Arrigo Cappelletti

Arrigo Cappelletti was born in Brunate, near Como, on 12 February 1949. After graduating in philosophy and teaching in Italian high schools, he devoted himself to jazz. His discography includes thirty recordings. Samadhi, Reflections, Pianure, Terras do risco, Trio in New York and Mysterious have contributed to an Italian approach to jazz characterised by lyricism, introspection and connections with other musical cultures.

His festival appearances include the Como Jazz Meeting (1976 and 1996), Rapallo Festival (1984), the Italian Jazz Festival at Capolinea in Milan (1986, 1987 and 1989), the Seventh International Jazz Festival Città di Milano (1988), I suoni del jazz in Pavia (1991), the jazz festival at Palazzo Butera in Palermo (1991), Pori Festival in Finland (1991), Sanremo: l’altra musica (1993), Jazzitalia in Verona (1994), Noto Jazz (1996), Lisbon Expo (1998), Sete Sóis Sete Luas in Portugal (1999), Clusone Jazz (2000), Jazz & Wine in Gorizia (2000), Le voci del jazz at Milan’s Auditorium (2003), Iseo Jazz, Siena Jazz and Ecojazz in Reggio Calabria (2004), Villa Celimontana in Rome and Siena Jazz (2005), Novara Jazz (2007), Sant’Anna Arresi and Padova Jazz (2009), Udin&Jazz and Iseo Jazz (2011), and the Chiasso International Jazz Festival in Switzerland (2013).

In Italy he has played with Gianni Cazzola, Sergio Fanni, Paolo Dalla Porta, Roberto Ottaviano and Gianni Coscia. His international collaborators include Barre Phillips, Lew Soloff, Mike Mossman, Daniel Schnyder, Hämi Hämmerli, Bill Elgart, Olivier Manoury, Steve Swallow, John Hébert, Bruce Ditmas, Ralph Alessi and Mat Maneri. He has also collaborated with Mia Martini and Giorgio Gaslini’s national jazz orchestra. In 1988, Cadence included Reflections among its ten best recordings of the year.

His work in Lisbon brought him together with Custódio Castelo, Jorge Fernando and Alexandra in a project connecting fado and jazz through twentieth-century Portuguese poetry. He has also worked in Russia with singer Polina Runovskaya.

Active in jazz education and writing, he is the author of Il profumo del jazz (ESI, Naples), a book combining teaching and autobiography; Paul Bley: la logica del caso (L’Epos, Palermo), translated into English by Greg Burk and published by Véhicule Press in Montreal as Paul Bley: The Logic of Chance; and Le avventure di un jazzista-filosofo (Arcana). He has taught jazz at CDM and Nuova Milano Musica in Milan, the Civico Istituto Musicale Brera in Novara, and the conservatories of Sassari, Alessandria, Reggio Calabria and Venice.