Gianni Gebbia – S.T.

The debut solo LP from Italian saxophonist/composer Gianni Gebbia is a beautiful contemporary jazz masterpiece that we first discovered circulating around Japanese shops like SHE Ye, Ye and Pianola Records. Gebbia is a self-taught jazz musician who lived in NYC 1979-1980, where he was around David Mancuso’s legendary Loft scene. You can hear some of those influences on this album as Gebbia takes a sort of looping, minimalist approach to composition, building each song using only a few instruments and layering each sound carefully to create deeply moving atmospheres. Gebbia plays almost all the instruments here including saxophones, percussion, and Roland Juno synthesizer. There’s certainly a one-man-show, DIY type vibe going (the album artwork is by Gebbia as well), but somehow Gebbia’s layered melodies and grooves come together to sound larger than most full bands… Highly recommended for fans of Italian avant-garde, Gigi Masin, Music from Memory, etc.

Recommended – Full Listen