MARIO BIONDI 黑胶唱片和CD

Review: Italian crooner Mario Biondi is well revered amongst those who know and for his new album, for the first time, he fully embraces the style that inspired his career. He does so by serving up a mix of great covers and plenty of superb unreleased songs that are embellished with help from plenty of friends and peers from both the Italian and international jazz scenes including Paolo Fresu, Stefano Di Battista, Rosario Giuliani, Francesco Cafiso. It was all recorded in Palermo with local players and the whole thing has a noir edge but warm vibe that plays out coherently from front to back despite the range of sounds touched upon.

Review: Since debuting in 2006, Italian singer Mario Biondi has skipped between styles and sub-genres, variously turning his hand to carnival-ready Latin jazz, soul-jazz, easy listening, Europop, Christmas music and bossanova. On Romantic, his latest full-length excursion, he keeps his options open too, offering up a range of loved-up songs (in both English and Italian) that variously doff a cap to Nat King Cole, big band jazz, jazz-funk, Barry White (the Love Unlimited Orchestra style 'Romantic Song'), string-laden tear-jerkers ('Loneliness'), funked-up disco-jazz ('What's Your Name'), Rhodes-heavy soul (a gospel-influenced cover of Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On' that's worth the admission price on its own) and breezy Latin beats ('Papa Loves Mambo').

Review: "This Is What You Are" is undoubtedly Mario Biondi's most celebrated work. He first sung it for original composers Was A Bee in 2004, before re-recording it for his debut album (alongside the High Five Quintet) in 2006. Since then it has been reissued or remixed on numerous occasions. Here it gets reissued on a tidy 7" single, with a punchy radio edit - a swinging, Sunday afternoon style chunk of Latin soul-jazz rich in jaunty grooves, soaring orchestration and smooth vocals - being joined by the "Brazilian Rime" rework. This tasty re-recording re-casts the song as a breezy, samba-fired slab of early 1970s style Brazilian MPB. It's an inspired interpretation and could well become the definitive version of the track.

Review: One of the richest, soulful voices in the European jazz, Biondi regularly works with the likes of Incognito. The High Five Quintet complements his delivery well with a Pimptones style soft-jazz structure but plenty of rhythmic welly. For a little more house and a little less jazz, flip for Opolopo's remix. Weighty and club-ready but with Mario's full vocal still intact, it's yet another notch in Opolopo's award-worthy remix bedpost