European Music Orchestra

Guest is the 1994 Soul Note album of the European Music Orchestra, a young big band conducted by saxophonist Claudio Fasoli, with trumpeter Kenny Wheeler and drummer Aldo Romano as guests. Fasoli, born in Venice and based in Milan, first became known in the 1970s with the Perigeo quintet alongside Franco D'Andrea and Giovanni Tommaso, and has taught at the Siena jazz clinics since 1978. He and Wheeler had already recorded together for Soul Note on the quartet album Welcome. Here the repertoire comes from three writers: Fasoli himself, Wheeler and the trumpeter Manfred Schoof.

The album was recorded and mixed on January 30 and 31 and February 1, 9, 26 and 27, 1994 at FARM Digital Recording Studio in Cessalto, near Treviso. Fasoli plays tenor and soprano saxophone and conducts. Wheeler plays trumpet and flugelhorn within a section of five trumpets, and Romano shares the drum chair with Enzo Carpentieri. The orchestra has three trombones and a bass trombone, five reeds including baritone saxophone, and a rhythm section with Sergio Pietruschi on piano, Ermanno Signorelli on electric guitar, Stefano Lionello on double bass and Luca Palmarin on percussion. Gianluca Carollo doubles on trumpet and vibraphone. Paolo Birro takes the piano on three tracks and Andrea Dainese adds flute on one. Wheeler's The Sweet Yakity Waltz opens the record and his W.W. follows later. Schoof's Horizons, close to nine minutes, is the longest piece, and his Horn Salut closes the programme. Fasoli's four pieces include Lyrical Tocu, Alex & Tom and the pair Sin Trio and Trio.

This is the Soul Note CD 121299-2, first released in 1994.