Gianni Basso

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Giovanni "Gianni" Basso (born May 24, 1931 in Asti ; † August 17, 2009 there ) was an Italian saxophonist and clarinetist of modern jazz . The jazz critic Arrigo Polillo called him the best tenor saxophonist in Italy.

Live and act

Basso, who was trained at the conservatory in his hometown, began his musical career in American clubs in Belgium and Germany. From 1949 he played dance music and jazz in Milan . He started out as a clarinetist and switched to saxophone when he played in Raoul Falsan's band in Belgium. Influenced by Stan Getz , he developed his own, unmistakable style. In the 1950s he was also the top star of the 2nd Festival Nazionale del Jazz in Milan and formed a highly regarded quintet with trumpeter Oscar Valdambrini , which also featured American guest soloists such as Billie Holiday , Lionel Hampton , Gerry Mulligan , Lee Konitz and Joe Venuti occurred. He played with his own combo in Germany in 1965, where he also worked for Dusko Goykovich . In 1973 he recorded an album in Rome with Franco D'Andrea , Bruno Tommaso and Bruno Biriaco in the series “Jazz a confronto”. He also worked with the big bands of Francy Boland / Kenny Clarke , Thad Jones , Lalo Schifrin , Maynard Ferguson and his own AT Big Band .
He accompanied Frank Sinatra and Natalie Cole .

Basso can be heard on recordings with Slide Hampton , Chet Baker , Frank Rosolino , Helen Merrill , Dusko Goykovich, Buddy Collette and Peter Schmidlin . He has taught at the music academies in Turin (1978 to 1980), Milan (1990 to 1992) and since then at Asti.

Discographic notes

  • Chet Baker: Chet Baker in Milan (1959, Warner)
  • New Sound from Italy (1960, Verve)
  • AT Big Band di Gianni Basso: Miss Bo (1985, Esagono)
  • Roger Vanhaverbeke : Remember Adolphe Sax (1994)
  • Dusko Goykovich Big Band: Balcony Connection (1996, Enja )
  • A la France (2000, Philology)
  • Rava , Basso, Bollani , Tavolazzi , Manzi Flashback (2002, Philology)
  • In Bari - You Are My Everything (2002, yvp music , with Guido Di Leone, Giuseppe Bassi, Salvatore Tranchini)
  • Gianni Basso & Irio De Paula Recado Bossa Nova (DejaVue 2009)

literature

  • Armando Brignolo Gianni Basso: Una vita con il sax ed. Fabiano, 2004; ISBN 88-87333-97-1 .

Lexigraphic entries

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Basso, Gianni
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Basso, Giovanni
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian jazz musician
DATE OF BIRTH May 24, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Asti
DATE OF DEATH 17th August 2009
Place of death Asti