Vanessa Tagliabue Yorke – voice, arrangements
Francesco Bearzatti – clarinet
Mauro Ottolini – trombone, arrangements
Giulio Scaramella – piano
The project moves from the extraordinary story of Annette Hanshaw, a singer who was a symbol of America in the 1920s and it explores the world of New York’s radio and the black poetry of the Cotton Club in Harlem, up to the smoky clubs of Chicago where we could have listened to King Oliver. Like an ideal night train, this concert winds through the voices and colors of the roots of jazz bending through history and touching the European shores, meeting Sidney Bechet and the extraordinary Italian singers of the post-war period such as Wanda Osiris and Alida Valli.
A profound source of inspiration certainly shines through the music of Duke Ellington’s orchestra and in particular the brilliant mind of Billy Strayhorn, from whose arrangements we take move and produce a soulful rendition of an everlasting sense of innovation.
This is a brilliant quartet that travels far and wide across the Western world, tuning in, thanks to the chamber music nature of its structure, investigating also to the extraordinary voices that resounded in Europe and above all that passionate voice of Edith Piaf.
The musicians who are part of this ensemble hardly need any introduction, they are some of the most prestigious and virtuoso Italian professionals.
Francesco Bearzatti winner of the TOP JAZZ award Best Italian Saxophonist, Best Record, Jazzit Award Best Reed, Meilleur Musicien Européen par l’Académie du Jazz Français 2011
Mauro Ottolini winner of the TOP JAZZ award Best Italian Musician 2012 and Italian Ambassador for culture in Veneto for UNESCO