Giovanni Bonandrini
Giovanni Bonandrini is an Italian music producer of avant-garde and free jazz from Milan and was the head of the Soul Note and Black Saint labels for many years .
Bonandrini was already interested in jazz as a teenager and in 1945 bought his first shellac records . He took over (as partner and co-owner of the Hi-Fi & Record Center ) in 1977 the Black Saint Label, founded by Giacomo Pellicciotti in 1975, which had released 13 records in avant-garde jazz by then, and built it up strongly at a time when The big US labels showed little interest in this area and scaled back their program. In 1979 he founded the sister label Soul Note for more bop- oriented jazz.
The artists of the two labels initially included Paul Bley , Billy Harper and David Murray as well as the World Saxophone Quartet , Cecil Taylor , Anthony Braxton , Old and New Dreams , Steve Lacy , Muhal Richard Abrams , Sun Ra , Henry Threadgill , Julius Hemphill , Archie Shepp , Max Roach , Art Blakey , George Russell , Dave Douglas , Chico Hamilton , Hamiet Bluiett and many Italian jazz musicians such as Giorgio Gaslini , Enrico Pieranunzi , Gianluigi Trovesi , Enrico Rava . By 2004 they had around 500 albums in their program (which were also constantly available) with around 12 to 15 new releases per year. Bonandrini preserved his independence and for this reason terminated a contract with Polygram when they tried to talk him into his program.
1982-1985, 1987-1989, he won Down Beat's Critic Poll as a producer.
His son Flavio Bonandrini continues his work as the successor of his father in the management of the label.
Web links
- Biography of Scott Yanow, All Music Guide
- Interview at Jazz Weekly
- Giovanni Bonandrini at Discogs (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Interview Flavio Bonandrini, 2004, All About Jazz, Italian ( Memento from May 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bonandrini, Giovanni |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Italian jazz producer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 20th century |