Gianluigi Trovesi
Encyclopedia
Italian people
The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
saxophonist, clarinetist and composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
.
A native of Nembro
Nembro
Nembro is a comune in the Province of Bergamo in the Italian region of Lombardy, located about 60 km northeast of Milan and about 10 km northeast of Bergamo, on the right bank of the Serio River.thumb|left|The Romanesque bridge....
near Bergamo
Bergamo
Bergamo is a town and comune in Lombardy, Italy, about 40 km northeast of Milan. The comune is home to over 120,000 inhabitants. It is served by the Orio al Serio Airport, which also serves the Province of Bergamo, and to a lesser extent the metropolitan area of Milan...
in Lombardy
Lombardy
Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...
, he studied harmony
Harmony
In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches , or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic...
and counterpoint
Counterpoint
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent . It has been most commonly identified in classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...
under Vittorio Fellegara. Since then he has been a major player in the Italian and European (free) jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
scene. He also teaches clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
and saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. He has won various Italian jazz awards.
In 1978 Trovesi won the first prize in the Italian jazz competition for saxophone and clarinet, landing a permanent job in the Milan Radio Big band (until 1993). After a concert in Bergamo with Giorgio Gaslini
Giorgio Gaslini
Giorgio Gaslini is an Italian jazz pianist and composer.He began performing at 13 and recorded with his jazz trio at 16. In the 1950s and 1960s Gaslini performed with his own quartet...
's Sextet, the influential European producer Joachim-Ernst Berendt
Joachim-Ernst Berendt
Joachim-Ernst Berendt was a German music journalist, book author and producer specialized on Jazz.-Life:...
called him for his Clarinet Summit production, an all-star group with clarinet soloists, John Carter
John Carter (jazz musician)
John Wallace Carter was an American jazz clarinet, saxophone, and flute player.-Biography:Born in Fort Worth, Texas, he played with Ornette Coleman and Charles Moffett in the 1940s. From 1961, Carter was based mainly on the West Coast. There he met Bobby Bradford in 1965, with whom he...
, Perry Robinson
Perry Robinson
Perry Morris Robinson is an American jazz clarinetist and composer. He is the son of the noted composer Earl Robinson. -Biography:...
, Theo Jörgensmann
Theo Jörgensmann
Theodor Franz Jörgensmann is a jazz and free-improvising Basset clarinet player and composer. He has been a professional musician since 1975.-Activities:...
and Ernst Ludwig Petrowsky.
In the 1990s he formed his renowned octet, with Pino Minafra
Pino Minafra
Pino Minafra is an Italian trumpeter and flugelhorn player who is associated with free improvisation, avant-garde jazz. A founding member of the Italian Instabile Orchestra, Minafra has recorded with such musicians as Gianluigi Trovesi, Mario Schiano, Han Bennink, Ernst Reijseger, Willem Breuker...
on trumpet. The first record of the group (From G To G, 1992) won the Italian Top Jazz poll and five stars in Down Beat
Down Beat
Down Beat is an American magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond" to indicate its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chicago, Illinois...
. The octet's Les Hommes Armès (1996) was voted Best Record of the Year and the Trovesi Octet best Italian Jazz Group in the Musica Jazz Italian Top Jazz Poll (1993, 1996; Trovesi already won in 1988 as best musician). Those records are characterized by the meeting of the learned classical and contemporary music, from Renaissance music
Renaissance music
Renaissance music is European music written during the Renaissance. Defining the beginning of the musical era is difficult, given that its defining characteristics were adopted only gradually; musicologists have placed its beginnings from as early as 1300 to as late as the 1470s.Literally meaning...
to serialism, and the Italian folk, in a context of jazz improvisation. During the years the Octet went through important changes in the lineup.
In 1999 Trovesi composed "Round About A Midsummer's Dream", a suite whose inspiration comes from Shakespeare's mention, of the "Bergamasque" dance. The music is performed by a nonet based on three Trios: a jazz trio with sax, bass and drums, a classical string trio, and a folk trio with accordion and tamburello
Tamburello
Tamburello is a court game invented in the northern provinces of Italy during 16th century. It's a modification of the ancient game of pallone col bracciale...
.
He has toured, recorded and performed with renowned improvisers, jazz musicians and musical experimenters, including Anthony Braxton
Anthony Braxton
Anthony Braxton is an American composer, saxophonist, clarinettist, flautist, pianist, and philosopher. Braxton has released well over 100 albums since the 1960s...
, Misha Mengelberg
Misha Mengelberg
Misha Mengelberg is a Dutch jazz pianist and composer. He won the Gaudeamus International Composers Award in 1961.-Biography:...
, Horace Tapscott
Horace Tapscott
Horace Tapscott was an American jazz pianist and composer. He formed the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra in 1961 and led the ensemble through the 1990s...
, Steve Lacy
Steve Lacy
Steve Lacy , born Steven Norman Lackritz in New York City, was a jazz saxophonist and composer recognized as one of the important players of soprano saxophone....
, Evan Parker
Evan Parker
Evan Shaw Parker is a British free-improvising saxophone player from the European free jazz scene.Recording and performing prolifically with many collaborators, Parker was a pivotal figure in the development of European free jazz and free improvisation, and has pioneered or substantially expanded...
, Kenny Wheeler
Kenny Wheeler
Kenneth Vincent John Wheeler, OC is a Canadian composer and trumpet and flugelhorn player, based in the U.K. since the 1950s....
, Manfred Schoof
Manfred Schoof
Manfred Schoof is a German jazz trumpet player.He studied music in Kassel and Cologne.He is a founder of European free jazz and collaborated with Albert Mangelsdorff, Peter Brötzmann, Mal Waldron, and Irène Schweizer...
, Mark Dresser
Mark Dresser
Mark Dresser is an American double bass player and composer.-Biography:He has performed and recorded with many of the luminaries of "new" jazz composition and improvisation. For ten years he performed with the Anthony Braxton Quartet, as well as diverse groups led by Ray Anderson, Tim Berne,...
, Han Bennink
Han Bennink
Han Bennink is a Dutch jazz drummer and percussionist. On occasion his recordings have featured his playing on clarinet, violin, banjo and piano....
, Barre Phillips
Barre Phillips
Barre Phillips is a jazz and free improvisation bassist. A professional musician since 1960, he migrated to New York City in 1962, then to Europe in 1967. Since 1972 he has been based in southern France....
, Tony Oxley
Tony Oxley
Tony Oxley is an English free-jazz drummer and one of the founders of Incus Records.-Biography:Tony Oxley was born in Sheffield, England. A self-taught pianist by age eight, he first began playing the drums at seventeen. While in the Black Watch military band from 1957 to 1960 he studied music...
, and Günter Sommer
Günter Sommer
Günter Baby Sommer is a German jazz drummer.He studied music in Dresden. He rose to fame in the GDR. He is part of the European free jazz avantgarde. He was part of the trio with Conny Bauer and Peter Kowald...
. Trovesi is also member of the Italian Instabile Orchestra
Italian Instabile Orchestra
The Italian Instabile Orchestra is an eighteen piece experimental big band that performs orchestral jazz and avant-garde jazz. Its members include Gianluigi Trovesi, Paolo Damiani, Mario Schiano, Pino Minafra, Eugenio Colombo, Giancarlo Schiaffini, Bruno Tommaso, Sebi Tramontana, Umberto Petrin,...
and a duo with accordeonist Gianni Coscia
Gianni Coscia
Gianni Coscia is an Italian jazz accordionist. Originally a lawyer, Coscia began focusing full time on jazz music. Expresses an interest in developing "the remote values of cultural and popular tradition through the language of jazz." Has toured widely on the international jazz circuit...
.
As leader
}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}} w/ Gianni CosciaGianni Coscia
Gianni Coscia is an Italian jazz accordionist. Originally a lawyer, Coscia began focusing full time on jazz music. Expresses an interest in developing "the remote values of cultural and popular tradition through the language of jazz." Has toured widely on the international jazz circuit...
}}}}}} w/ Gianni Coscia
Gianni Coscia
Gianni Coscia is an Italian jazz accordionist. Originally a lawyer, Coscia began focusing full time on jazz music. Expresses an interest in developing "the remote values of cultural and popular tradition through the language of jazz." Has toured widely on the international jazz circuit...
}}}}}}}} w/ Gianni Coscia
Gianni Coscia
Gianni Coscia is an Italian jazz accordionist. Originally a lawyer, Coscia began focusing full time on jazz music. Expresses an interest in developing "the remote values of cultural and popular tradition through the language of jazz." Has toured widely on the international jazz circuit...
}}}}