Pietro Tonolo (born 30 May 1959) is an Italian

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...

player and composer.

Biography

He was born in

Mirano Mirano is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Venice, Veneto, Italy. People *Luigi Brugnaro (born 1961), politician and current mayor of Venice (since 2015) * Federica Pellegrini (born 1988), Olympic swimmer, multiple world-record h ...

, Italy. Pietro Tonolo gave up a career as a classical violinist to become a jazz sax player. Around that time, he moved to Milan, where he played with some of Italy’s best jazz musicians, including

Franco D'Andrea Francesco "Franco" D'Andrea (born 8 March 1941 in Merano, Italy) is an Italian jazz pianist and composer. Life D'Andrea is considered one of the most famous jazz musicians from Italy and has recorded some 200 albums. He developed his style in ...

, Luigi Bonafede, Larry Nocella,

Massimo Urbani Massimo Urbani (8 May 1957 – 24 June 1993) was an Italian jazz alto saxophonist. He played principally in the bebop style. Life and career Urbani was born in Primavalle, Rome on 8 May 1957, the oldest of five brothers.Bailey, C. Michael (18 ...

Rita Marcotulli Rita Marcotulli (born 10 March 1959) is an Italian jazz pianist and composer. Career Born in Rome, Marcotulli is the daughter of a sound engineer who collaborated with Nino Rota and Ennio Morricone, among others. She started playing piano a ...

and

Enrico Rava Enrico Rava (born 20 August 1939), is an Italian jazz trumpeter. He started on trombone, then changed to the trumpet after hearing Miles Davis. Career He was born in Trieste, Italy. His first commercial work was as a member of Gato Barbieri' ...

. In 1982, Tonolo joined the

Gil Evans Ian Ernest Gilmore Evans (né Green; May 13, 1912 – March 20, 1988) was a Canadian–American jazz pianist, arranger, composer and bandleader. He is widely recognized as one of the greatest orchestrators in jazz, playing an important role i ...

Orchestra, playing with notable musicians as Steve Lacy,

Lew Soloff Lewis Michael Soloff (February 20, 1944–March 8, 2015) was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and actor. Biography From his birth place of New York City, United States, he studied trumpet at the Eastman School of Music and the Juilliard Sc ...

and Ray Anderson. He later went on to perform in jazz clubs and on radio and television around Europe and the United States, both as a sideman and as a leader with his own band. He was a steady member of the

Paul Motian Stephen Paul Motian (March 25, 1931 – November 22, 2011) was an American jazz drummer, percussionist, and composer. Motian played an important role in freeing jazz drummers from strict time-keeping duties. He first came to prominence in the ...

’s Electric Bebop Band from 1999 to 2004. Other notable collaborators have included the likes of

Kenny Clarke Kenneth Clarke Spearman (January 9, 1914January 26, 1985), nicknamed Klook, was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. A major innovator of the bebop style of drumming, he pioneered the use of the ride cymbal to keep time rather than the hi-ha ...

Roswell Rudd Roswell Hopkins Rudd Jr. (November 17, 1935 – December 21, 2017) was an American jazz trombonist and composer. Although skilled in a variety of genres of jazz (including Dixieland, which he performed while in college), and other genres of musi ...

, Sal Nistico, Chet Baker, Lee Konitz,

John Surman John Douglas Surman (born 30 August 1944) is an English jazz saxophone, bass clarinet, and synthesizer player, and composer of free jazz and modal jazz, often using themes from folk music. He has composed and performed music for dance performanc ...

Steve Swallow Steve Swallow (born October 4, 1940) is an American jazz bassist and composer, known for his collaborations with Jimmy Giuffre, Gary Burton, and Carla Bley. He was one of the first jazz double bassists to switch entirely to electric bass guitar. ...

Gil Goldstein Gil Goldstein (born November 6, 1950 in Baltimore, Maryland) is an American jazz pianist and accordionist. He has won 5 Grammy Awards and he was nominated 8 time Biography He began studying accordion at age 5 after noticing it in The Lawrence We ...

Barry Altschul Barry Altschul (born January 6, 1943, New York City) is a free jazz and hard bop drummer who first came to notice in the late 1960s for performing with pianists Paul Bley and Chick Corea. Biography Altschul is of Russian Jewish heritage, the s ...

Joe Chambers Joe or JOE may refer to: Arts Film and television * ''Joe'' (1970 film), starring Peter Boyle * ''Joe'' (2013 film), starring Nicolas Cage * ''Joe'' (TV series), a British TV series airing from 1966 to 1971 * ''Joe'', a 2002 Canadian animated ...

Henri Texier Henri Texier (born 27 January 1945) is a French jazz double bassist. At the age of sixteen, fascinated by the double bass, Texier became a self-taught bassist, crediting Wilbur Ware most as an influence. He formed his first group with Georges ...

, Aldo Romano,

Kenny Wheeler Kenneth Vincent John Wheeler, OC (14 January 1930 – 18 September 2014) was a Canadian composer and trumpet and flugelhorn player, based in the U.K. from the 1950s onwards. Most of his performances were rooted in jazz, but he was also active i ...

, Eliot Zigmund and

Tony Oxley Tony Oxley (born 15 June 1938) is an English free improvising drummer and one of the founders of Incus Records. Biography Oxley was born in Sheffield, England. A self-taught pianist by the age of eight, he first began playing the drums at s ...

. Besides jazz, Tonolo has been collaborating with contemporary musicians and ensembles ('Ex Novo Ensemble', 'Laboratorio Novamusica', 'Nex Time Ensemble', 'Sentieri Selvaggi', 'Orchestra d'archi Italiana', plis the sax quartet 'Arundo Donax'). He is currently teaching at the Conservatory of Vicenza and Siena Jazz international masterclasses. He lives in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

Discography

As leader

* ''Quartet Quintet Sextet'' (Splasc(h), 1984) * ''Slowly'' (Splasc(h), 1991) * ''Alliance'' (Penta Flowers, 1993) * ''Tresse'' (Splasc(h), 1993) * ''Simbiosi'' (Splasc(h), 1995) * ''Amigdala'' (Velut Luna, 1996) * ''Un Veliero All'Orizzonte'' (Egea, 1997) * ''Disguise'' (Splasc(h), 1997) * ''Monologues'' (Splasc(h), 1998) * ''Sotto La Luna'' with Danilo Rea (Egea, 1999) * ''Portrait of Duke'' (Label Bleu, 2000) * ''Luna Park'' (Egea, 2000) * ''Retro'' (Egea, 2000) * ''Autunno'' with Paolo Birro (Egea, 2001) * ''Glasswater'' (Splasc(h), 2001) * ''Farfalle'' (Egea, 2002) * ''Oltremare'' (Egea, 2004) * ''Italian Songs'' (Egea, 2005) * ''Lennie's Pennies'' (Blue Serge, 2006) * ''Your Songs: The Music of Elton John'' (ObliqSound, 2007) * ''Peace'' (ObliqSound, 2007) * ''Mirando'' (Egea, 2009) * ''The Translators'' (Parco Della Musica, 2009) * ''Jazzitaliano Live 2009'' (Casa Del Jazz, 2010 * ''Corner Brilliance'' with Eliot Zigmund (Alma, 2012) * ''Dajaloo'' (Parco Della Musica, 2013) * ''Too Many Pockets'' (Parco Della Musica, 2018) * ''Songs We Like'' (Fone Jazz, 2019)

As sideman

* Gap Band, ''Tribute to Nino Rota'' (Nel Jazz/Nelmondo, 1995) *

, ''Un' Altra Galassia'' (Fonit Cetra, 1986) *

, ''Umbria Jazz All Stars North Carolina'' (Umbria Jazz, 1988) *

, ''Europe'' (Winter & Winter, 2001) *

, ''Holiday for Strings'' (Winter & Winter, 2002) * Enrico Pieranunzi, ''In That Dawn of Music'' (Musica/Soul Note, 1993) *

, ''Andanada'' (Soul Note, 1983) *

Danilo Rea Danilo Rea (born 9 August 1957) is an Italian jazz pianist. He is a graduate of the Santa Cecilia music conservatory in Rome. He made his debut with the "Trio di Roma" (with Roberto Gatto and Enzo Pietropaoli) in 1975.Riccardo Giagni. "Danilo ...

, ''Jazzitaliano Live 2006'' (Casa Del Jazz, 2006) * Roberto Zanetti, ''Minor Time'' (Dodicilune, 2014)

References

External links

Pietro Tonolo
Official Site * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tonolo, Pietro 1959 births Living people Jazz composers Jazz saxophonists 21st-century saxophonists Label Bleu artists People from Mirano Musicians from the Metropolitan City of Venice