Westbound’s brand new album Gone for a walk (2011) has been produced and arranged in collaboration with one of the most prominent musician in the California smooth jazz scene: bassist/songwriter and producer Roberto Vally, whose collaborations with Paul Brown, Bob James, Bobby Caldwell, Randy Crawford, Eric Darius, Jessy J and many, many others made him one of the leading musicians in the format.

Cristian and Enrico first met Roberto in Los Angeles in 2003 and, right after spending some time together in L.A., they had the willing of working together, despite the long distance.

This friendship led to Gone for a walk, a perfect blend of smooth jazz songs, from the funk flavoured opening track “Here I am”, to the smooth “Hollywood nocturne”, from the tasty, sexy title track “Gone for a walk”, with the special appearance of Rick Braun on trumpet, to the sunny, brazilian tinted “Bahia”, featuring flutist Paola Ceretta, and the Westbound instrumental tribute to the classy Al Green’s “Let’s stay together”.

The line up is completed by some of the most talented musicians in the north Italy area, where Cristian and Enrico are based: Fidel Fogaroli, Lino Sabbadini, Giancarlo Zucchi, Roberto Battini on keyboards and Bernardo “Sancho” Sangiuliano on congas

Guitarist Cristian Rocco and drummer/percussionist Enrico Catena begun their collaboration in 2001, after more than a decade of playing, as session musicians, with various and different artists in Italy and abroad.

The great passion for smooth jazz, and for what Cristian and Enrico use to refer to as “the California Sound”, is strong, since they’ve always been influenced during their music career by such artists as Lee Ritenour, Larry Carlton, David Benoit – and every production from the legendary record label GRP back in the ’80s and ’90s.

So in 2003 they decide that the time to realize what has been a life-long dream and ambition has come.

This passion created Westbound.

In 2006 their debut album as Westbound, “Miles away”, gathered very positive reviews as well as several spins on radio stations such as Smoothjazz.com.

The friendship and the collaboration with L.A. bassist/producer Roberto Vally created their second album, Gone for a walk, featuring Rick Braun. Now available at CDBaby.