more from
IGLOO Records
We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

It Could be the End

by SAL LA ROCCA

/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      €9 EUR  or more

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Includes unlimited streaming of It Could be the End via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days

      €15 EUR or more 

     

1.
Insomnia 05:17
2.
Lazy Lion 06:55
3.
4.
Crescent 09:08
5.
Season Heat 06:37
6.
Stand Point 05:44
7.
Red In Black 07:37
8.
Osuna 07:29
9.
Bluemondo 03:25

about

"I was already aware of Sal’s remarkable talent on bass. I also got to enjoy his qualities as a human being during our conversations. But this recording session was the opportunity for me to discover the composer and exceptional leader that he is. He has his own style of writing and chose musicians capable of following his vision on these recordings. The experience was a pure joy for me. It’s one of the records I’m most proud of."

Coming from a musician like Jacques Schwartz-Bart, this sort of comment is worth its weight in peanuts. Salted, needless to say. As Jacques would say about La Rocca’s writing style, “that’s it”.

Apart from the individual qualities of the musicians that took part in the adventure, “It Could be The End” reveals more than anything else a world that is personal yet coherent and – if the word still means anything - modern. A world that is as radically jazz as it is radically far from the mainstream that Sal La Rocca was for so long a staunch, even exclusive, champion.

Only fools never change their minds and Sal La Rocca is anything but a fool. Careful in the early days not to rush through things and to start with the roots - Ray Brown, Paul Chambers – the most buccaneer of our double-bassists (or the other way round) has been on a quest that is as surprising as it is fascinating. A quest that reveals a musician that is far from his image as a bop sideman, partner of Steve Grossman, Jacques Pelzer and Bob Mover. Perhaps remembering his early days tainted with rock, for his personal projects he works with guitarists whose approach to their instrument blends rock energy and sounds with jazz improvisations (Peter Hertmans and Jacques Pirotton on the previous album “Latinea” and the young Lorenzo di Maio on this one).

The style of writing Schwartz-Bart is referring to generates a form of “fusion” that is obviously closer to Scofield or Brecker than the Californian soup, a fusion where binary and ternary rhythms kiss each other roughly on the mouth, a fusion where replacing the electric bass by a double bass radically changes the game. The leader’s profoundly jazz background (like that of Pascal Mohy or Hans Van Oosterhout) does the rest. The result: a singular album that sounds like a plural and that can be conjugated in the past, present and future; a contemporary jazz record that reads like a travel book.

At each stop, we get a song to hum and high-level soloists to follow in their harmonic and rhythmic excursions. Let’s be clear: a record signed by a bassist-leader often resembles other releases recorded by bassist-leaders, a heavy revenge on the status of accompanist; spotlight on the bassist, all the themes are for me, the first chorus and codas…This second album by La Rocca deftly avoids that trap. With the exception of “Crescent”, all the compositions are signed La Rocca but the rest is impeccably balanced and each musician comes out of the adventure with something to remember.

Could this be the end?
“No way, José”, replied the echo!

JPS, Maison du Jazz

www.igloorecords.be/IglooJazz/albums/it-could-be-the-end/

credits

released February 15, 2012

℗ & © IGLOO Records

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

SAL LA ROCCA Brussels, Belgium

Sal La Rocca, est l’un des contrebassistes les plus demandé en Belgique. Il a joué aux côtés de Toots, Philip Catherine, Nathalie Loriers et Anne Ducros (en France).
Il s’initie à la contrebasse essentiellement en autodidacte à l’âge de 23 ans. Dès les années 80, il accompagne aussi bien des musiciens belges renommés qu’internationaux et sillonne l’Europe de festivals en tournées.
... more

contact / help

Contact SAL LA ROCCA

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like SAL LA ROCCA, you may also like: