Coming Soon: Stresa Midsummer Jazz Concerts

Stresa Frisell

Here’s a music video taste of what you can expect if you are in Stresa on the shores of lovely Lake Maggiore in Italy for the 2014 edition of the Stresa Midsummer Jazz concerts. The jazz concerts begin on Thursday, July 24, and run until to Sunday, July 27. Here’s jazz pianist Uri Caine playing […]

Gianluca Pellerito – Italy’s Jazz Drumming Prodigy

Gianluca Pellerito is not even 20 yet, but this Sicilian-born Italian jazz drummer has already made quite a name for himself. He’s performed at Italy’s legendary Umbria Jazz a couple of times, played at noted Jazz venues such as the Blue Note club in Milan and has been drumming his way around the world. Pellerito’s […]

Meet Vincenzo Vasi, Italy’s Mad Professor of Music

Player of many instruments, composer, improviser, and regular on Italian and international jazz circuits, the eccentric looks of Vincenzo Vasi compliment his eclectic music surprisingly well. Around since 1990, Vasi seems to have worked with just about everyone and reminds me a little of Pete Gabriel, or perhaps Tubular Bells legend, Mike Oldfield. Vasi regularly delves […]

The Jazz Singer – Vanessa Tagliabue Yorke

While writing about Italy’s best jazz musician Mauro Ottolini, I came across the ethereal tones of jazz singer Vanessa Tagliabue Yorke. She has a great voice, or at least I think so. It seems Ottolini agrees, as he and Tagliabue Yorke work together. Tagliabue Yorke has worked with many of Italy’s jazz greats, as well as with […]

Jazz Festivals in Italy 2013

Lots of Jazz in Italy

Italy has jazz in its blood, and there are no shortage of jazz festivals in Italy for jazz fans either, as you will discover from this list of what’s coming up, or on now, plus what to keep an eye out for next year. There are jazz festivals pretty much all year round in Italy, […]

Listen to the best Jazz Musician in Italy: Mauro Ottolini

Mauro Ottolini won the 2012 Top Jazz prize as the best jazz musician in Italy. Italian Ottolini is a jazz trombonist, tuba player and composer too. Ottolini, born in 1972, is a classically trained trombonist who was formerly with the Verona arena orchestra. He gave up the classical scene to pursue a career in jazz. Ottolini has […]

Swinging in Italy – the Perugia BigBand

I’ve always quite liked the sound of big bands, perhaps it’s because I’m oldish, but for me there’s always been something appealing about the big bands sound so I was more than happy to see the Perugia BigBand had started following Italy’s Chronicles’ @newsfromitaly persona on Twitter, along with 14,000 or so others. Well, the […]

Smoking Those Ivories – Italian Jazz Pianist Stefano Bollani

Thanks to Twitter, here are three videos showing the extraordinary talent of Italian jazz pianist Stefano Bollani.   This week’s Italian music feature will introduce you to the talent of Italian jazz pianist Stefano Bollani via three videos of him in action. I came across Stefano Bollani thanks to a tweet by Italian conductor, Alberto Veronesi who […]

485 by Daniela Nardi, An Award-Winning Italian-Canadian Singer-Songwriter

Daniela Nardi sings in Italian

I’ve met some very interesting people via Twitter, and the adventure continues. Today, via a retweet, I came across Toronto singer/songwriter Italian-Canadian Daniela Nardi. I then found out, after listening to Nardi’s music and visiting her website, that she was named Female Vocalist of the Year at the 2009 Canadian Smooth Jazz Awards and Top Female Vocalist in Toronto for 2009 by NOW Magazine. If you listen to her sing, I think you’ll understand how she earned these accolades. She is a superb vocalist.