TOWER JAZZ COMPOSERS ORCHESTRA

Cacti, a big band composition - 2017

The Tower Jazz Composers Orchestra was born in January 2016 at the Jazz Club Ferrara, an "elastic" big band under the direction of saxophonist Piero Bittolo Bon and pianist Alfonso Santimone. Over twenty musicians, original compositions built for the ensemble itself, and a horizontal, participatory spirit where every member could bring their own voice as composer and improviser: the orchestra would go on to rank among Italy's best jazz ensembles at Top Jazz, Musica Jazz's annual critics' poll.

I played piano with the TJCO from 2015 to 2018, and within it I also composed, arranged, and conducted. Those two years were the peak of my life as a jazz performer: a kind of avant-garde collective where I shared the stage with extraordinary musicians and grew immensely as an interpreter, a composer, and a conductor.

The video featured here captures one of those moments: a live performance of my piece Cacti, which I composed and conducted, recorded at the Bologna Jazz Festival in 2017. Cacti is built around the desolation of the desert: its emptiness, its silence, its strange persistence of life.

Performed by: Alessandro Garino, conductor, Marta Raviglia, voice; Piero Bittolo Bon, alto sax & flutes; Alfonso Santimone, piano; Sandro Tognazzo, flute; Glauco Benedetti, tuba; Mirko Cisilino, Pasquale Paterra, Gabriele Cancelli, Claus Andersen, trumpets; Filippo Vignato, Federico Pierantoni, Lorenzo Manfredini, trombones; Gianluca Fortini, alto sax; Tobia Bondesan, tenor sax; Filippo Orefice, tenor sax & flute; Beppe Scardino, baritone sax & flute; Luca Chiari, guitar; Federico Rubin, electric piano; Stefano Dallaporta, double bass; Andrea Grillini, drums; William Simone, percussion.

Recorded live at the Bologna Jazz Festival, Unipol Auditorium, on May 11, 2017. The concert was broadcast on RAI Radiotre's Suite Jazz on December 4, 2018.

Avant-jazz