For a long time Flavio Boltro and I craved the idea of recording an album as a quintet. We had been playing that way for a while.

In 2011, in occasion of the Artusi Jazz Festival, Flavio introduced me to Leo Corradi, with whom we played at the festival. Immediately we felt something special was happening: the atmosphere was amazing and we had a great time playing. Later on, we played together again, both as a trio and a quartet, performing original compositions written by Stefano Paolini and myself – music characterised by strong funk elements. These works had an incredible impact on our public and we decided to record a session together. That day many inconveniences disrupted our work and we ended up recording everything at the end of the day, at breakneck speed in one take: this preserved the ‘live’ feeling, the outcome resulting in a catchy, vibrant sound, fun and hard to label.

We wanted to remain connected to tradition, embracing a spread of influences from Soul to Funk and Boogaloo, but always sounding unmistakably contemporary.