DESCRIPTION:
ITALIAN CULTURAL INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO AND ITALCULTURA,

IN COLLABORATION WITH PIANOFORTE FOUNDATION,

BY WORLD-RENOWNED STEFANO BATTAGLIA TRIO

PRESENT A JAZZ CONCERT



This trio represents, in Battaglia’s own words, “a new harmonic balance between

archaic modal pre-tonal chant and dances, pure tonal songs and hymns and

abstract texture.” Songs, chants and dances – each of the forms offers Battaglia

and bassist Salvatore Maiore plenty of room to develop lyrical ideas. And, as the

trio has developed over the years, an expanded space has opened up for the

drums also, giving Roberto Dani opportunities for textural shading and for playing

melodically, hypersensitive to the pitches of drums and cymbals.

The trio, which has been honing its profoundly lyrical language with music that

evokes cinematic landscapes for many years, will perform a selection of songs

from the trio’s latest two albums produced by ECM. The first album, The River of

Anyder (2011), turned out to be career-defining album of unsettling and

unpredictable beauty. Down beat described it as “novel and utterly delightful

lyricism” and allaboutjazz.com referred to it as “one of the year’s most beautiful

piano recordings: an undercurrent of gentle push-and-pull, flowing beneath its

endless wellspring of haunting melodism, gives it its depth and weight, even as

its diaphanous interaction suggests an evolving language.” The second album is

the deeply expressionistic Songways (2012), which is concerned with the further

evolution of that musical language. Italian pianist Stefano Battaglia and his trio

develop directions established on their acclaimed 2011 release “The River of

Anyder” with a new selection of chants, hymns and dances, all written by

Battaglia and inspired by descriptions of visionary places from art and literature –

from Alfred Kubin, Jonathan Swift or Charles Fourier to Italo Calvino. “Songways”

finds “a new harmonic balance between archaic modal pre-tonal chant and

dances, pure tonal songs and hymns and abstract texture,” Battaglia says, “thus

documenting the natural development of the Trio life, with a larger space for

action from the drums”.

Both are steeped in historical and cultural premises while exuding a timeless feel.

Critical Accolades






The Guardian

By JF

Another formidable European keyboardist who reveals plenty of the graceful

precision that made him a successful classical concert recitalist, jazz roots in Bill

Evans, Keith Jarrett and Paul Bley, and the openness that has often found him

working with free-improvisers. His music is yearningly romantic in an open-

structured way, full of classical allegiances, melodical audacity, lustrous

accumulations and overlays of chords, trickles of treble sound and spacey

improvisations.



Stefano Battaglia

Born in Milan, Stefano Battaglia began studying piano when he was seven years

old. He has performed at several Italian and European festivals, as well as

hundreds of concerts as a soloist. He was awarded Best New Talent of 1988

and 1999 and Best Italian Musician by the magazine Musica Jazz. He has

performed with leading Italian musicians and several international artists, such as

Lee Konitz, Kenny Wheeler, Dewey Redman, Tony Oxley, Steve Swallow, Enrico

Rava, Aldo Romano, Bill Elgart, Dominique Pifarely, Pierre Favre and many

others. He has recorded more than 100 CDs and has received many awards for

his solo piano and trio recordings. Since 1988, he has been teaching seminars

entiteld, “Siena Jazz,” as well as a specializiation course and high level

qualification classes for performers of Jazz Music in Siena. Battaglia has

performed intense research on solo performance and on the dialogue with

percussion instruments. This is evidenced by his fruitful collaborations with

percussionists Pierre Favre, Tony Oxley, and Michele Rabbia. In 2005 the

pianist recorded a celebratory work of 35 original compositions dedicated to the

great poet Pier Paolo Pasolini. The double album “Re: Pasolini” was published in

April of 2007. Battaglia’s uniqueness resides in chamber music background,

which can explain his innate ability to pace a song with an organic flow and a

gentle undercurrent that rises and recedes like the tide.