Boston, MA is decidedly not Italy, and 2016 is almost assuredly not 1968, but New England’s freshest 14-piece orchestral jazz outfit Tredici Bacci may be able to convince you otherwise. Just listen to the band’s 2014 effort The Thirteen Kisses EP — painstakingly assembled from a sweeping array of influences from 60s and 70s European pop, American swing, and the music of luminary composers of classic world cinema like Ennio Morricone and Michel Legrand — and you’ll be transported out of time and space itself before being deposited somewhere else entirely, somewhere with a distinctly Italian flavor something like that of an artisan linguine.
Led by flagrantly ambitious composer, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist Simon Hanes (ex-Guerilla Toss), the band is set to bring their syrupy soundtrack music back to our shores with their first full-length from NNA Tapes, Amore Per Tutti, on November 11, just in time to momentarily assuage the bitter, lonesome sting of the frigid Boston winter with dreams of warm cannoli and mournful accordion folk music. If that’s not enough to get your gondolas rowing, the album’s extensive guest list includes JG Thirlwell of Foetus, John Zorn-associate and Elysian Fields member Jennifer Charles, Italian composer Vincenzo Vasi, and fellow-NNA Tapes artista Ryan Power. So if you want to make believe you’re in Amarcord or another late-period Fellini movie (I’m partial to La Strada myself), you won’t regret taking a trip down the riviera with Tredici Bacci this fall.
Listen to “Give Him the Gun (featuring JG Thirlwell)” here:
Amore Per Tutti tracklisting:
01. Columbo
02. Ca C’est Cantare
03. Modern Man (feat. Ryan Power)
04. Avante
05. Swedish Tease
06. Slusher (feat. Ruth Garbus)
07. Vendetta Del Toro (feat. Charlie Looker)
08. Drowned (feat. Jennifer Charles)
09. Give Him the Gun (feat. JG Thirlwell)
10. Souvenir De Beacoup D’Amor
11. Nessun Dorma (feat. Vincenzo Vasi)