The music proposed, suggested by First Steps it's an unique mixture of genres, from the "fusion" sound in the Yellowjackets style, to a Steve Coleman funk style, with references to Weather Report and the more electric Miles Davis, even if the band's repertoire is most of all made of original songs. First Steps is also the album's title, produced by the band in collaboration with the record company Rockhattle/Filmusic. What is First Steps? The First Steps project came from an almost casual idea, that me and my friend Massimo Serra had: we both were at some friends having dinner, in a beautiful and suggestive place (Il Talucco, see www.iltalucco.com, and perhaps the place had a positive and important role in having the idea :-) and we began to talk of an eventual project we could do together: although Massimo and I are long time friends, we were not able in all these years to put up and realize something important like this project for example. We've contacted right away the bass player Mauro Fregonese, and so beginning a trio, with the intention of creating and playing our songs. The first one, entirely created in the rehearsal room, was actually First Steps, a guitar-play composition in Steve Khan's style of playing, with the guitar that plays the melody within the arpeggios, and the drums that freely improvises on the notes. Coming along with the work in the studio room, we quickly realized that our common purpose was (and still is) to capture the moment, and so to make a registration for "taking a shoot" of this emerging band and of the actual music, that is also in a continuous growth. To improve the sound and voice variety, the number of the members in the band increased with the percussionist Alberto Lamanuzzi and sax player Alfonso Domenici. This way followed the study and compositional work that gave life to other creations, also realized in the studio room: Slow Sco is a personal homage to one of my favorites guitarists, John Scofield, with - in fact - a "sco sound" from the funk period, while Puzzle was realized from a melodic/rhythmic cell thought off by our percussionist Alberto. And so, we finally came to give a better shape to some "long kept in a box" tunes, among there are the blues/funk 5:30 PM with a guitar sound oscillating between Pat Metheny and B.B. King (!!), the Algorhythm in Steve Coleman's techno-funk style, with some quite bold rhythmical inserts on a "davis-styled" bass edge, and most of all New Day, which is perhaps the most complex and articulate of the entire album, with an initial drums solo that creates the climax for the sax theme, followed by a Metheny-like guitar solo (well... yes I admit it, he's one of my favorites references!) to end with an unforgettable solo of Alfonso's soprano sax. Being very satisfied of these "First Steps", we can only invite you to acquire our new album :-) - Nicola Boschetti (First Steps' co-founder and guitarist)