TRIBUTE TO CHARLIE PARKER FRANCESCO CAFISO & STRINGS 
Released: 20 December, 2005

Francesco Cafiso sax alto

I Solisti di [bad word] – String Orchestra
Paolo Franceschini first violin
Paolo Castellani violin 
Gabriele Menna violin
Stefano Menna violin
Silvia Palazzoni violin
Luca Tironzelli violin
Luca Ranieri violas
Luca Moretti violas
M.Cecilia Berioli cellos
Mauro Businelli cellos
Marco Tinarelli double-bass
Simone Frondini oboe and english horn
Luciano Caporossi french horn
Laura Vinciguerra harp

Riccardo Arrighini piano
Aldo Zunino bass
Stefano Bagnoli [bad word] 

TRIBUTE TO CHARLIE PARKER

This is a wonderful record. Even a listener who knows nothing about Charlie Parker will respond to the great music. But those who know who this giant of jazz was, and know that his recordings with strings are among his most famous will be astonished and delighted that a l6-year-old Italian alto saxophonist, 50 years after Parker's death, has been able not only to recapture much of the magic of the original versions, but in doing so, affirms in a most striking and moving way that the legacy of the master is very much alive.
I first heard the name of Francesco Cafiso in 2002, when my dear friend Ira Gitler returned from his annual jazz visit to Italy and told me that this then 13-year-old Sicilian-born saxophonist had captivated him and 2000 other listeners. I [bad word] Ira, yet I was skeptical, until about a year later, when he played me some samples, and I too was knocked out. And even more so after I heard and saw this young phenomenon at a jam session at the Italian Cultural Center in New York City in 2004.
Seeing him again, not long before the string sessions, at the new jazz shrine in New York, Jazz at Lincoln Center, it was evident Francesco had [bad word] even more [bad word]  and when I had the great pleasure to introduce him at two concerts at Umbria Jazz, on July 2005 in [bad word]  I must admit that I came away almost in awe of the confidence and authority with which this still very young man has paid artistic tribute to one of the greatest figures in the jazz pantheon.
And what was perhaps most moving is that aside from his [bad word] of his [bad word] (which he took up at 7) and of the jazz vocabulary, Francesco has solved the dauntig task of this tribute, in which he literally had to follow in Parker's giant steps--the arrangements are exactly the same that Charlie used--not by attempting to copy the master, but by playing these pieces with his own personal accent, and his special youthful passion and energy. (And, I might add, in the [bad word] jazz spirit; having now heard him twice live as well as on record in this repertory, I can attest that he doesn't repeat himself, except perhaps, as he should, by stating a familiar melody with the proper Parkerian accent.).
We know that Parker's recordings with strings were his most popular, a fact that of course caused critics to view them with suspicion. But Just Friends was one of the very few of his own recordings that Charlie liked.
His romance with the strings began in the fall of l949 and continued, on and off, for five years--the next-to-last live recording of Parker is with strings, near the end of his far too brief life. Here, the strings, usually just five in number for Charlie, have been doubled. They are in the fine hands I Solisti di [bad word]  an ensemble specializing in baroque music, but greatly enjoying their collaboration with Francesco. The important rhythmic support is supplied by the young soloist's excellent working partners, pianist Riccarde Arrighini also providing pleasant solos. [bad word] should also go to Simone Froudini, doubling on oboe and English horn with perfect intonation and sound, ans making some pretty nifty quick switches from one to the other.
This tribute to Charlie Parker, fifty years after his untimely death and in the year of what would have been his 80th birthday, was a wonderful idea, and we at the Institute of Ja