Open Letters: the Red Apple Quartet between Syracuse, Avellino and Montpellier

The Red Apple Quartet's Open Letters was released on Anaglyphos on 3 March 2023. The quartet brings together four musicians from two geographical poles: Rino Cirinnà (soprano and tenor sax) and Santi Romano (electric and upright bass) based in Syracuse; Vittorio Silvestri (guitar, from Avellino) and Michael Santanastasio (drums, Italian-American), both currently based in France.

The four players

Rino Cirinnà was born in Hartford, Connecticut, into a family of musicians. He studied clarinet at the Catania and Rome conservatories, and in 1984 won the audition for soprano sax in the National Carabinieri Band of Rome. He attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston (lessons with Jerry Bergonzi and Charlie Banacos), and his track record includes work with Tony Bennett and Youssou N'Dour.

Vittorio Silvestri, from the Irpinia region, trained in Rome (Saint Louis Jazz School), at Siena Jazz and in Milan; he currently teaches jazz guitar at the Jam school in Montpellier.

Michael Santanastasio is an Italian-American drummer active on the US jazz scene from the Nineties through the early 2000s, where he played with Bobby Watson, George Anders and John Benitez.

The seven tracks

Six originals split between three of the four members, plus one cover of a classic bolero:

1. Esbjorn (2:42) — Vittorio Silvestri
2. Deep Down (3:48) — Rino Cirinnà
3. Weather Changes (5:55) — Michael Santanastasio
4. Historia de un amor (5:06) — Carlos Eleta Almarán, 1955
5. Open Letters (5:51) — Rino Cirinnà
6. Dimples (5:42) — Vittorio Silvestri
7. While I Was Waiting for You (5:42) — Michael Santanastasio

The opening track Esbjorn is almost certainly dedicated to Esbjörn Svensson (e.s.t.), nodding from the start to the Scandinavian piano-trio tradition that rewrote the European jazz grammar of the 2000s. The cover of Historia de un amor places the quartet at the center of a musical geography that spans Central America, the Mediterranean and Northern Europe.

The project

The album works in a borderland between European classical-modern culture and contemporary jazz, reflecting the heterogeneous backgrounds of the four musicians and their dual base between Sicily and France. Open Letters was presented live at the Monk Jazz Club in Catania on 24 and 25 March 2023, just weeks after the release.

Available on all digital platforms.