Trombonist Samuel Blaser's most personal record: eight originals born from Italian folk melodies and a family history he only recently uncovered.

Samuel Blaser is one of jazz's most prolific voices, with 34 recordings as leader or co-leader since 2008. Rosina, his 35th album, is his most personal yet: eight compositions built around a family history he spent years piecing together. The record takes its name from Rosina Pierina Scarpioni, Blaser's maternal grandmother -- a wartime Resistance member who later emigrated to Switzerland, and whom he never met. A 1925 photograph from Emilia-Romagna, passed to him by a New York cousin he only recently discovered, set him on a path back into a part of his family -- and his identity -- that had gone untold. Reconnecting with relatives in Italy, then finding Italian cousins around New York, Blaser found his way in through the region's traditional folk melodies, some captured in Alan Lomax's Italian field recordings of 1954-55. Their open, stripped-back quality gave him room to reshape them in his own voice. Three of the album's eight tracks come from that tradition -- the a cappella opener Boara, the title track Rosina (built on a Lomax recording of a male chorus singing 'E la mamma di Rosina'), and a closing Serenata borrowed from Neapolitan crooner Renato Carosone's 1957 recording. The other five are Blaser originals, including a multi-movement suite (Adagio, Scherzo, Elgnij) and Amaaka, written for his two sons. To record it, Blaser turned to his 'American' quartet: pianist Russ Lossing and drummer Billy Mintz, longtime collaborators from his years in New York, and bassist Masa Kamaguchi. Their shared history shows in the album's wide-open spaces, sudden shifts between raucous interplay and dreamy intimacy, and unaccompanied solos, duos and trios. 'I feel with this project I'm finally shaping the music the way I want it to sound, where different parts of my musical language come together,' Blaser says. 'It's also the first time I'm consciously linking my music to Italy.' Rosina is released 16 October 2026 on Blaser Music, distributed by L'Autre Distribution.

Track Listing

• Boara
• Amaaka
• Rosina
• Elgnij
• Adagio
• Scherzo
• Mysteriously
• Serenata

Additional Details

Label: Blaser Music

Genre: Jazz

Language: English

Run Time: 56 mins

Region: 0

Release Date: 12/11/26

UPC: 730706017414