Jazz Articles about Roberto Bonati

About Roberto Bonati

Album Review

Tor Yttredal, Roberto Bonati: Some Red Some Yellow

Read "Some Red Some Yellow" reviewed by Neri Pollastri

by Neri Pollastri
April 18, 2022

Dopo anni di collaborazioni e trasferte nelle rispettive città, Parma e Stavanger, Roberto Bonati e Tor Yttredal si incontrano faccia a faccia e danno vita a un album in duo, intimo, lirico e sofisticato, nel quale si fondono mirabilmente le tradizioni musicali dei due paesi d'origine. Il lavoro si compone di sedici brani, tutti di Bonati tranne l'iniziale “Tuning," di Yttredal, e i tre centrali, interamente improvvisati. Il multistrumentista norvegese vi alterna i sax tenore e soprano, il ...

Album Review

Roberto Bonati: Vesper and Silence

Read "Vesper and Silence" reviewed by Maria Giovanna Barletta

by Maria Giovanna Barletta
January 26, 2021

Un luogo di raccoglimento, come una strada nascosta che conclude nel ritrovamento di se stessi. Una sorta di clausura feconda dove potersi ritrovare. Se potesse parlare di sé questo progetto direbbe, come Rilke «Sto, dentro al lavoro, come il nocciolo nel frutto». Questo lavoro in solo di Roberto Bonati è stato registrato dal vivo il 20 luglio 2017 in un luogo intriso di magia, l'Abbazia di Valserena a Parma, nota come “La Certosa di Parma" che ispirò Stendhal ...

Album Review

Robert Bonati Chironomic Orchestra: Whirling Leaves

Read "Whirling Leaves" reviewed by Duncan Heining

by Duncan Heining
August 18, 2020

Whirling Leaves is a wonderful, intriguing album from Roberto Bonati, one of Europe's most interesting and creative composers. Bonati's previous large ensemble records have all essayed specific themes, from “The Scottish Play" from The Blanket of the Dark, a Study for Lady Macbeth ( MM Records, 2001) to the migratory nature and evolution of medieval music on Le Rêve du Jongleur (Parafroniere, 1999). With Whirling Leaves, however, there appears to be no such programme intent here. The music is its ...

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Album Review

Roberto Bonati: Vesper and Silence

Read "Vesper and Silence" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
February 17, 2020

Roberto Bonati may not be a name familiar to many jazz fans in North America, but at home in Italy and, increasingly, across Europe he has become a far more familiar face. Beyond inimitable talents as a double bassist, composer and conductor, Bonati has created a name both for himself and the northern Italian city of Parma for its far-reaching annual festival, ParmaFrontiere, first launched in 1996 and where he has remained Artistic Director ever since. ParmaFrontiere's name has gained ...

Album Review

Roberto Bonati - Bjergsted Jazz Ensemble: Nor Sea, Nor Land, Nor Salty Waves

Read "Nor Sea, Nor Land, Nor Salty Waves" reviewed by Neri Pollastri

by Neri Pollastri
May 1, 2017

Lavoro orchestrale frutto di una lunga collaborazione con il Bjergsted Jazz Ensemble di Stavanger, Norvegia, questo progetto a firma di Roberto Bonati, che ne dirige l'esecuzione, prende spunto da Völuspà -The Prophecy of Völva (La profezia della veggente), che è parte dell'Edda Poetica, poema della mitologia nordica. L'opera si articola in otto quadri di lunghezza variabile e vede in scena un'orchestra di venti elementi. Anche se realizzata da un compositore italiano, l'opera mostra sonorità e atmosfere di tipo ...

Album Review

Roberto Bonati: Nor Sea, nor Land, nor Salty Waves

Read "Nor Sea, nor Land, nor Salty Waves" reviewed by Duncan Heining

by Duncan Heining
April 30, 2017

Italian composer and bassist is a master of the musical journey. Rêve de Jongleur (2000) with the ParmaFrontiere Orchestra took the listener along the pilgrim routes of medieval Europe that carried the song of the troubadour, as well as the faithful and goods to trade. A Silvery Silence--fragments from Moby Dick (2006) followed the whalers of 19th century Nantucket on their cruel hunt for the creature that would prove Ahab's nemesis. Now with the Bjergstad Jazz Ensemble, Bonati explores the ...

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Profile

Roberto Bonati: Macbeth and the Whale

by Duncan Heining
March 16, 2016

Italian bassist-composer Robert Bonati is one of the most ambitious and literate composers in contemporary jazz. Between 2000-2006, he released four ground-breaking extended works with the ParmaFrontiere Orchestra. While they attracted notice in Italy, they seemed to pass by the wider jazz audience in Europe, North America and the Far East. If at one level, the issue was one of a lack of exposure, at another, the twin curses of conservatism and localism in jazz no doubt applied. The history ...