CheRoba: L’occhio della betulla Marco Santilli admits it freely: When he thinks about music, he thinks in Italian. The clarinettist from the Ticino has long become part of German-speaking Switzerland’s jazz scene, but with his new quartet, CheRoba, like with earlier projects, he throws a bridge to the south. And the four musicians tell his stories as if they had been gigging around with them for years. There are reminiscences of poet Hermann Hesse in Montagnola, melodies inspired by a poem in the Ticino dialect, skilfully woven ballads, and citations from the jazz tradition – all interspersed with unbridled collective improvisations. Canzoni and jazz merge into a poetic mix. The eye of the birch tree reflects styles and images.