FunkFreak75 A ground-breaking Jazz-Rock Fusion band from Italy that is new to me, thanks to PA compendium of so many things Italian, James Baldwin. This is the band's debut album. Apparently, several members of Perigeo would go on to historic acclaim in solo and other projects, including keyboard virtuoso Franco D'Andrea and saxophonist Claudio Fasoli as well as the band's leader, bassist/composer Giovanni Tommaso from Lucca in Tuscany.

1. "Posto di non so dove" (6:12) Listening to the first song of Azimet, I'm immediately blown away by the Demetrio Stratos-like vocals (a year before anybody'd heard of Demetrio Stratos), the brilliant Don Pullen-like piano, as well as the truly distinctive saxophone. The transition near the beginning of the fourth minute reminds me of early Premiata Forneria Marconi and Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso. I wonder if they (or Tommaso) had ever heard of the Giuseppi Logan Quartet. Beautiful! And so refreshingly new! (9.25/10)

2. "Grandangolo" (8:22) The second song seems to convey a feeling and stylistic approach that Eumir Deodato would make popular a year later in America with crème de la crème American jazz players--though there are also Tony Williams Lifetime feelings to it as well (despite the excellent funky bass). I'm am loving this rhythm section! Drummer Bruno Biriaco is quite impressive! The Fender Rhodes soloing is okay and the raunchy electric guitar is great but it's this rhythm section! They are so tight! Great smooth saxophone soloing in the sixth minute. (I love the engineering effects used on it.) And I love the quick descent into frenzied chaos for the final minute before pulling it together for the final coda! It's so Tony Williams like! (18/20)

3. "Aspettando il nuovo giorno" (3:55) The spacious third song opens with the nice Fender Rhodes and electric bass interplay. As sax joins in and then drummer's cymbal play, the keyboard moves to a repeating chord progression while electric guitar and sax solo over the gentle jazz. This part reminds me of both The Soft Machine and Miles Davis. Quite a pleasant listen. (9/10)

4. "Azimut" (7:18) Side Two's title songs seems to continue the spacious forms from the previous song, though this one a little more free jazz-like. Piano, bowed bass and tuned percussion sounds. This sounds so much like the opening of Return to Forever's "The Romantic Warrior"! (Did Chick steal it from Tommaso?) As the song develops further, it reminds me more of the works of Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders in the late 1960s. Then, halfway through, the band pauses to come together for a structured full band presentation--one in which the presentation of the main melody is traded off among the instrumentalists in a kind of call-and-response rondo! Cool! Then Franco goes off on a wild piano solo while guitar and bass keep the vehicle on the road (with drummer providing some very entertaining accents and embellishments). Once again I am reminded of the jazzier post-Third work of The Soft Machine (as well as Ian Carr's post-Nucleus albums). (13.5/15)

5. "Un respiro" (1:30) The second song on Side Two opens with gentle Fender Rhodes chords supporting the twin melody-making of saxophone and Tommaso's reverbed vocalise. Very cool little interlude! (4.6667/5)

6. "36° parallelo" (9:51) The final songs breaks out sounding very much like a song from The Soft Machine. The dirty electric guitar takes the first lead over the steady drummer, Fender Rhodes chord play, and machine gun note-delivery of the bass. The rhythm section is really moving! And the melody lines are awesome! I especially like saxophonist Claudio Fasoli's sound and style. Impressive drum solo in the fourth minute. These guys can all play but the drummer, keyboardist, saxophonist, and bass player are all of the very highest caliber! A little too oriented toward the individual solos throughout the second half, which kind of turns me off, but excellent jazz. (17.875/20)

A-/five stars; an excellent jazz-rock fusion album--one of the best j-r fuse debut albums ever! A minor masterpiece of Jazz-Rock Fusion.

1967/ 1976 My review is based on: BMG Ariola S.p.A. ND 74103

Perigeo is a great Prog Rock/ Fusion band that is a great band for both musical worlds. This first album from 1972, "Azimut" is a great example of Fusion in Rock field because it is the perfect mix between Prog Rock (in symphonic form) and Be-bop... I.e. a musuc similar to Genesis and similars with tons of Jazz arrangiaments. This album is undoubtedly Fusion but it is also 100% Rock.

I do not have a paticular song that stands out in my mind. Probably becvause "Azimut" is an accessible album both in Rock and Jazz field. The sound production is great for 1972 in Italy and for this fact the power and feelòings are in first plan. Also magic is in first plan. But magic is the Jazz part of "Azimut" music. The more Jazz parts are also the more Prog Rock parts, vice versa the more pure Rock parts are close to a form of Proto Jazz metal that is, incredible, a form of contaminated Hard Rock (not at the level of Ian Gillan Band). I read that perigeo is the Italian version of Nucleus. But, true or not, Perigeo is a great band in the vein of tradition of Italian Jazz. And not other.

In definitive "Azinut" is a great example of the contamination of Rock & Jazz (not Jazz & Rock) and an accessible album. But, probably for these fact, a great album.

Sean Trane First album from the best Italian jazz-rock band (formed in Rome in 71), and the first of a few masterpieces in a row, all of them being distinctive from one another, something that’s not always evident in the JR/F style. Perigeo has their sound somewhere between Mwandishi, MD’s BB, Soft Machine, Nucleus and Iceberg. I have rarely seen such a bizarre/ugly artwork illustrating so well the music on the disc: if you can easily picture your head/brains after listen of this album through the headphone, chances are that it wouldn’t look too far away from this, maybe with added smoke coming out of the ears.

Perigeo holds one particularity that no other bands in memory (mine anyways) has: its leader is a bassist (in his 30’s to top it off), which in jazz circles is quite uncommon. Indeed Giovanni Tomasso is not only the bassist and contrabassist (with and without the bow), but he plays synths and percussion as well as singing (quite well too) whatever few vocals there are on their albums. He’s also on this album, the sole songwriter as well. The other musicians are also quite fine at their respective crafts, especially Franco D’Andrea on keyboards and Claudio Fasoli on saxes (who is also well in his 30’s from the group’s pictures). Another particularity of theirs was to have an American on the guitars Tony Sidney, who will record a few albums on his own a bit later. Rounding up Perigeo is drummer Biriaco, whom hogs the stool quite well.

Rising on spacey noises, the sublime Posto Di Non Dove starts to grab you with a quiet electric piano over a Floyd-like organ and Tommasso’s superb scatting vocals. Halfway through, the song changes abruptly with a strong repetitive descending riff on bass and guitar, while D’Andrea’s piano is reminiscent of Keith Tippet, while Tommasso’s singing takes on another lovely direction. The lengthy Grandangolo is a track filled with dissonant bits accompanying a pedestrian bass, before the track settles into a groove with Fasoli’s doubled or tripled sax gives a bit of a brass rock chorus. Around the half of the track, the need to go higher is felt and the group increased the tempo a bit. The short and tense Aspettando was with is a relatively common track.

The lengthy title track opening the flipside starting on a bowed contrabass and Tippett-like piano are leading the tune to unsuspected peak somewhere not too far from Alice Coltrane, while Sidney’s guitar finally gets a few lines, but the track returns to Tommasso’s superb bass and D’Andrea’s awesome piano, until it fades out. The aptly-titled short Un Respiro is Tommasso’s vocals over quiet sax fills. 36th Parallel closes out by giving some exposition to Fasoli’s sax lines and Biriaco’s drums first, then Tommasso’s bass, going dissonant again,

Quite an outstanding debut album, Azimut failed to attract much attention to itself, something the group’s second album “Abbiamo….” would, as well as its Genealogia successor. It must be noted that in Azimut, the band might have well had been a quartet for young Tony Sidney’s guitar is more than discreet and apart a few loud moments, it’s almost inexistent. But in either case, this will not stop Azimut to be a highly recommended debut album that all fans of Nucleus and Tippett must own.