Neapolitan Café Quartetto Gelato Silva Screen Records, 2001 Buy it online Tracks 1: Tango Del Mar 2: Mattinata 3: Ave Maria "Tanti Anni Prima" 4: Mazurka 5: Lolita 6: Al di Là 7-10: Four Bagatelles 11: Words That I Want 12: Criminal Tango 13: Torna a Surriento 14: The Clown of Venice 15: Rondine al Nido 16: Waltz Brillante 17: Volare Reviewed by Adrian Marks	The opening bars of "Tango Del Mare" (literally, "Ocean Tango" if my Italian does not fail me) on Neapolitan Café conjure images of red-checked table cloths, steaming plates of pasta borne to the table by mustachioed waiters and wax-covered, slightly dusty Chianti bottles stuffed with dripping candles. These are reassuring, comforting images laced with a delicate humor that is not at all unlike Quartetto Gelato, the foursome responsible for all of this well-bred noise. Neapolitan Café is Quartetto Gelato's fourth album and the first that includes virtuoso accordionist Joseph Macerollo, who joined the ensemble in 1998. There are several things worth noting about Quartetto Gelato in general and Neapolitan Café in particular. In the first place, their accomplished-yet-sprightly renditions of a bag so mixed includes "Ave Maria," Antonin Dvorak's "Four Bagatelles Opus 47," a traditional mazurka and "Volare" (for cryin' out loud) it begs that the album be subtitled: "Classical for Dummies." An album this accessible that includes operatic arias, tangos, gypsy fiddling, traditional melodies and straight-up classical is impossibly rare. What's even more rare is to find it so well done. All four members of Quartetto Gelato have backgrounds that include some degree of classical training and performance. Oboist Cynthia Steljes -- who also plays the English horn -- is a former member of the York Winds woodwind quintet and the Toronto Chamber Winds. Violinist Peter de Sotto -- who also lends his strong tenor to Neapolitan Café when it is required -- was a member of the Toronto Symphony and was voted "Musician of the Year" by the Toronto Musicians' Association in 1998. Accordionist Joseph Macerollo has accompanied the likes of Luciano Pavarotti and Teresa Stratas and has collaborated with Henry Mancini. George Meanwell -- who plays cello, guitar and mandolin with Quartetto Gelato -- has toured with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and appeared with the National Ballet of Canada and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. These are journeymen musicians whose passions, it would seem, have pushed them to find an outlet for the type of music closest to their hearts. As well produced as it is performed, Neapolitan Café pumps with the energy of this rare foursome: talented musicians, all, yet with a charisma that cuts right through the distance of recording. The images included in the liner notes tell their own story. All four musicians are included in every photograph, often with an instrument, always smiling and looking very much like people you'd like to invite into your home. Artistic people, certainly. But devoid of the type of stuffiness that many who make this type of music bring with them. It's this rare quality that Neapolitan Café is suffused with and that makes it such a wholly enjoyable album. An album it's easy to spend time with, that's completely finished and polished and, yet, one that makes you smile. Every time. | May 2001   Adrian Marks is an author and journalist.	As well produced as it is performed, Neapolitan Café pumps with the energy of this rare foursome: talented musicians, all, yet with a charisma that cuts right through the distance of recording.