico Fellini for classics ranging from “La Dolce Vita” to “8 ½” to “Amacord”, this homage to Fellini’s birthplace Rimini. The biographical backgrounds of the great filmmaker and those of the musical improvisation wizard Zanchini, combine beautifully here.
Zanchini plays a handcrafted Ottavianelli instrument built according to his own design, which “no longer sounds traditional at all, but deeper, darker and with an incredible wealth of overtones.” In Jörg Achim Keller’s arrangements for the Frankfurt Radio Big Band, conducted by David Grottschreiber, this exceptional sound combines with the impetuous improvisation power of Heinz-Dieter Sauerborn’s soprano saxophone and Steffen Weber’s tenor saxophone solo.
