Nicola Conte is an Italian DJ, producer, guitarist, and bandleader, known initially for introducing an innovative style of acid jazz that incorporates

bossa nova Bossa nova () is a style of samba developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is mainly characterized by a "different beat" that altered the harmonies with the introduction of unconventional chords and an innovativ ...

themes, melodies drawn from Italian

film score A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to ...

s of the 1960s, easy listening themes, and

traditional A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

. Recently, he has focused much more on

Latin jazz Latin jazz is a genre of jazz with Latin American rhythms. The two main categories are Afro-Cuban jazz, rhythmically based on Cuban popular dance music, with a rhythm section employing ostinato patterns or a clave, and Afro-Brazilian jazz, whic ...

. This focus is evident in his albums ''Other Directions'' (2004,

Blue Note In jazz and blues, a blue note is a note that—for expressive purposes—is sung or played at a slightly different pitch from standard. Typically the alteration is between a quartertone and a semitone, but this varies depending on the musical co ...

Schema The word schema comes from the Greek word ('), which means ''shape'', or more generally, ''plan''. The plural is ('). In English, both ''schemas'' and ''schemata'' are used as plural forms. Schema may refer to: Science and technology * SCHEMA ...

) and ''Rituals'' (2008,

), and many remixes he has done for contemporaries stretching across many closely related genres. Conte, a classically trained musician, is an innovative jazz revivalist and part of what was termed "The Fez Collective", based in the

Apulia it, Pugliese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographic ...

n city of

Bari Bari ( , ; nap, label= Barese, Bare ; lat, Barium) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, southern Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy a ...

, and the Idizioni-Ishtar/

Schema Records Schema Records is a prominent Italian record label in Milan, Italy, that specializes in jazz, Brazilian, and Latin-influenced music. Schema is a sublabel of Ishtar a recording and publishing company based in Milan, which runs the sublabels Schema ...

, a

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

known for promoting a distinctly Italian approach to acid jazz as well as jazz music as a whole. Conte's first album was ''Jet Sounds'' (2000). The single "Bossa Per Due" gained international recognition and was an underground hit. It was used within a short time for a prime-time commercial for

Acura Acura is the luxury vehicle, luxury and performance division of Japanese automaker Honda, based primarily in North America. The brand was launched in the United States and Canada on March 27, 1986, marketing luxury and performance automobiles. It ...

automobiles. In 2002, the title track also gained recognition in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

after it was used in two popular commercial advertisements for

Joe Boxer Joe Boxer (also known as Box-oh-Joes or BJ) is an American brand of underwear and related apparel founded by Nicholas Graham that focuses on novelty hanging underwear. In April 2001, the Joe Boxer brand, which was facing bankruptcy, was sold to ...

underwear being sold by

K-Mart Kmart Corporation ( , doing business as Kmart and stylized as kmart) is an American retail company that owns a chain of big box department stores. The company is headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States. The company was inco ...

stores. The album was licensed for US distribution by

Thievery Corporation Thievery Corporation is an American electronic music duo consisting of Rob Garza and Eric Hilton. Their musical style mixes elements of dub, acid jazz, reggae, Indian classical, Middle Eastern music, hip hop and Brazilian music, including bo ...

's Eighteenth Street Lounge (ESL) label in the summer of 2001 as ''Bossa Per Due'' (2001), and was a slightly reconfigured version of the Italian ''Jet Sounds'' album. This was followed by the remix album ''Jet Sounds Revisited'' (2002). Two years later,

's French subsidiary released Conte's next album ''Other Directions'' (2004). Conte released his next album, ''Rituals'' (2008). Conte released ''The Modern Sound of Nicola Conte – Versions in Jazz-Dub'' (2009) on Schema Records. Unlike his 2002 remix album which featured artists largely reworking his songs, this two-CD set had Nicola releasing original titles and featured some of his jazz styled remixes of other people's works. His album ''Love & Revolution'' (2011) was released on a deluxe two-CD set, and a standard single CD by Universal Classics and Jazz, while album ''Free Souls'' (2014) was released on Schema. Conte has also produced albums by other artists including Paolo Achenza Trio (album ''Ombre'', 1997),

Rosalia De Souza Rosalia de Souza is a Brazilian bossa nova singer. She was born in Nilópolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, an area famous for its samba school, Beija-Flor. After travelling to Italy at the age of 21, she began to study music theory, Cuban percuss ...

(album ''Garota Moderna'', 2008), Stefania Di Pierro (album ''Natural'', 2016), and Marvin Parks (album ''Marvin Parks'', 2017).

Discography

Albums

(all CD and vinyl; except ''Love & Revolution'', CD only) * 2000 – ''Jet Sounds'' (

taly Taly (russian: Талый) is a rural locality (a settlement) in Alexandrovskoye Urban Settlement, Alexandrovsky District, Perm Krai Perm Krai (russian: Пе́рмский край, r=Permsky kray, p=ˈpʲɛrmskʲɪj ˈkraj, ''Permsky krai'', , ' ...

2000) * 2001 – ''Bossa Per Due'' 'Jet Sounds'' retitled reissue(

ESL English as a second or foreign language is the use of English by speakers with different native languages. Language education for people learning English may be known as English as a second language (ESL), English as a foreign language (EFL ...

S 2001) * 2002 – ''Jet Sounds Revisited'' (Schema

2002) * 2004 – ''Other Directions'' (Schema/

2004) * 2008 – ''Rituals'' (Schema

2008) * 2009 – ''The Modern Sound of Nicola Conte'' (Schema

2009) * 2011 – ''Love & Revolution'' (arranged by

Magnus Lindgren Magnus Lindgren (born 13 August 1974 in Västerås, Sweden) is a Swedish jazz musician. He studied at the Västerås Music College. He then attended the Royal Swedish Academy of Music in Stockholm, Sweden, and began working with the Soul Ente ...

) (

Impulse! Impulse! Records (occasionally styled as "¡mpulse! Records" and "¡!") is an American jazz record company and label established by Creed Taylor in 1960. John Coltrane was among Impulse!'s earliest signings. Thanks to consistent sales and positiv ...

/ Universal Italy

2011) * 2011 – ''Free Souls'' (Schema

2014) * 2016 – ''Nicola Conte Presents Stefania Dipierro – Natural (Far Out Recordings K 2016) * 2018 – ''Let Your Light Shine On'' (With Spiritual Galaxy) ( MPS ermany 2018)

Compilations

He has released several compilations, including:

''Deep, Afrocentric, Modal Jazz'' series

(all CD only) *''Nicola Conte presents Spiritual Swingers ... Deep, Afrocentric,

modal jazz Modal jazz is jazz that makes use of musical modes, often modulating among them to accompany the chords instead of relying on one tonal center used across the piece. Although precedents exist, modal jazz was crystallized as a theory by compose ...

From

Universal Music Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, Dutch law. UMG's cor ...

Archives'' (

apan Apan is a city and one of the 84 municipalities of Hidalgo, in central-eastern Mexico. The municipality covers an area of 346.9 km². Overview As of 2005, the municipality had a total population of 39,247. It was an important site in the Wa ...

2008 / Universal Music U 2009) *''Nicola Conte presents Mystic Prestige ... Deep, Afrocentric, Modal Jazz From

Prestige Prestige refers to a good reputation or high esteem; in earlier usage, ''prestige'' meant "showiness". (19th c.) Prestige may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Films * ''Prestige'' (film), a 1932 American film directed by Tay Garnet ...

Archives'' (

Universal Classics & Jazz Universal Classics and Jazz (UCJ) is the name of two record label divisions of the Universal Music Group record company. Current divisions UCJ Germany Universal Music Classics & Jazz (Germany) is a division of Universal Music Germany and is mar ...

2014) *''Nicola Conte presents Blue Note Tribe ... Deep, Afrocentric, Modal Jazz From

Archives'' (Universal Classics & Jazz

2015)

''Viagem'' series

(all CD and vinyl; except volume 1, ''Viagem'', CD only) *''Viagem'' ( Far Out K 2008) *''Viagem 2'' (CD: Far Out K 2009 / 10" LP: Old Gramophone Works/Far Out K 2015) *''Viagem 3'' (CD: Far Out K 2011 / 10" LP: Old Gramophone Works/Far Out K 2014) *''Viagem 4'' (CD: Far Out K 2012 / 10" LP: Old Gramophone Works/Far Out K 2014) *''Viagem 5'' (CD: Far Out K 2013 / 10" LP: Old Gramophone Works/Far Out K 2013)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Conte, Nicola Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Italian electronic musicians Club DJs Italian DJs Blue Note Records artists Far Out Recordings artists Virgin Records artists Schema Records artists Acid jazz musicians Putumayo Department People from Bari Electronic dance music DJs