Beyond Italy Vinyl & CDs

Review: Since debuting in 2006, Italian singer Mario Biondi has skipped between styles and sub-genres, variously turning his hand to carnival-ready Latin jazz, soul-jazz, easy listening, Europop, Christmas music and bossanova. On Romantic, his latest full-length excursion, he keeps his options open too, offering up a range of loved-up songs (in both English and Italian) that variously doff a cap to Nat King Cole, big band jazz, jazz-funk, Barry White (the Love Unlimited Orchestra style 'Romantic Song'), string-laden tear-jerkers ('Loneliness'), funked-up disco-jazz ('What's Your Name'), Rhodes-heavy soul (a gospel-influenced cover of Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On' that's worth the admission price on its own) and breezy Latin beats ('Papa Loves Mambo').

Review: Italian crooner Mario Biondi is well revered amongst those who know and for his new album, for the first time, he fully embraces the style that inspired his career. He does so by serving up a mix of great covers and plenty of superb unreleased songs that are embellished with help from plenty of friends and peers from both the Italian and international jazz scenes including Paolo Fresu, Stefano Di Battista, Rosario Giuliani, Francesco Cafiso. It was all recorded in Palermo with local players and the whole thing has a noir edge but warm vibe that plays out coherently from front to back despite the range of sounds touched upon.