Riccardo Brazzale is a low-key, soft-spoken, intellectual man. He is a writer, a teacher and musician who graduated from Bologna University with a thesis on Lennie Tristano and who gives his best in the joys of jazz. This is most evident when he is in the act of conducting an orchestra such as the one he led at the 2002 edition of the Vicenza Jazz Festival.
Every year Brazzale, the artistic director of the festival, weaves a concept titled "New Conversations" into the fabric of the overall program, basing an appreciable amount of performances on the music of one or more composers/players. In 2002 the "Conversations" were based primarily on the music of Thelonious Monk, ranging from cellist Ernst Reijseger holding his instrument like a guitar and plucking and strumming through Monk staples such as Reflections and Jackie-ing, to a passionate, athletic Brazzale guiding his ensemble in a recreation (and more) of Monk's celebrated Town Hall (New York) concert of 1959, immortalized in a recording on Riverside. In "Vicenza 2002" Paul Motian's Electric Bebop Band made up half the tentet with members of Brazzale's Lydian Sound Orchestra filling the other positions.
In early May, about a week or so before the festival, Brazzale presented a concert (based on the Town Hall Monk) with the Lydian Sound Orchestra at the Teatro Comunale in Thiene (Brazzale's birthplace - 1960), nearby Vicenza. Everything was recorded live: some at the afternoon rehearsal; others at the concert; and Little Rootie Tootie post concert because the sound technicians lost the ending due to tape failure during the actual concert (as incredibly happened at Town Hall in 1959).
This is not the first time Brazzale has chosen to interpret Monk. In 1993 a CD by the LSO entitled "Melodious Thunk" was issued on the Totem label. Among the 12 tracks there are five devoted to what is called the "Monk Suite". In the booklet notes Brazzale states that in the late 1980s the LSO was conceived and organized «to try to achieve that unique balance which is sought by the jazz I love best: the balance between improvisation and writing, subjective extemporaneity and collective interplay».
This is the path he follows in his homage to Monk, a man who wrote melodies so strong that they lend themselves to interpretation without losing their cores. «I wouldn't do something too close to the original», says Brazzale whose current background features collaborations with the best Italian jazzmen such as D'Andrea, Rava, Fresu, Trovesi, Fasoli and Intra, as well as the LSO. «I wanted to do something modern but still respecting Monk's spirit. I didn't want to distort him. This can be seen in the choice of the soloists too: some play in the tradition; others much less.». Brazzale's arrangements of the six Monk originals that were done at Town Hall also reflect this combination of reverence and adventure. «I drew inspiration from Hall Overton's arrangements (Overton did the orchestration for the Town Hall concert) and most of all from the way Monk played those themes at the piano», he explains. In Off Minor Riccardo utilized much of the format of the collaboration between Monk and John Coltrane. «You can hear it in the tenor sax theme and in the trumpet high notes», says Brazzale. «I slowed down the harmonies in Thelonious and especially in Monk's Mood. The mood of Friday the 13th tends to recall some of Mingus, ensembles or those of Gil Evans, last years. For Little Rootie Tootie I was inspired by Monk's stride style of the last recording in 1971 with Al McKibbon (bass) and Art Blakey (drums) on tour with The Giants of Jazz; and I used this style to orchestrate the famous solo of the first 1952 recording with Blakey (and Gary Mapp, bass). I have the trumpets, saxes and guitar chasing the leading line in a sort of counterpoint.» (The transcription of the solo was first done by Overton for the 1959 concert.) (...) Riccardo really scored his goal. Bravi LSO!
Ira Gitler (New York City, September 2002)

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"It is ironic that it took an Italian arranger by the name of Riccardo Brazzale, using a top-flight Italian jazz orchestra, to produce such a fine big-band tribute to American composer Thelonious Monk. Occasionally others, of course, such as T.S. Monk, have successfully engaged in big-band tributes, but this one, Monk at Town Hall & More, is distinguished by its use of transcriptions from Hall Overton's arrangements from the classic 1959 Town Hall concert that were reinterpreted by Brazzale. The tentet organized by Brazzale includes some of Italy's best musicians, with Pietro Tonolo on soprano sax and Roberto Rossi on trombone, while trumpeter Kyle Gregory adds some tasty solos on trumpet. In addition to tunes by Thelonious Monk, the band adds a loving version of "Abide With Me" and a short piece by Brazzale entitled "Additional C. Q. Six." Highlights include some impressive soloing by pianist Paolo Birro, who plays the Monk role smartly by not aping him; and a lyrical Rossi, who is heard on several tracks to good advantage. Although the new arrangements are an exciting concept, Brazzale is somewhat too respectful; he might have opted occasionally to pursue different avenues while remaining true to Monk's spirit. While the results are almost always of superior quality and many of the solos are first-rate, the talented Brazzale takes his cue directly from the 1959 set, resulting in uniformly high standards but lacking on occasion the high-spirited sense of wonder that infused Monk's music. (2003 - CD Abeat ABJZ 013)
Steven Loewy (www.organissimo.org/forum - AMG, All Music Guide, 2003)

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Natural respect, child-like enthusiasm, a reasonable deal of boldness: with this approach to Monk’s works Brazzale manages to inbue the 1959 record “Monk at Town Hall” with his own personal touch. That record was the first pretty successful attempt to enlighten Monk’s conceptions for trio or combo from an orchestral standpoint.~At that time the pianist relied on Hall Overton: a far from ultramodern arranger yet good enough in refraining from exaggerations and preserving the charachteristics of such a rough and seductive kind of music.~Brazzale follows those teachings adding some spices here and there. Listen to~Little Rootie Tootie~without overindulging in pedantic comparisons: in Lydian’s version the theme has a different flavour. There’s a kind of deliberate ironic lightness introducing Emili and Gregory’s solos (very modern), Birro’s piano interlude (he had~lagged behind~during the trumpet phrases), Tonolo’s
 soprano (a bit Lacyan) and the triumphal finale where the orchestra draws on the transcription of Monk’s piano~performance in the~1952 Prestige version: everything is very beautiful.Equally brilliant are other moments of this sharp reworking. The lineup is the same in number as the original one: sometimes a soprano sax, a flugelhorn, a pocket trumpet are added (even more elated is the version Brazzale presented in those days at “New Conversations-Vicenza jazz” festival with Paul Motian replacing Beggio on drums). Among the soloists, all up to their tasks, a special praise goes to Emili. The very detailed liner notes are written with mastery by Ira Gitler.
Stefano Merighi (Musica Jazz,~July 2003 issue review)

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…Tout un programme, intyerprété par un big band de virtuoses qui négocient avec maestria les arrangements concotés par Brazzale, arrangements recherchés sans excès, qui respectent à la lettre l’esprit de Thelonious: voir l’exposé à la malice toute monkienne de «Little Rootie Tootie» (que clòt une verion orchestrale du solo de piano del 1959), les textures riches et soyeuses qui habillent «Monk’s Mood» ou, plus inattendu, l’arrière-plan d’anches et tuba sur «In Walked Bud», qui reprend en partie l’accompagnement de Dave Brubeck au solo de Paul Desmond sur «Take Five»; pour «Abide with Me» enfin, Brazzale s’est inspiré des trouvailles harmoniques du plus swinguant des baroques, l’ami Johann- Sebastian Bach! Voilà pur l’ensemble: mais comme tout orchestre qui se respect doit comprendre ne serait-ce qu’une poignée de solistes intéressants, penchons-nous sur les individualités. Il y a là Paolo Birro, irrésistible, qui se pose sur «Thelonious» ou «Little Rootie Tootie» (en solo intégral) comme un intéressant suiveur de Monk, Kyle Gregory l’avant-guardiste (voir son solo à la trompette sur «Off Miinor»), Roberto Rossi, tromboniste velouté, Marc Abrams (superbe sur «Off Minor», le vigoreux Rossano Emili et Robert Bonisolo- avec un nom pareilò, comment n’attendrait-il pas à l’excellece sur «Off Minor» et «Friday th 13th» ? D’aucune apprécieront moins l’intervention assez fade de Pietro Tonolo au soprano sur «Little Rootie Tootie» et la guitar un poil trop électrique de Michele Calgaro, auteur toutefois d’un bon passage en octaves agressives sur «In Walked Bud»… Bilan largement positif donc; Mok at Town Hall & More est un cd éminentement recomandable.
Domi Truffandier (Jazz Hot, Paris, 2003)