31 May 1988: Today sees the presentation of Giuseppe Cataldo's new record "SINCRONIE".
From "Giornale di Sicilia".

Five images in music which have Sicily as their protagonist. The pieces run into each other like acts in a cosmic drama. Fire, air, water and earth caught between hate and love in a subterranean city.


Palermo - This afternoon at 5 o'clock in the Lapidi room of the Palazzo delle Aquile, the record "SINCRONIE" by the "Progetto Musica" group, directed by Giuseppe Cataldo and released by Centro Reinhardt, will be presented. Here, we are going to publish excerpts from an introductory article by Paolo Emilio Carapezza, which is printed on the record cover.
"There maybe weren't so many worthy composers in Palermo even during the golden age of the Renaissance and early Baroque when the city was the capital of the Kingdom of Sicily, splendid with its sumptuous monuments.
Brand new works, composed between the spring of 1986 and the summer of 1997, of which five are in this collection, supervised by one the composers himself: Giuseppe Cataldo, virtuoso percussionist, conductor of the instrumental ensemble and even producer and sound engineer of this recording. It is precisely Cataldo's excellence as a percussionist that determined the common denominator of the pieces gathered here: the predomination of marimba and vibraphone in the first three and of heavier percussion in the other two.
Thus the five pieces run together like five acts of a cosmic drama, or five songs of an urbanistic sound-poem; one at a time, in fact, each is set to one of the four primordial elements, identified and classified by the eldest Sicilian musico-philosopher Empedocles of Agrigento: fire, air, water and earth, united by love, separated by hate. The fifth, finally, is subterranean, seismic and earthy."
(By P. Emilio Carapezza)

June 1988: "Picture Number One" by Giuseppe Cataldo and Giuseppe Costa
From "Musica Jazz".

I think that the force of this record, and it's not a negligible force, is to be found not in the solos but, rather in the writing. If you wanted, at any price, to find a term of comparison, then you would only need to mention one name: Horace Silver. Even if the music is considerably different, Cataldo and Costa's melodic invention is just as immediate, rich in flavour and highly vivacious. The racing opening track by Cataldo stands out in this respect, as does the "B" Suite written by Bonafede, the opening of which modulates on a persistent plafond of double bass and drums which sets the pace at the highest level. Thus the Palermitan duo have burst officially onto the jazz scene with an excellent offering. Besides, it is very difficult to find a septet capable of having the same impact as a big band.
(By Giuseppe Piacentino)

May 1991: "Picture Number Two" by Giuseppe Cataldo and Giuseppe Costa
From Musica Jazz - A monthly review of information and musical criticism

Two years after the remarkable "Picture Number One", Giuseppe Cataldo and Giuseppe Costa have confirmed themselves as one of the most important partnerships in contemporary Italian jazz. Everything in this new record is nigh on perfection , also because the two Palermitan musicians are perfectionists as regards their preparatory work. The compositions have an evident internal coherence, beginning with Valeria Song, a ballad which, for logic and overall structure, sounds like it was conceived by a Benny Golson. The arrangements are invested with a certain complexity of design in order to establish cross-forms and medleys of clear vitality. This time, moreover, the choice of musicians has proved to be of importance. Cataldo and Costa went to Rome and recruited some of the most distinguished soloists around, which has made a major contribution to the increased mobility of the ensemble. An example is the track "Fast Food" which opens with a peculiar trombone duet, evolves into a sort of 1990's Salt Peanuts and finally soars into the most energetic swing.
We are talking in general about jazz that cannot be put into words; which takes in the most disparate experiences (from Gil Evans to the Jazz Messengers) to finish up, moreover, as a highly homogenous entity.
(By Giuseppe Piacentino)