Jazz
Self-produced · 10 September 2026
The decision that organises “Beautifully Different” is one of instrumentation and it shows in the running order: Fernando Ferrarone plays alto saxophone on the first track and the last, and trumpet on all five in between. “Solar Eclipse”, five minutes seven, and “Billy Bob”, six thirty, are the two up-tempo pieces that open and close, and the difference is audible: with the alto out front the quintet runs; with the trumpet it settles into a middle gear.
Ferrarone is based in Florida and here leads a group assembled almost entirely in Buenos Aires. The American pianist Russell Kranes introduced him to the three Argentinian musicians who complete the quintet on a trip he made there some years ago: guitarist Tomás Fraga, bassist Diego Rodríguez and drummer Matías Crouzeilles. Kranes is the one you hear most of the four, with phrasing that never repeats a device from solo to solo, and Fraga’s work in the middle of the weave, sustained chords rather than lines, is what gives this quintet a sound distinct from that of an ordinary trumpet quintet.
Seven tracks and forty-five minutes fifty-one, with the material unevenly distributed: “Back to it” is the longest at nine minutes one and “My Dilemma” runs seven fifty-six, while “Beautifully Different”, the title piece, stops at five and a half. “Tommy’s Shuffle”, six twenty-two, does what it says and is the track where the band sounds most relaxed. The reverb, discreet across the rest of the record, makes itself heard on “Back to it”, and that is exactly where it was least wanted, because the piece is already the longest and the one most in need of definition.
The record carries no composer credits. That all seven themes are Ferrarone’s is the reasonable inference — and the one the All About Jazz critic makes — but it is stated nowhere, and on a self-produced album presented as personal work that is an odd omission. The two saxophone pieces are the best, and the five trumpet tracks, very well played, all follow the same order of solos. Nothing on the record explains why the alto appears only at the two ends.
Rating: 6.9/10
Text by Aina Torrents