Clarinetist, saxophonist and composer Gianluigi Trovesi is one of the leading exponents of the European avant-garde jazz scene in which experimentation, folk and early music, and classical music are blended in order to create multiple points of research and development within the framework of a musical language detached from that which is properly American in origin
In 1966 he graduated from the Bergamo Conservatory of Music. Later he plays in ensembles active in the field of dance music performed in dance halls, academic music and jazz
In the mid-1970s he joined guitarist Franco Cerri’s band with, among others, pianist Nando De Luca and drummer Gianni Cazzola
In 1977, the Italian multi-instrumentalist founded the trio with double bassist Paolo Damiani and Gianni Cazzola, with whom he recorded his first record entitled Baghèt, which was followed two years later by Five Little Stories. Meanwhile, he joined the RAI Light Music Orchestra, serving as first clarinet and first alto saxophone
In the early 1980s he embarked on a tour of the United States with the group of pianist and composer Giorgio Gaslini, consisting of saxophonist Gianni Bedori, double bassist Marco Vaggi and drummer Gianni Cazzola In 1985 the record entitled Dances, recorded as a trio with Paolo Damiani and drummer Ettore Fioravanti, replacing Gianni Cazzola, was voted “best record of the year” in the annual referendum held by Musica Jazz magazine
In 1990 Gianluigi Trovesi joined the Italian Instabile Orchestra, in which musicians and songwriters from different localities and generations, such as Bruno Tommaso, Mario Schiano, Eugenio Colombo, Giorgio Gaslini, and Giancarlo Schiaffini, for example, played. At the same time he formed an octet with which he recorded in 1992 the album From G to G, acclaimed by the prestigious American magazine DownBeat
In the mid-1990s an artistic partnership with accordionist Gianni Coscia was forming with the album Radici.
In 1999 the two musicians recorded the record work In Search of Food for the prestigious German label ECM, whose liner notes were edited by internationally renowned writer, essayist, philosopher and semiologist Umberto Eco. The record is well received by audiences and critics.
In 1994, Gianluigi Trovesi participated in the recording of trumpeter Paolo Fresu’s Ensalada Mistica album, and the following year he played in Rava’s Carmen, in which trumpeter Enrico Rava reinterprets Georges Bizet’s opéra-comique in an exquisitely jazzy key
In the 2000s he recorded two more record works with Gianni Coscia for the ECM label, Round About Weill in 2005 and Round About Offenbach in 2011, and with his trio formed with pianist Umberto Petrin and percussionist Fulvio Maras
Throughout his artistic career, Gianluigi Trovesi has collaborated with numerous musicians and ensembles active in disparate musical fields: Tiziana Gighioni, Enrico Intra, Stefano Bollani, Kenny Wheeler, Anthony Braxton, Michel Portal, Giancarlo Schiaffini, Louis Portal, Maria Pia De Vito, Tiziana Ghiglioni , Misha Mengelberg, Andrea Centazzo, and several others
Essential discography: Baghèt (1977 – Dischi Della Quercia), Les Boîtes À Musique (1989 – Splasc(H) Records), Dances (1985 – Red Record), Daedalus (2002 – Enja Records), Round About Weill with Gianni Coscia (2005 – ECM Records), Vaghissimo Ritratto (2007 – ECM Records).
