Modus Operandi – Salvatore Bonafede

Making his debut as a bandleader at the age of 28 with two albums released in quick succession featuring Joe Lovano and Paul Motian, whilst working in New York, is not a common biographical detail for a European jazz musician. Salvatore Bonafede, who must have learnt from his jeweller parents that true value lies in the most imperceptible details, and who, from his hometown of Palermo, has inherited a wealth of languages and cultures, has played a leading role in the musical history spanning the turn of the millennium. Curious, versatile and passionately driven by the search for a balance between melodic structure and improvisational spontaneity, the Sicilian pianist recorded this gem in August 2010 alongside two great figures of contemporary jazz, Eddie Gomez and Billy Hart, following a successful Italian tour. Modus Operandi is a sort of ‘art of the first take’, the quest to build by creating (and vice versa) a spontaneous universe of variations on a theme: no post-production to define a stylistic clarity, but the unadulterated authenticity of the interplay. Eleven tracks that intertwine and blend within the new languages of literature, music and the contemporary arts, clues to a puzzle to be pieced together through the presentation of singable melodies embroidered upon chains of harmonic substitutions.

Modus operandi is, in fact, a working method that opens with a reference to Fante’s Bandini saga, ‘Ask the Dust’, and concludes with the semantic ambiguity of “The End of Everything”. The tribute to two great masters of jazz piano, Jelly Roll Morton and Thelonious Monk (More coverage), is a proud reaffirmation of the value of tradition and improvisational creativity, co-residents that render the urgency of sharing both timeless and unpredictable. This album possesses the noble grandeur of ‘naked truth’, a place of choice where listeners can become a proactive part of the music, discovering the Trio’s myriad subtleties and inventions with every listen.