So much of contemporary jazz is cultivated upon artists who don’t make music for today, they are actually making it for tomorrow. Through exciting ideas encapsulated by the concept of fusion, a multitude of interpretations of styles as well as a litany of musical narratives are now available to be explored by bold and competent storytellers. Even the term “storytellers” I would argue is a massively underused notion when considering artists who thrive on progressive takes on their music, subsequently utilizing their projects as artistic chronicles of themselves and society in that space and time.
By its very nature, lvdf serves as an extraordinary chronicle for its respective creators and an inspired depiction of their musical mindsets today. It’s certainly fair to say that this article alone couldn’t fairly account for the boundless accomplishments and successes for the lvdf quartet with each of its contributors serving as imaginative musical pioneers in their own right…
As a pianist, vocalist and composer, Maria Chiara Argiró’s music to date has thrived upon lush atmospheric-styled compositions that revel in the dreamy and the sublime, sometimes further bolstered by subtle twinges of electronica; similarly, New Zealand drummer Myele Manzanza, who has seen his ‘Crisis & Opportunity’ series establish him as a venerable solo artist, displays an uncanny ability to steer his music into varying directions, from more traditional jazz stylings to more broken beat soundscapes; Italian bassist Michelangelo Scandroglio can cite a glittering and highly decorated career including music releases as part of Barencia, Cross Identity and Gently Broken along with a lengthy list of musicians across the Italian jazz scene; London-based saxophonist Alex Hitchcock rounds out the quartet bringing a wealth of experience having served as a member of the jazz-funk outfit Resolution 88, helming his massively successful Dream Band project and tackling a range of full-length collaborations with guitarist Ant Law and fellow saxophonist Tom Barford.
As esteemed individual artists, the lvdf quartet each display a unique vision for themselves and for the music they make. To see Argiró, Manzanza, Scandroglio and Hitchcock come together and seek to create music that sees each artist open to the vast approaches and perspectives of their collaborators is certainly a mouth-watering concept.
Presenting their debut as a five-track, self-titled EP, ‘lvdf’ serves as an enthralling musical gumbo that nods to a more traditional jazz aesthetic while presenting synthy, electronica-laden musical soundscapes that see the quartet once again thinking of tomorrow. With each artist capable of such a vast range of stylings and influences, nothing about the music here feels like it’s being pulled in different directions – each of the EP’s tracks are conveyed in a cohesive and unified fashion that just seems effortless.
If jazz today is a mosaic of global perspectives and future-facing ideas, ‘lvdf’ is an elegantly-laid tile within it – distinctive in tone, collaborative in spirit and endlessly rich in detail. Oh, and it tells a wonderful story.
