Federica
Federica Michisanti, bassist and double bass player, studied in Rome at the University of Music and Saint Louis College of Music and at Siena Jazz and Città di Castello seminars.
He studied classical music with Maestro Andrea Pighi. He won Top jazz 2018 in the new Italian talent category and his record “Silent Rides” ranked seventh among the best Italian records of 2018.
Back in 2017 she was voted second in the same category. In 2019 he won the Siae special award for originality of compositional research, following which he played with his trio with guest Louis Sclavis.
He won Top Jazz 2020 with his Horn trio, in the Italian Formation of the Year category. He has recorded five albums under his own name, the first four of which were with the projects Trioness (with Simone Maggio and Matt Renzi) and Horn trio (with Francesco Lento and Francesco Bigoni), while the fifth, titled “Afternoons,” recorded together with his new “French Quartet” featuring Louis Sclavis, with whom he has been collaborating steadily for a few years now, Vincent Courtois and Michele Rabbia, was released on Sept. 29, 2023.
The last two records were produced by Parco della Musica Records. She has been a guest on Radio Rai 3’s programs I concerti del Quirinale, La Stanza della Musica, Battiti and Piazza Verdi and has also participated in prestigious Italian and international festivals.
In 2022/2023 she was part of Ornella Vanoni’s “Women and Music” Tour. In 2021 he played on the European tour with Dave Douglas and Franco D’Andrea’s quartet, with Dan Weiss on drums. He has played with Dominique Pifarèly, with whom he collaborates as a duo.
He played with Nicolas Masson, who is now part of his Trioness project. He collaborated with Bob Moses and Greg Burk on their project “Benign madness, profound gladness,” an album released in 2019. He has been a member of the National Young Talent Orchestra conducted by Paolo Damiani.
He won Top Jazz 2023 in no less than 3 categories: Musician of the Year, Record of the Year and Education of the Year. Top Jazz is the critics’ referendum organized annually by the historic magazine Musica Jazz, which has been chronicling jazz in Italy since 1945.
In April 2016, she participated in the recording of the album Homage to Janis Joplin – Jazz Corner, Jazz Italiano live at the Casa del Jazz in which a piece co-written by her is also included.
Teacher at St Louis College of music in Rome, for whose label Camilla records he made a record with Amedeo Tommasi.
PROJECTS
LIFE ON ART
STRING QUARTET
Eloisa Manera | violin
Maria Vicentini | viola
Salvatore Majore | cello
Federica Michisanti | double bass and compositions
Life on Art” is a new project by double bassist and composer Federica Michisanti.
The idea for the string quartet came from a commission to the Roman musician from the Fondazione Palazzo Te in Mantua in collaboration with the Cultural Association 4’33” and the Liceo Musicale Isabella D’este.
Unlike the traditional quartet, which features two violins, viola and cello, the lineup features Eloisa Manera’s violin, Maria Vicentini’s viola and Salvatore Maiore’s cello alongside the double bassist, musicians with great and refined experience not only in academic music but also in jazz and radical improvisation.
The composition by Michisanti does not follow the canonical form of classical string quartet writing, but rather has influences from European cultured music on the one hand and the jazz avant-garde on the other.
In the project, great importance is given to improvisation, interpretation and the ensemble’s response to the written music following the musicians’ aptitudes and personalities.
“Afternoons”
Music Park 2023
Featuring:
Louis Sclavis
Vincent Courtois
Michael Anger
Federica Michisanti, bassist and composer, winner of Top Jazz 2018 as best New Talent, Top Jazz 2020 with her Horn Trio project as best Italian ensemble of the year, and Siae Award 2019, has distinguished herself in the Italian jazz scene in recent years with her various projects.
His fifth album, the second produced by Parco della Musica Records, titled “Afternoons,” is out Sept. 29.
The lineup consists of three of the most active and recognized musicians on the European music scene: Louis Sclavis on clarinets, who has been collaborating with Federica on her projects for a few years now; Vincent Courtois on cello; and Michele Rabbia on drums and electronics.
If the choice of playing without harmonic instruments is confirmed, for the first time instead Michisanti includes drums in the lineup by involving a multifaceted personality such as Michele Rabbia who does not just play the traditional role of rhythm section, but creates colors and atmospheres by making use of electronics and the use of a large number of objects outside the traditional set of a drummer.
The album includes seven tracks, all signed by Michisanti, two of them (Nocturne and Spot) united by a free improvisation that leads them from the coda of the first, more lyrical and evocative track to the next, more rhythmic and frenetic one.
The compositions display sounds that draw from European cultured music and the jazz avant-garde and are varied in nature: sometimes they are stolen themes that result in free improvisations, as in “Two,” or more structured improvisations, as in “Not.” sometimes they are melodies that rest on a repetitive bass line, as in “Sufi Loft,” or they are melodic lines that intertwine to form an ever-changing harmony, as in “Floathing” (hence the pun indicating something that floats in constant motion) or compositions that feature more open passages that then land on a structured rhythm that then leads to a change of tempo until the improvised part, as in “Be4 PM.”
“Afternoons,” Michisanti says, “pervaded by that special light that, like a second sunrise, brings the promise of many more possibilities before the day ends and spent in the company of music in the creation of most of the record’s compositions, except for “Nocturne,” which, as the title itself says, is a nocturnal creature.”
TRIONESS
Fedrica Michisanti | double bass
Simone Maggio | piano
Nicolas Masson | cello
Trioness is a project of Federica Michisanti; with the leader on double bass has always been at her side Simone Maggio on piano.
Rounding out the lineup is Nicolas Masson on tenor sax, a leading figure on the new Swiss jazz scene, an artist who has been recording for ECM for years and has worked with a wide international cast of musicians including Ben Monder, Gerald Cleaver, Kenny Wheeler, and Thomas Morgan.
The trio offers compositions by Federica.
The absence of drums and the arrangements of some of the pieces give the music an almost chamber-like character. Predominant is melody and the use, at times, of overlapping the voices of the three instruments, exploiting their differences in timbre to derive a new musical texture.
Space is also left for free improvisation.