Alessandro Traverso Sextet
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2011-02-05
ALESSANDRO TRAVERSO - keyboard
ALDO MARANGONI - guitar
PAOLO FRANCHINI - bass
ALBERTO TRAVERSO - drums
ELENA ANDREOLI - voice
TAKAHIRO KITTE - sax
When Alessandro Traverso started his band, all of whose members with jazz backgrounds, their first style would be a contamination of standards, with some tasty pop, rock and funky hints.
They could play My Funny Valentine just as if it was ACDC’s Back to Black, giving it an astonishing and brand new allure.
And they could add reggae rhythms to Autumn Leaves, making it almost a new track, but without weakening the intensity of its poetical lyrics.
So why not doing the same thing with pop and rock hits, but with the reverse process? Why not playing U2 in Cantaloupe style, or pouring some jazz and blues into Peter Gabriel’s futuristic rock?
This main idea brought to a project full of potential, based on the conviction that music fuses sensitivity and culture with geographic and temporal experiences, aspects that the band can easily reflect thanks to the different experiences of its members, both musical and professional.
LA BAND:
- Alessandro Traverso, keyboard
- Takahiro Kitte - Sax
- Aldo Marangoni - guitar
- Elena Andreoli - voice
- Paolo Franchini - double bass
- Alberto Traverso - drum based in Milan
He studied cello at Milan Conservatory as well as classic piano and jazz privately, taking also part to Franco D’Andrea’s workshops. He graduated in muscial disciplines at Dams in Bologna.
He won the first prize at national contest “Alternative musicali” with a group called Aton Ra. afterwards, with his first jazz band, he started musical activities in Ponderosa a Tradate (Varese, Italy).
He took part to jam sessions at Milan’s Capolinea club, held concerts at Le Scimmie and played in theater with Franco Cerri. Also, he held some music therapy concert-lessons in medical structures. He’s been working as a professional journalist since the ‘80s, he wrote for Indro Montanelli at “Il Giornale” and now he is editor-in-chief at “Classic Voice” a monthly musical magazine. He also wrote a book called “Weather Report”, published by L’Epos. Finally, he is enrolled in the technical consultant’s register of Milan’s Court for plagiarizing cases.
Takahiro Kitte - Saxophonist based in Milan and Brussels
Takahiro was born in 1965 in Japan, he studied violin in his early years, and at 16 started to play saxophone. He led the New Wave Jazz Orchestra based in Osaka and, while in college, started playing around the Kansai area in Japan as a professional musician.
His stay in NY in 1986 enriched his musical experience also thanks to some gigs with Jack DeJonnette. He moved to Europe in the early '90s, and started playing in Milan with various local groups in historical jazz clubs like "Capolinea". He recently spent quite some time away from the music scene, while pursuing his professional carrier as a partner of an international consulting firm. He restarted his music carrier last year with some live gigs both in Japan and Europe, and he's now back in the scene with Alessandro Traverso and his band, with whom he had visualized a collaboration 10 years ago.
He graduated in viola at Milan Conservatory, and right after his musical studies, he started working in ententainment management. He is now manager of many important people of Italian television and theater, such as Piero Chiambretti, Beppe Grillo and Luca Laurenti. Throughout the years Marangoni, who is really fond of jazz and blues, also studied guitar with Gigi Cifarelli.
She studied acting at the Milan’s Accademia dei Filodrammatici, where she won a scholarship to London’s Royal Shakespeare Company. While in London, she also studied at Actor’s Studio. Afterwards she studied jazz with private teachers, including Tiziana Ghiglioni and Laura Fedele and then spent one year at Milan’s Scuola Civica di Jazz.
She worked in theatres for 10 years, with personalities such as Dario Fo e Franca Rame, Adriana Innocenti, Remo Girone, Carmelo Bene, Mario Monicelli. She now is a television author and advertising speaker.
In the ‘70s and ‘80s Franchini was a professional musician, and teamed, among others, with Teresa De Sio, Eugenio Finardi, Fabio Concato, Milva, Jimmy Owens, Delmar Brown. He became manager and producer at Polygram and then CEO of the Italian branch of Edel Records, where he remained until 2010. He now is CEO and Owner of the musical editions company Edel Music srl, as well as director of FEM, Federation of Musical Editors.
Alberto Traverso - drum based in Milan
He is a director and television art director, famous for inventing the “Italia1!” phenomenon, in which, since more than 10 years, common people make themselves testimonials of the network. Traverso is undoubtedly an eclectic director and an artist of graphics, but his first passion remains music, from jazz to funky to rock indistinctly. He spent some time on tour in Italy with Bernardo Lanzetti, but soon decided he would play music only for passion. He is always surrounded by drums and percussions, at home as well as at work. “Even though I can’t play, which would be disturbing for others, seeing drums puts me in a good mood”.
