''Songways'' is an album by the

Stefano Battaglia Stefano Battaglia (born 1965 in Milan) is an Italian classical and jazz pianist. He performed as a soloist with the European Youth Orchestra in Barcelona (1981). He won the J.S. Bach Festival award in Düsseldorf for best new pianist of the yea ...

Trio, featuring Battaglia on piano Salvatore Maiore on bass and Roberto Dani on

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

, recorded in April 2012 and released on ECM the following year.ECM discography
accessed December 17, 2013

Reception

The

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

review by Thom Jurek awarded the album 4 stars stating "''Songways'' is European jazz rooted deep in the Italian tradition: it wears both its classicism and post-vanguard lyricism plainly, in the process creating a deft, instinctive, and highly expressionistic music."Jurek, T
Allmusic Review
accessed December 17, 2013 The

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, fi ...

review by John Garratt stated "''Songways'' is amorphously terrific. It may not be a jazz or classical release, but it’s one of 2013’s best so far."Garratt, J
PopMatters Review
March 21, 2013 The

All About Jazz ''All About Jazz'' is a website established by Michael Ricci in 1995. A volunteer staff publishes news, album reviews, articles, videos, and listings of concerts and other events having to do with jazz. Ricci maintains a related site, ''Jazz Near ...

review by John Kelman said that "''Songways'' capitalizes on the strength of a trio that's been honing its craft in multiple contexts for eight years, finding beauty in every nook and cranny even as it eschews the obvious, and continues to hone its profoundly lyrical language with music that paints vivid pictures and evokes cinematic landscapes, encouraging the imagination to run where it will." The ''

JazzTimes ''JazzTimes'' is an American magazine devoted to jazz. Published 10 times a year, it was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1970 by Ira Sabin as the newsletter ''Radio Free Jazz'' to complement his record store. Coverage After a decade of growth ...

'' review by Thomas Conrad said "''Songways'' is one of the prettiest piano trio albums of the new millennium... In jazz, “pretty” is often an adjective that damns with faint praise. Battaglia's music is pretty but neither shallow nor soft."Conrad T
''Songways'' Review
''

'', May 12, 2013

Track listing

''All compositions by Stefano Battaglia'' # "Euphonia Elegy" - 12:11 # "Ismaro" - 5:09 # "Vondervotteimittis" - 7:22 # "Armonia" - 13:50 # "Mildendo Wide Song" - 6:08 # "Monte Analogo" - 6:51 # "Abdias" - 3:40 # "Songways" - 8:42 # "Perla" - 5:17 # "Babel Hymn" - 8:52

Personnel

—

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

* Salvatore Maiore —

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

* Roberto Dani —

References

{{Authority control ECM Records albums Stefano Battaglia albums 2013 albums Albums produced by Manfred Eicher