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Riccardo Del Fra
About Me
Biography
Italy
Riccardo Del Fra’s interest in music started at a very young age, choosing first the guitar,
which he later swapped for an electric bass before finally settling for the double bass at
the age of 17. He studied sociology and anthropology at the University of Rome while
continuing his musical studies at the Music Conservatory of Frosinone where he was
taught by the likes of Franco Petracchi and Franco Noto.
Very rapidly he started performing in jazz concerts and recordings with the RAI Orchestra
(Italian Radio and Television) of Rome. He also had the chance to work on the recordings
of a number of movie scores, including Federico Fellini’s City of Women (music by Louis
Bacalov); Liliana Cavani’s The Skin (music by Lalo Schifrin) and others by Ennio Moricone,
Piero Umiliani, Gianni Ferrio, etc.
He appeared with a variety of Italian musicians (including, among others, the pianist
Enrico Pieranunzi, the drummer Roberto Gatto, the saxophonist Maurizio Gianmarco, the
trumpet player Oscar Valdambrini, the trombone player Dino Piana), and accompanied
American jazzmen first in Italy then throughout Europe, in Japan, the United States,
Canada, Mexico, in Africa, Russia and in the countries of eastern Europe. .
Becoming more and more in demand, he started accompanying a large number of jazz
soloists (Art Farmer, Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey, Sonny Stitt, James Moody, Lee Konitz,
Tommy Flanagan, Kai Winding, Clifford Jordan, Horace Parlan, Joe Diorio, Kenny Wheeler,
Paul Motian, Dave Liebman, etc.) and was the bassist for various bands (Barney Wilen, Bob
Brookmeyer, Johnny Griffin, Toots Thielemans, Michel Herr, Charles Loos etc.).
At the end of 1979 came the decisive meeting in Rome with the trumpet player Chet
Baker*. Riccardo del Fra played alongside Chet for nine years both in Europe and Japan on
tours, for the radio and for the television; a collaboration which led to the recording of
twelve albums, videos and the movie Chet’s Romance directed by Bertrand Fèvre. When
speaking about Chet Baker, Riccardo says : «he had a great influence on my both my
playing and writing ... from the quality of sound, its fullness, the light vibrato on sustained
notes....to a renewed relationship with the vocality in the instrumental phrasing; from the
search for the construction of long musical runs, crossing harmonics to an almost
constant awareness of respiration and silence».
France
At the beginning of the 1980s Del Fra settled in Paris where he joined a very active rhythm
section with the pianist Alain Jean-Marie and the drummer Al Levitt, while at the same
time continuing to play with Chet Baker and the pianist Michel Graillier.
In 1989, Riccardo Del Fra paid homage to Chet Baker (who died in May 1988) by
dedicating to him his album A Sip of your Touch*, a series of duos with Art Farmer*, Dave
Liebman*, Enrico Pieranunzi, Rachel Gould et Michel Graillier (Grand prix Fnac 1989). « The
album represented a way for me to focus my playing and feelings of this period – 10 years
of travels, meetings, stories, but also a period of being uprooted and alone – difficult
moments up to the death of Chet, and at the same time a way to conclude a period and to
start something new. It was then that I started working on composition, analysis and
orchestration».
Composition and musical “encounters”
In the 1990s the trombone player and composer Bob Brookmeyer*, whose composition
classes Del Fra had taken in Cologne, invited him to join his quartet. They toured together
and recorded the CD Paris Suite (which won the Prix de l’Académie du Jazz in 1994).
Much more than a jazz musician, Riccardo Del Fra is eclectic and open. He explores and
enjoys all contemporary music: « I like Charlie Parker as much as Gustav Mahler... Ornette
Coleman as much as Ligeti... I have always been very appreciative of Debussy, very
touched by Berg, Dutilleux.. When I first discovered the music of Toru Takemitsu, I was
astounded and I started to buy all his recordings, his compositions and scores... and
imagine my surprise and joy when Paul Mefano’s Ensemble 2e2m called me to perform a
series of concerts and to make a recording of his music.».
In 1992 he composed Silent call, a piece for string orchestra and jazz quartet with the
saxophonist François Jeanneau for the Paris Jazz Festival ; Vision d’ailes, a suite for string
quartet and double bass in 1993 (Jazz Festival of la Villette), Inner Galaxy* for strings,
tenor sax and double bass for the Festival of Flandres ; Aux Fontaines du Temple for jazz
soloists and chamber orchestra (Orchestra of the Conservatoire of Metz) in 1996.
In 1996 he turned his talents to traditional music. His meeting with the Breton singer
Annie Ebrel gave birth to a very special duo and the creation of Douar Glizh at the Theatre
of
Quimper, followed by the recording of the CD Voulouz Loar - Velluto di Luna*, acclaimed
by the Monde de la Musique and awarded the Diapason d’or of 1999. In 2001, the duo
surrounded themselves with guest musicians: Paolo Fresu on the trumpet and saxhorn,
Laurent Dehors on clarinet, Kuljit Bhamra on tabla et Jean-Luc Landsweerdt on percussion,
to create Flouradenn* at the Théâtre des Abbesses (Théâtre de la Ville) in Paris. From the
show a band was formed which played both in Paris and in the provinces in Spring 2002
and also performed a regional tour in 2003 (Europa Jazz Festival of Mans, Chalon en
Champagne, Espace Glenmor de Carhaix, nouveau Grand Théâtre de Lorient).
The duo was regularly invited to perform at jazz and music festivals (including the
Grenoble Jazz Festival 2004, Una striscia di terra feconda 2004 in Rome, Django d’Or
2004 in Paris, Festival Les Suds in Arles, Jazz à Junas, at the Cité de la Musique and at the
Cri du Port in Marseille, Lyon, Nantes, Toulouse, at the Festival de Québec, at the Vieilles
Charrues de
Carhaix, Moscou, Poznan, Zurich, Genève, Turin, Nuoro...) and most recently at the Maison
de la Culture d’Amiens and in Norway for the Vossa Jazz Festival.
Cinema
Just as music influenced Riccardo Del Fra from a very early age, so did the cinema.
«My mother adored the cinema and much of its music… and in the 1960s the Italian
television channels broadcast an incredible number of movies from as early as 11 o’clock
in the morning… we got ready, we waited expectantly, it was like a ritual». Once he
became a musician he performed on recordings for movie scores, and not just any movies:
«How could I forget the recording of the music of Louis Bacalov for the City of Women...
Fellini was there in the studio, supervising, just next to me and my double bass, the work
of the composer who succeeded Nino Rota...». For many years he has composed, in his
turn, for the cinema and in particular for the Belgian film producer, writer and actor Lucas
Belvaux. «The meeting with Lucas was also extremely important for stimulating thought
about the art and technique of music».
Del Fra composed the music for his cinema movies starting with Pour rire* with Ornella
Muti and Jean-Pierre Léaud,(1996) ; la Trilogie* : Un couple épatant - Cavale - Après la
vie, with the three couples: Ornella Muti and François Morel, Catherine Frot and Lucas
Belvaux, Dominique Blanc and Gilbert Melki, (2002) as well as for the television with Mère
de toxico starring Valérie Mairesse and JérémieRénier, (2000); more recently also for the
small screen « Nature contre nature »(2005). He has composed the music for Belvaux’s
new movie “La Raison du Plus Faible” – Sélection Officielle in Festival de Cannes 2006 .
Teaching and broadcasting
In September 2004 Riccardo Del Fra was named head of the department of Jazz and
Improvised Music at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris
where he had taken over from the double bass player Jean-François Jenny-Clark as teacher
in 1998.
The willingness to remove divisions and to widen the field of action and interaction were
at the heart of his work at the conservatoire (as in his own music), where he wished to
open windows, forge links and encourage exchanges between “the many worlds of jazz
and the many worlds of classic and contemporary music” as well as collaborations with
other disciplines of the CNSMDP, such as dance, for example. The master classes became
more open with invitations to artists from many horizons: the pianist Michael Levinas gave
an analytical class on Debussy’s piano works, the organist and professor of Musical
Analysis Alain Mabit presented the work of Olivier Messiaen (with an analysis of the first
movement of the Quartet for the End of Time); they remained loyal to the theme of jazz
and improvisation but open to different styles (with recently Joey Baron, Enrico Rava, Alain
Jean-Marie, André Villeger, Bruno Chevillon and in the near future Archie Shepp, Barry
Guy, Henri Texier, Daniel Humair, Louis Sclavis...). Festival and broadcast directors and
journalists were also invited, within the framework of the « practical aspects of the
profession».
For Riccardo Del Fra «what we hand down to new generations of musicians passes
obviously through technique, style, history, repertoire, but we must also learn to pay
attention to the new musicians themselves and to their potential in order to help them
grow. «The teacher» is a practicing musician; « the student » is a future colleague.
Openness, availability and humility are essential. Knowing how to listen to others and to
oneself – the importance of what is said, or left unsaid; what is written or not-written,
what is suggested and/or underlying in the conception of a written or improvised musical
work ».
The album Roses and Roots not only bears witness to the pleasure of working, but also
to the search for new sources of inspiration – with the young musicians (with the
exception of course of Joey Baron) from the CNSM...
In 2003, Riccardo del Fra was named Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the
Minister of Culture and Communication.
*You can hear this music by clicking on «Listen» on the site:
(www.riccardodelfra.net/enecoute.htm)
