My Ennio Morricone

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• 

  On Vinyl

  Greg

  • Root Genre: Jazz
  • Primary Branch: Contemporary Jazz / Chamber Jazz
  • Secondary Influences: Film Score, Classical / Art Music, Tango, Reggae, Balkan Folk
  • Textural Identity: Lyrical, cinematic and acoustic — piano, trumpet/flugelhorn, double bass and drums, with melodica, vibraphone and glockenspiel adding color
  • Energy Axis: Low → Medium (mostly elegant and reflective, but with rhythmic reinterpretations that occasionally push into more animated territory)

  This is a jazz reinterpretation of Ennio Morricone, rather than a soundtrack album in the conventional sense. Lantsias arranged 16 Morricone themes for a quartet featuring Andreas Polyzogopoulos on trumpet/flugelhorn, Mihalis Kalkanis on double bass and Michael Kapilidis on drums. The project was completed with permission from Morricone’s family, and the album itself is tagged as acoustic/contemporary jazz and soundtrack music. :chatgpt-content-reference{index=“0”}

  What makes it particularly interesting is how freely the quartet reshapes the source material. A contemporary review notes “Cockeye’s Song” taking on a Miles Davis-like nocturnal jazz quality, “Addio a Cheyenne” becoming reggae-inflected, “Il Clan dei Siciliani” moving toward Piazzolla-style tango, and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” picking up Balkan coloring. :chatgpt-content-reference{index=“1”} That is why I would use Chamber Jazz rather than simply soundtrack jazz: the arrangements feel intimate, improvisatory and ensemble-centered.

  Small review: The strength of My Ennio Morricone is that Lantsias clearly reveres the melodies without treating them as museum pieces. “Chi Mai” retains its aching lyricism, while “The Man with the Harmonica” becomes much more open and conversational in the quartet setting. Polyzogopoulos is especially effective because trumpet naturally carries some of the lonely, widescreen quality associated with Morricone, yet the band keeps pulling the music back toward jazz interplay. The best moments are the ones where the originals become almost unrecognizable stylistically but remain instantly recognizable melodically.

  Collection shorthand: Jazz → Contemporary Jazz / Chamber Jazz.