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ROBERTO OTTAVIANO - Dark Sides

Roberto Ottaviano

Label: Dodicilune
Released: 2025
Duration: 00:49:58
Views: 31

Tracks

1) A Long Deception 2:53; 2) Preachers and Merchants 4:53; 3) Gabriel's Message 8:19; 4) Dark Sides 2:24; 5) Musk Aroma Therapy for Trumpeters 3:37; 6) Syte 5:48; 7) Waiting the Flood 3:10; 8) Bridal Ballad 3:46; 9) Spinosa Lacrimae 3:51; 10) If You Want to tell me something (shout up) 5:42; 11) Goin' Home 5:30;

Personnel

Roberto Ottaviano

saxophone, soprano

Peppe Frana

oud

Luca Roccatagliati

electronics

Giorgio Vendola

bass, acoustic

Ermanno Baron

drums

Album Description

• PRESSRELEASE (English) Produced by Dodicilune, distributed in Italy and abroad by IRD and in major online stores by BELIEVE DIGITAL, Wednesday 29 October 2025 sees the release of “Dark Sides”, a new CD, new artistic project and new band from Apulian saxophonist, composer and teacher Roberto Ottaviano, a leading artist and one of the longest-standing members of the Dodicilune stable, here playing soprano saxophone and clarinet. He is accompanied by Peppe Frana (oud), Luca “DJ Rocca” Roccatagliati (electronics, loops, sampling), Giorgio Vendola (double bass, electronics) and Ermanno Baron (drums and percussion). “Dark Sides” is both a band and a recording project that places me in a new dimension: a journey through acoustic sounds from other latitudes, such as those of the oud, and electronic suggestions generated by samplers, loops and processors. An emotional story that takes shape through original compositions, free improvisation and carefully selected songs from different sources: the Dark Sides of the contemporary world. The dark side of humanity manifests itself in many forms — from the atrocities of genocide to the sophisticated financial manipulations of large holding companies. Events distant in modality, but united by a common thread: power, greed and the will to dominate. In this context, music becomes an act of resistance and awareness to escape the temptation to refer to itself. Gabriel’s Message, is inspired by the Basque Christmas carol “Birjina gaztetto bat zegoen”, evoking the Annunciation with delicate and spiritual tones. Bridal Ballad, composed by Jocelyn Pook for Shakespeare’s adaptation of “The Merchant of Venice”, conveys a subtle uneasiness that creeps into beauty. Syte, with its Balkan roots, is a visceral piece, tense between rhythm and melancholy. Goin’ Home, taken from Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony, recalls the need for a return, physical or interior, to a lost elsewhere. These pieces, together with my originals, improvisation and sound research, are testimonies. Each note is a gesture that seeks to restore humanity, memory and critical sense in a time that too often loses them.” (Roberto Ottaviano) • BIO Roberto Ottaviano. Active on the international jazz scene for around fifty years, he has played and recorded with some of the most prestigious American and European musicians spanning several generations: Dizzy Gillespie, Chet Baker, Art Farmer, Mal Waldron, Nexus, Reggie Workman, Albert Mangelsdorff, Giorgio Gaslini, Enrico Rava, Steve Swallow, Pierre Favre, Kenny Wheeler, Keith Tippett, Tiziana Ghiglioni, Franz Koglmann, Glenn Ferris, Karl Berger, Stefano Battaglia, Han Bennink, Arild Andersen, Michel Godard, and many others.  Among the groups he conducts are: the Astrolabio wind quartet with Gianluigi Trovesi, Glenn Ferris, and Michel Godard; the Sideralis quartet with Alexander Hawkins, Michael Formanek, and Gerry Hemingway, with which he won the Pino Candini Musica Jazz award for best album of 2017; the trio “Lacy in the Sky with Diamonds” with Danilo Gallo and Ferdinando Faraò; and the Eternal Love quintet with Marco Colonna, Alexander Hawkins, Giovanni Maier, and Zeno De Rossi, which is receiving enormous acclaim from national and international critics and with which he won the Pino Candini Musica Jazz award for best album of 2020. Ottaviano also won the critics' award for best jazz musician of the year in 2022 and 2024. After being one of the main promoters of the National Association of Jazz Musicians, he is currently President of the National Federation of Italian Jazz. He has performed in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, France, Denmark, Norway, England, Spain, Portugal, Yugoslavia, Albania, Romania, Russia, India, Japan, Mexico, Thailand, Morocco, Algeria, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Cameroon, the United States, and Canada, and has recorded for Red, Splasc(h), Soul Note, Dodicilune, Hat Art, Intakt, ECM, DIW, Clean Feed, and Ogun. As a teacher, he founded the Jazz Music course at the Conservatory in his city, which he coordinated for almost forty years. He has conducted and continues to conduct workshops and masterclasses on various topics around the world. • TRACKLIST 1) A Long Deception 2) Preachers and Merchants 3) Gabriel’s Message 4) Dark Sides 5) Musk Aroma Therapy for Trumpeters 6) Syte 7) Waiting the Flood 8) Bridal Ballad 9) Spinosa Lacrimae 10) If You Want to tell me something (shout up) 11) Goin’ Home • COMPOSITIONS BY All compositions by Roberto Ottaviano except 3 traditional Basque; 6 traditional Balkan; 7 by Peppe Frana, Luca Roccatagliati; 8 by Jocelyn Pook; 11 by Antonin Dvořák. • PERSONNEL Roberto Ottaviano, soprano sax, alto clarinet, electronics Peppe Frana, oud Luca ‘DJ Rocca’ Roccatagliati, electronics, loops, sampling Giorgio Vendola, bass, electronics Ermanno Baron, drums, percussions • PRODUCTION DATA Total time 49:58 STEREO DDD ℗ 2025 DODICILUNE (Italy) © 2025 DODICILUNE (Italy) www.dodicilunedischi.it CD DODICILUNE DISCHI Ed589 8059772565899 • RECORDING DATA Produced by Roberto Ottaviano and Maurizio Bizzochetti, Dodicilune. Recorded 15, 16 January 2025, mixed 13 March 2025, mastered 24 March 2025 at Mast Studio, Bari (Italy). Sound engineer Massimo Stano. Cover photo © Ros Ottaviano. Photos by Mirko Boscolo, Franco de Mattia. Contact: Marsab Management [email protected]