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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Original 2019 CD with digipak case. New and shrink wrapped.

    Includes unlimited streaming of On a Cloud via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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1.
Misterioso 05:09
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2.
Straight Ahead 04:17
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3.
Raskòlnikov 05:20
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4.
In These Last Days 04:02
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5.
The Man of the Sea 05:36
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6.
The Seagulls of Kristiansund 08:20
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7.
Honeysuckle Rose 04:05
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8.
Fireflies 03:46
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9.
On a Cloud 05:49
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10.
Cavalcando 02:38
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about

The extraordinary jazz singer of the avant-garde tradition Jeanne Lee has long been the subject of the music and literary works of Diana Torti, jazz singer and composer. This album marked the 80th year since the birth of Jeanne Lee on 29 January 1939 and was released in homage to this extraordinary musician and poetess.

'On a Cloud' is the third SLAM album to feature Diana Torti, this time as leader, following her work with Lucia Ianniello.

Diana writes: "On a Cloud is a project born during a passionate music and vocal research focused on the figure of Jeanne Lee, in homage to this extraordinary musician and poetess. The repertoire draws on standards, improvisations and original compositions inspired by Jeanne Lee's world of sounds. The choice of the duo, voice and classical guitar, is an ideal dimension to re-elaborate the poetic, refined and intimate atmosphere of Lee's music."

Diana Torti: voice
Sabino de Bari: classical guitar

“It is a very fine challenge that Torti has attempted and she has prevailed with it, brilliantly. The unusual accompaniment by classical guitar adds volumes to the already extended range of vocal sounds, mellifluous and open, which Torti employs, using her voice more as an instrument. She’ll be spirited, articulate and resonant one moment, shadowy and bottomless the next. Together they are both amiably playful and gravely intimate, their individual interpretations of the songs giving them both ownership. Ultimately though, her enthralling voice and phenomenal technique claim the album for Torti’s accolade.” - Ken Cheetham, Jazz Views

“I was taken aback by "Raskolnikov"...a dazzling vocal performance over a wonderful low, burbling line from de Bari. I love to distraction Mal Waldron’s "The Seagulls of Kristiansund", so was delighted to hear arrangement of another musician who understood singers inside out. Jeanne Lee’s own "In These Last Days" was a super-brave choice and she pulls it off magnificently...But the wonder of this set, heard a second and third time, is the sheer range of sound de Bari gets out of his classical guitar, which seems to have as many tonal and textural personalities as there are songs here. He has it sounding like a bass, a plucked cello, a piano, a flamenco guitar, all within a few minutes; astonishing. Not your average chanteuse album and not a Broadway song in sight. Don’t miss out on it because of that. It’s worth an hour of anyone’s time.” - Brian Morton, Jazz Journal

“Lee died in 2000 after decades of forging a path for avant singers and remains relevant today. On the ten, mostly wordless vocals, Torti is accompanied by Sabino de Bari on classical guitar, whose purpose seems mainly as a structure for Torti's improvisations. Torti has quite a lovely voice and is most accessible on the standard "Honeysuckle Rose". Time to get out your Jeanne Lee recordings.” - Robert Rusch, Papatamus

“When Italian singer Diana Torti first heard Jeanne Lee she had an epiphany: singers could explore the uncharted terrain of free material too. Torti, an imaginative improviser who responds easily to musical impulse in the moment...pays a notable homage to Lee’s vocal tradition in what would have been the singer and poet’s 80th birthday year.” - Suzanne Lorge, The New York City Jazz Record

credits

released January 25, 2019

Recorded on 5th, 7th, 8th April 2018 at The Premises Studios in London.
Mixing by Raimondo Mosci.
Mastering by Danilo Rossi.

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SLAM Productions London, UK

Free jazz, contemporary jazz and improvised recorded music label founded by saxophonist George Haslam in 1989, which has released over 250 albums.

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