Renato D'Aiello, the British-resident Italian jazz musician, reminds you of plenty of other saxophonists - all of them great. He is an intelligent and technically assured adaptor of a classic jazz-sax tradition that includes Sonny Rollins and Dexter Gordon. When he is in full stride, he dips into a treasure chest of fascinating melodic fragments. And he has a way of charging through a solo as if he were absolutely certain of its shape, though it is unfolding even as he plays it.
At the moment, D'Aiello, like Italian-American Joe Lovano, is preoccupied with adapting the music of Italian composers to post-bop jazz. Lovano's version is a complex and overblown big-ensemble treatment. D'Aiello's is less ambitious, but more accessible and affecting in that it blends orthodox jazz improvising, romantic southern-European melodies and Latin influence, turning many of the pieces into Gilberto-style sambas.
Yet on Thursday, his band, Canzone, took too many of the pieces at a discreet mid-tempo shuffle. With only Nicola Moresu's double bass underpinning the rhythm (there are no drums), there were few sharp corners or sudden exclamations. The upside was the melodic elegance of all three musicians: pianist Alberto Bonacasa made a powerful impression with his Wynton Kelly-like resourcefulness.
D'Aiello's control of tone is delicious on slow music. On an original that translated as One Night I Was Dreaming, he explored almost soundless, quivering breaths after Moresu's thoughtful bass intro. The Gilberto-like Anima was a romantic reverie, with D'Aiello building a climactic solo out of hooting sounds, steady notes, sudden accented phrases and a brief visit to a groove.
The second half's opener brought one of the saxophonist's most imposing breaks: a powerful, spurting excursion in double time over a steady Latin swing. At Least You in the Universe then introduced a drier, more phlegmatic D'Aiello, but he paid the same meticulous attention to delicate, flute-like notes, maintaining a combination of ironic detachment and fragile tenderness oddly reminiscent of the older Ronnie Scott. Canzone's show needs a little more tweaking of the contrasts in the repertoire, but the playing is premier-league material.
