Three years after His debut album 0-25-50, Adriano Maria is back with his hit It’s Me made up of eleven instrumental tracks recorded live in the studio. They express the artist’s boundless passion for his guitar, the instrument that best suits his way of expressing himself through music. The album It’s Me is a path (process) full of quotations that Adriano Maria, from Rimini, used to pay homage to the artists that best influenced his career as a musician and composer. It’s not surprising then if the sounds bring you back to Nile Rodgers and George Benson‘s guitars as well as Roy Buchanan and Jimmie Vaughan‘s. You may also relive Jeff Porcaro and Steve Gadd‘s drums together with the Jaco Pastorius and Lerry Graham‘s bass-line. You will enjoy the elegance and the delicacy of Herb Alpert‘s wind instruments and Clarence Clemons biting saxophone, Michael Petrucciani‘s piano or Herbie Hancock‘s keyboards.
Everything was intentional, deeply intentional and planned. It’s Me is in a funky-disco direction, full of rhythm and energy. It’s a powerful and important album played with personality and arranged with the utmost care and love for details that give off his artist’s willpower and resolution. Besides containing ten unreleased tracks it is worth noticing the very personal version of Stevie Wonder‘s masterpiece Isn’t she lovely that celebrated his daughter’s birth. It is an example of how mixing music can contain jazz and pop elements, a sort of musical mixing that stands out as the leitmotiv of Adriano Maria‘s present album.