Parco della Musica Records presents “We Resist!”, the new album by Lydian Sound Orchestra recorded live at Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone for the Recording Studio review. The album is released two years after “Music for Lonely Souls,” which earned the jazz music ensemble the 2016 Top Jazz award as Best Ensemble of the Year. With “We Resist!” a circle is closed. The project, which is musical but above all cultural in the broadest sense, is the result of work that has engaged Lydian for over a year, in various stages of approach, between studio rehearsals, open rehearsals and concerts. The artwork on the cover was commissioned from Greek painter Tania Dimitriadi.

The title is clearly inspired by a record-manifesto recorded by Max Roach in 1960, “We Insist! Freedom Now Suite” and, not coincidentally, has its central part in the reinterpretation of two famous songs by Roach which opened the historic album, “Driva Man” and “Freedom Day,” offered here in a sonically impressive version in which, in addition to the instrumental tentet, lead vocals are also engaged Vivian Grillo and the vocal septet “Broken Sword Ensemble.” Between the two songs, almost an interlude, is an original by Mauro Beggio and Vivian Grillo, whose rhythmic theme is inspired by Roach but whose lyrics are taken from a poem by Irish irredentist Bobby Sands, “The Rhythm of Time,” to whom it is dedicated.

Thus starting again from Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln (not only ”Driva Man” and ”Freedom Day,” but also tracks such as the catchy, dancing ”Lonesome Lover” or the minor blues ”When Malindy Sings,” at times furious thanks to Vivian Grillo‘s vocal impetuosity), the Lydian Sound Orchestra makes its own a very broad idea of freedom.