Silvia Bolognesi is an Italian, Siena-based double bass player-composer-bandleader-arranger whose her most significant encounters in his musical training are those with William Parker, Muhal Richard Abrams, Lawrence «Butch» Morris, Roscoe Mitchell (she played in his Sextet and the recent incarnation of the Art Ensemble of Chicago) and Antony Braxton, and a member of the Hear IN Now string trio (with cellist Tomeka Reid and violinist Mazz Swift), and Nicole Mitchell’s Black Earth Ensemble. Timing Birds is the first album of Bolognesi in her twenty-year career where she adds her spoken word poetry.
Bolognesi is joined by the Senegalese, Italy-based percussionist-vocalist Dudú Kouate (who played with her in The Art Ensemble of Chicago and plays in the Italian Cristiano Calcagnile Multikulti Ensemble), and Chicagoan electronics player-vocalist-sound engineer-producer Griffin Rodriguez who has a storied history in the art rock world (he is a founding member of the avant-fusion band Bablicon and plays in The Exciting Trio), initially meant to be just the recording engineer, but stepped in to beef up the sound (and mixed and mastered the album). Timing Birds was recorded at Shape Shoppe Paradiso in Siena in December 2021.
Timing Birds begins with Codona-like, Don Cherry-esque, shamanic-hypnotic melodies and songs that rely on infectious grooves. But it also involves inspired and meditative double bass solos (both arco and pizzicato), Kouate’s call-and-response chants, fiery free improvisations, subtle electronic loops, hazy dub and so much more. The passionate, storytelling vocal delivery of Bolognesi – in Italian and English – finds common musical grounds between the African percussion legacies to the Afro-American free jazz legacy to the European folk music traditions, as «The music is the mother». The dynamics of this trio correspond with its inclusive, peaceful sonic vision and are organic and effortless, always stimulating and timeless.
Timing Birds offers so many musical surprises that answer so many of our emotional needs.
Eyal Hareuveni
Silvia Bolognesi (double bass, vocals, poetry, percussion), Dudú Kouate (percussion, vocals, ngoni, kalimba), Griffin Rodriguez (electronics, vocals)
