Handful of Soul – Mario Biondi & The High Five Quintet

Mario Biondi’s voice has a depth that seems to alter the passage of time within a song. Deep, warm, and slightly husky, it moves with the ease of someone who grew up listening to Lou Rawls, Isaac Hayes, and Al Jarreau, yet finds its own identity in the company of five Italian jazz musicians. Released in 2006 on Schema Records, Handful of Soul brings together original compositions and reinterpretations drawn from different periods of African American music, woven through with swing, soul, and Brazilian rhythms.

The presence of The High Five Quintet is essential: Fabrizio Bosso on trumpet and flugelhorn, Daniele Scannapieco on tenor saxophone, Luca Mannutza on piano, Pietro Ciancaglini on double bass, and Lorenzo Tucci on drums create a musical setting in which the voice can take center stage without overshadowing the instrumental conversation.

The choice of repertoire reveals another dimension of the project. Henry Mancini’s “Slow Hot Wind” takes on an almost nocturnal intimacy: the voice descends into its darkest registers, while the arrangements allow each phrase room to breathe. On “On a Clear Day,” the melody retains its original elegance but acquires a rhythmic flexibility that brings it closer to the quintet’s musical language. The title composition, written by Duško Gojković and Jimmy Woode, draws on the European jazz tradition, while Al Kooper’s “I Can't Keep from Cryin' Sometimes” introduces a rougher edge rooted in the blues. Each interpretation reshapes the relationship between voice and ensemble, as though the musicians were discovering different ways to inhabit songs that already carried a history of their own.

Biondi allows his voice to coexist with the instrumental language of jazz without constantly asserting itself over the music. Handful of Soul invites us to listen to those conversations: the ones unfolding around an extraordinary voice, and those that continue when it chooses to fall silent.