FRANCESCO TURRISI Si Dolce è il Tormento Diatribe ★★★★ The core of this exquisite CD, which combines Turrisi’s experience of 17th-century Italian music with jazz, is the trio of Turrisi (piano), Dan Bodwell (bass) and Seán Carpio (drums). Their performances of Salve Regina , Ciaccona , Lamento di Paolo e Francesca , Canzonetta Spirituale sopra la Nanna and La Monica are full of interplay that, even at its most flexible and imaginative, serves the music. Carpio is a subtle colourist, Bodwell combines solidity and mobility, and Turrisi, who composed most of the material, is in gorgeous form. His solo Toccata is a bonus. Brendan Doyle (clarinet/bass clarinet) and Richard Sweeney (theorbo, an early lute) appear on some tracks, but the album is really about this particularly striking trio. Ray Comiskey Irish Times March '09