Riccardo Brazzale

Riccardo Brazzale (left) with the Lydian Sound Orchestra (2007)

Riccardo Brazzale (* 1960 in Thiene (Veneto) ) is an Italian jazz musician (piano, composition, arrangement, conductor) and author, who has emerged primarily as the director of the Lydian Sound Orchestra .

Live and act

Brazzale studied classical music and jazz at the Conservatories of Vicenza, Parma and Milan. He received his doctorate from the University of Bologna with a thesis on Lennie Tristano .

Since 1986 he worked with Claudio Fasoli . In 1969 he founded the Lydian Sound Orchestra , which he still directs and for which he writes. With this nonet he performed in Italy and abroad; he also recorded various albums with the orchestra. There is also a smaller ensemble, the Lydian Workshop , in which Brazzale also works as a pianist. He also wrote for Franco D'Andrea , Enrico Rava and Ralph Towner .

For years Brazzale has also been the guest conductor of the Municipal Civica Big Band of Milan. He has also emerged as a jazz author; In addition to a book about Lennie Tristano (with Franco Fayenz), he has written numerous essays and translated and was responsible for the Italian editions of books by Geoff Dyer and John Fordham .

Brazzale directs the Istituto Musicale Veneto in Thiene, where he teaches harmony and general musical culture, is professor at the Conservatorio Pedrollo of Vicenza and responsible for the artistic program of the city of Vicenza; He is also the artistic director of the New Conversations Vicenza Jazz festival .

Prizes and awards

In 2009 he was voted Italy's jazz composer and arranger of the year by the specialist magazine Musica Jazz .

Fonts

• Xè pi isy draivare'l caro: diario di un vicentino in America Ed. Agorà 2001
• Riccardo Brazzale, Franco Fayenz Lennie Tristano. Il profeta incompreso Stampa Alternativa 2006

Discographic notes

• The Bras and the Art of Arranging (Agorà 2000)

with the Lydian Sound Orchestra

• Melodious Thunk (Totem Records 1993)
• Timon of Athens (Flex Records 1995)
• Bukowski Blues (Azzurra Music 1999)
• Monk at Town Hall & More (Abeat 2002)
• Azurka (Abeat 2003)
• Back to Da Capo (Alma Records 2006)
• Live in Appleby (Alma Records 2008)
• The Lydian Trip (Alma Records 2009)
• Ruby, Nellie & Nica: The Ballads of Thelonious Monk (Alma Records 2012)
• Music for Lonely Souls (Alma Records 2016)

Web links

• Portrait (Vicenza Jazz)
• Riccardo Brazzale at Allmusic (English)
• Riccardo Brazzale at Discogs (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ The Bras and the Art of Arranging
2. ^ New Conversations-Vicenza Jazz