Remember to Remember: Cusmano, Toscano, Zirilli and the great rock book

Claudio Cusmano's Remember to Remember was released on 11 November 2022. The program mixes original arrangements with a selection of rock standards from the Anglo-American Twentieth century, reread in a jazz key by the trio.

The trio

Claudio Cusmano (guitars), Nello Toscano (double bass and electronics), Enzo Zirilli (drums). Cusmano, a Catania-born guitarist (31 May 1962), is one of the most recognizable voices in Sicilian jazz over the past three decades; Zirilli, a Catania-born drummer based in London, is a fixture of the British jazz circuit.

The ten tracks

1. Blowin' in the Wind (3:59) — Bob Dylan, 1962
2. Pink (3:36)
3. Let's Hope for the Best (4:11)
4. Tom Traubert's Blues (5:31) — Tom Waits, 1976
5. Have You Ever Seen the Rain? (5:30) — Creedence Clearwater Revival, 1971
6. Desperado (5:24) — Eagles, 1973
7. San Diego Serenade (4:30) — Tom Waits, 1974
8. Jessica (4:44) — Allman Brothers Band, 1973
9. Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word (5:06) — Elton John, 1976
10. Show Me the Place (5:33) — Leonard Cohen, 2012

Forty-eight minutes in total. The album moves from the late Sixties and Seventies of American rock (Dylan, CCR, Eagles, Tom Waits, the Allmans) through to the late ballads of Leonard Cohen. The choices are not pure homage: the trio takes the songs apart and rebuilds them with a jazz harmonic vocabulary, reaching for unexpected solutions.

The project has since become a regular live format at the Monk Jazz Club in Catania, where the trio performs an extended version of the program.

Available on all digital platforms.