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 choice is not innocent: with the alto out front the quintet runs, and 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 most conspicuous of the four, with a phrasing that does not repeat 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 forty-nine, 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.
There is something the record does not say and that is worth saying: it 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. As for what is played, the reservation concerns the arc: the two saxophone pieces are clearly the best, and the trumpet block in the middle, for all that it is very well played, proceeds at too even a level for any of the five tracks to stand out. The record ends up leaving you curious about what Ferrarone would do with the alto for a whole hour.
Rating: 6.9/10
Text by Aina Torrents