Antonella Chionna, a young Italian vocalist and poetess fromSouthern Italy meets Pat Battstone, a long term Boston pianist. It started as a random contact – a friend of a friend – then a surprising response, followed by a dialog. Finally a collaboration was born that eventually included their musical circles spread across 2 continents.

The subject remained the same – Voice – as did the process of finding and developing it:

||: Record, critique, eliminate the worst, focus on the best : || ( repeat ad infinitum )

It was through this process that the Poole-Battstone, Demos-Battstone, and Demos-Poole-Battstone musical dialogs were formed which produced 6 CDs over the past 5 years.

In Spring 2016, La Chionna arrived in Boston for a vacation, and the process of finding a voice started. From the very first day, it was clear – we wanted to find our voice. After 2 weeks of touring and recording, a musical Voice appeared – Antonella Chionna Meets Pat Battstone – though a much different voice than the previous ones; this contains a 19th century romanticism and lyricism. Yet it did not abandon the “Chamber Improvisation” that was born with the initial Poole-Battstone collaborations. The addition of accompanying surrealist poetry recitations as well as playing de-constructed standards added even more colors and flavors to the existing voices.

Her final days in the US were spent recording with Richard Poole, Kit Demos, and myself. The results were the union of the new and previous Voices – 4 soloists, 6 duets, and 4 trios under the guise of a quartet. As with our other CDs, what is presented on this effort is a cohesive set of a tracks that fit together as a unified work, capturing the highlights. Our recording sessions are similar to live performances in that all combinations of instruments make up a set. But for the economy of the recording, not all made the final cut, even though they may have been the better tracks.

One day we hope to release a CD of Abandoned Tracks.

As LaChionna states:

“I met these cool guys, for the first time, on my way to USA in the spring of 2016. I was 25 and quite impressed by the easiness
that came from this kind of musical connection: blessed by the circumstances and privileged by a providential empathy, placed in
the charming town of Cambridge (MA) at Ryles Jazz Club.  To me, that sounds Rylesonable.”

Pat Battstone, 12 December, 2016, Cambridge, MA

 

SAMPLES:

1) Under a Persian Sky Under A Persian Sky (Rylesonable)

2) Rather Life Rather Life (Rylesonable)

 

You can PURCHASE this CD direct from the following locations:

Hard copies from the publisher, Dodicilune

On iTunes

Amazon (digital download only)