“Tradition” e “Sabbath Prayer” sono tratte dal musical “Fiddler on the Roof” così come “Chavalah”.
Quest’ultima non è stata inclusa nella colonna sonora originale dello spettacolo teatrale, ma si può sentire nella versione cinematografica di Norman Jewison del 1972.
“Fiddler On The Roof”, ha debuttato a Broadway il 22 settembre 1964. La sceneggiatura è basata sul racconto “Tevye the Milkman”, pubblicato nel 1949, dell’autore ebreo-russo Sholom Aleichem.
“I Heard It Over The Radio” è una traccia inedita di Ornette Coleman contenuta nel cofanetto Atlantic, “Beauty Is A Rare Thing, The Complete Atlantic Recordings”. Esiste un altra versione di questo brano sotto il titolo di “Antiques” nel disco “The Ornette Coleman Trio At The Golden Circle Volume Two” pubblicato dalla Blue Note.
“Little Lees (Louise)” appare originariamente su “Love For Sale” di Cecil Taylor, (Blue Note). Si può trovare un altra grande versione di questo brano su “The Straight Horn Of Steve Lacy” (Candid).
“I’ll Always Be Yours” appare originariamente sul disco dell’ Irving Fields Trio, “More Bagels And Bongos” (Decca).
“My Yiddishe Momme”, “Hava Nagila” e “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen” , sono tratte dal disco di Shelly Manne “My Son The Jazz Drummer”, ristampato con il titolo “Steps To The Desert” dalla Contemporary.
"Unused Theme" è un brano inedito che non è stato incluso nella versione definitiva del film di Sergio Leone "C'era una volta in America"; appare per la prima volta nella ristampa della colonna sonora pubblicata dalla Ryko.
“My Heart Belongs To Daddy” è una canzone scritta da Cole Porter nel 1938 che è stata incisa da un grande numero di cantanti tra cui Ella Fitzgerald e Marilyn Monroe. E’ stata introdotta da Mary Martin nel musical “Leave It to Me”.

“Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen”, (To Me You Are Beautiful), è dedicata a Shelly Manne (1920-1984).
“My Yiddishe Momme”e “Little Lees (Louise)” sono state concepite come una suite dedicata a mia madre Luisanna.

Questa musica è dedicata alla memoria di mio padre, Toni de Rossi (1927-1997).

“Tradition” contiene un campionamento di Zero Mostel da “Prologue-Tradition” tratto da “Fiddler on the Roof “ RCA/ARIOLA INTERNATIONAL-BMI.
“Hava Nagila” contiene campionamenti di Samuel Malavsky da “Maran Di Bishma’Aya” tratto dal disco “Ribon Haolamim” e di The Rebbe da “Purim 5736: When teaching children, to make sure that they understand fully”.
“My Heart Belongs To Daddy” contiene un campionamento di Mickey Katz dal brano “You Belong To Me” contenuto in “Borscht Riders In The Sky” WARNER CHAPPELL MUSIC LTD.

Liner Notes:
The Shtik project has been on my mind for a long time. It came out of my passion for jazz and Jewish music, to which I have dedicated the best years of my life. This recording, however, comes also from my need to pay homage to my father Toni, who passed away in 1997. Looking back, he was a very important figure for my musical growth; in some ways he passed on to me his love of music. He played upright bass and the records of his collection proved seminal for me. Unfortunately he was not there to follow the most important phases of my career and this record has a very personal value for me, it’s like an imaginary letter.
All the tunes we play here are, in one way or another, important for me. Some pieces, like Louise or I Heard it Over the Radio, are part of the repertoire simply because I love them; besides that, I enjoy hunting out almost-forgotten pieces, like a diver searching for ancient hidden treasures.
This is certainly not the case of Hava Nagila, My Yiddishe Momme or Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen, which are genuine standards. The real gem is Shelly Manne (who I worship) record, My Son The Jazz Drummer (which also happens to be what my father used to say to introduce me to his friends, to my great embarrassment…), a dazzling recording which I discovered thanks to my friend Letizia Renzini.
The songs taken from Fiddler On The Roof are inspired mainly by Cannonball’s version. I am extremely attached to Norman Jewison’s movie version which I watch over and over again, and which moves me every time.
The fact of having discovered a forgotten piece, or rather, a piece which was discarded from the final soundtrack of Once Upon A Time In America, stirred up strong emotions in me. So strong that I just had to use it for this project. One of the strongest aspects of my music is the influence of cinema: I have always associated music with images and Sergio Leone’s movie (my favourite) is one of the most successful from this point of view; a story which explores the ideas of time, memory, love and friendship,. Opening the CD with this piece means for me opening a chest full of memories.
I have also played with some of the song titles, like the hypothetical medley between My Yiddishe Momme and Louise, dedicated to my mother Luisanna, or I’ll Always Be Yours and My Heart Belongs to Daddy, which needs no explanation. The Cole Porter standard lends itself well to the imaginary running of film credits. Irving Fields, who I discovered thanks to Anthony Coleman, is an incredible artist and I am proud of being one of the few to own his More Bagels and Bongos.
Choosing the right musicians for this recording was also very important. I felt strongly that all the new El Gallo Rojo family should be part of this CD, plus some close “friends of the family” who I admire. Apart from being fantastic musicians, they are my best friends and a great source of inspiration for me.
I am not Jewish and neither was my father. My deep passion for Jewish music and culture began over ten years ago. At a certain point I realized that many of my favourite artists were Jewish. The question I kept on asking myself was: which is the distinctive quality that links Woody Allen to Lou Reed, John Zorn to Leonard Nimoy, Isaac Singer to Tony Curtis or Bob Dylan to Stan Getz?
I found out that Jewish culture was the common ground of my literary and musical passions; and so I couldn’t help but use this material because it is what I hold closest to my sensitivity as a musician.
Enjoy the music.
Zeno de Rossi, Verona, January 2007.

Unused Theme is a precious melodic line written by Morricone for Once Upon A Time In America and inexplicably left out of Leone’s masterpiece. It is a great theme and, like all great themes, stands on its own: here it is played with intensity by Achille Succi’s bass clarinet and ends up forming the most cinematic beginning ever.
“Traditions, traditions. Without our traditions - says Tevye, the main character of the epoch-making yiddish musical “Fiddler On The Roof”, 1964 – our lives would be as shaky as, as... as a fiddler on the roof!” Tradition is the first of the three pieces on this recording taken from the musical. The theme emerges only in the closing part, as a conclusion to a remarkable work of preparation consisting of a brief aylerian fanfare and a great solo by Nicola Fazzini, against a background of horns of pictorial value, real and effective theatre wings able to move with the alto’s oblique explorations. Chavalah, again taken from Harnick and Bock’s musical, is transformed into a sinuous bolero. Zeno de Rossi’s percussion defines the mood and sets the pace of this surprising and joyous interpretation, while Achille Succi aims for the sky with a solo which plays magnificently in the space between emotionality and intelligence.
In I Heard It Over The Radio, Ornette Coleman writes one of his most Chagallian themes, as far as its lightness and its dreamlike sense are concerned. This quintet version, in which only the percussion is not doubled, is an act of love but also of deep understanding of Ornettian poetics and method. Notably, listen to the interplay between Danilo Gallo’s and Stefano Senni’s double basses, carried out on the trail of a creative reinvention of the role of each instrument.
My Yiddishe Momme is one of the pieces borrowed from “My Son The Jazz Drummer”, perhaps the most “intimate” of Shelly Manne’s records, dedicated to Jewish themes. Here the ability to return to the same interpretative intensity is extraordinary, starting from the perfect introduction of Enrico Terragnoli’s guitar, capable of reaching the beauty of Al Viola’s original, and ending with Francesco Bigoni’s tenor’s doleful sound which is transformed into pure song.
Louise is a Taylorian composition of striking beauty, here reintroduced taking into account Steve Lacy’s 1960 version, with soprano and baritone then and clarinet and bass clarinet today, sharing out the different levels of timbric space. The solos are concise but not formalistic, bubbling with ideas, and inspired by Alfonso Santimone’s pianistic counterpoint, a tribute to Cecil Taylor and not far in their conception from the swift visual expressiveness of an action-painter.
The third piece from Fiddler On The Roof, Sabbath Prayer, is entrusted to J Kyle Gregory’s trumpet and the idea of prayer is implied in the notes, swollen with pathos and held with fullness, like those of a cantor sustained by a collectivity of voices. The rhythmical intention, sustaining a hypnotic pedal where the piece breathes with great naturalness, works particularly well.
Urgent and kinetic, and faithful to the spirit of Shelly Manne’s 1962 version, the rapturous, traditional Hava Nagila builds up immediately to a great highness thanks to the rhythm section and to Alfonso Santimone’s dazzling introduction. The creative heart of the piece is in a perfect solo by Francesco Bigoni and, in an extraordinary flight with a cubist flavour, by Pasquale Mirra, which then brings us back logically to the closing theme.
Also Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen comes from Shelly Manne’s “My Son The Jazz Drummer” and here too we have a reference to the beautiful atmosphere, in this case west-coast, of the original. The “noir” influences of the melody are diluted by the notable explorative openings, while bass and percussion answer the many entreaties without ever losing their balanced and relaxed feel.
The ingredients of the cocktail by Irving Fields (“Bagels and Bongos” and “More Bagels and Bongos”) were a seductive jazzy piano playing authentic Jewish material above swaying Latin rhythms. This I’ll Always Be Yours, a tribute, obviously in trio, to the New York pianist, manages to take in the atmosphere of the 1959 version, as well as the latest creative trends of the contemporary piano trio. De Rossi, Santimone and Gallo fuse tones and gestures until they seem to be the expression of a single musician. The secret behind the great trios.
My Heart Belongs to Daddy, placed at the end of the entire work, is to some extent a manifesto, a declaration of purpose. Everything oozes humour, starting from the Porterian theme, so explicitly singable, or from the very “sixties” rhythmic structure. Terragnoli’s solo moves with candid mischievousness above improbable “twist” accents, while Daniele D’Agaro’s solo is an exhilarating digression into territories of a possible abrasive and anti-rhetorical post-Sheppian romanticism. Giorgio Pacorig’s piano then brings us back cleverly to the final theme.

Shtik is mainly a journey of cognition and of re-cognition. The treasure sought is the deep sense of feeling “Jewish” to which the contemporary world and its art owes much of its intellectual agility and creative urgency. In this prospective Shtik is also a collection of accurate signals, of ideal boundary lines of the subject, which should be grasped with maximum attention, starting from the choice of the various materials which make up the overall picture. “The question I kept on asking myself – says Zeno de Rossi - was: which is the distinctive quality that links Woody Allen to Lou Reed, John Zorn to Leonard Nimoy, Isaac Singer to Tony Curtis or Bob Dylan to Stan Getz?”.
It is perhaps a matter of a psychological angle which is, in fact, indescribable like a game of mirrors; or a rational method of approach to the problems of existence, and therefore also the problem of artistic creation. In any case listening to Shtik makes you think that Zeno de Rossi has the right answer in his pocket.

Giorgio Signoretti, Mantova, January 2007.