The Alboran Trio is a significant encounter between three individuals, each with their own approach to improvised music, three musicians who breathe rhythm, three artists, who are constantly searching for a new sound and approach to playing. The main characteristic of the Alboran trio is the successful collaboration of three personalities, working together to realize a single musical vision. The programme is built around original compositions by the pianist Paolo Paliaga, and arranged by the trio. Rigorously acoustic in concept, the work of the musicians enhances our understanding of the vibration of skins, strings and wood. It concentrates on developing the art of melody, on interaction and spontaneous creation outside traditional genres and the mainstream of swing. The result is music, which is fresh, complex and full of nuance, music that comes from a jazz background yet moves freely between Europe and Africa.

The classic acoustic jazz piano trio has experienced an amazing renaissance over the last few years, and the Alboran Trio is a perfect example of this renaissance. It is the ideal admixture of a disciplined, well-defined group sound and individual musicians playing with a maximum of freedom. The trio masterfully combines traditional jazz forms with elements of world music, playing with an ease and surety in which the most basic ideas dance hand in hand with the most complex. On their ACT debut CD, Meltemi, pianist and composer Paolo Paliaga, bassist Dino Contenti, and drummer Gigi Biolcati exhibit a timeless, stylistically open-ended jazz. In this respect, with Near Gale nothing has changed. Sailing is Paolo Paliaga’s second great passion - Meltemi are the strong, dry summer winds of the Aegean Sea, and Near Gale is also borrowed from the sailor’s lingo…