Da Vinci Jazz
Andrea Marcelli, Andreas Markus, Billy Drewes, Bjarne Roupé, Dana Gooley, Dave Zinno, Davide Petrocca, Ed Schuller, Ekkehard Wölk, Fabrizio Mandolini, Jarkko Hakala, Klavs Hovman, Kristoff Becker, Ola Forsell, Paolo Russo, Serge Forté
A personal collection of live and previously unreleased sessions from 2000–2016: Andrea Marcelli brings together original compositions, collective improvisations and reflections on Bach, Verdi, Olle Adolphson and Caravan, with an international cast of musicians.
13.67€
Digital programme · 14 tracks
Track order and timings follow the digital edition. The original printed inlay places tracks 5–8 in a different order; the booklet agrees with the digital programme. Full session personnel and composition credits appear in Album Notes.
Andrea Marcelli is a drummer, clarinettist, composer and producer from Rome. His career has taken him to five continents. He has recorded extensively, including two solo albums of original music for Verve/PolyGram, and has also worked with Columbia TriStar, Polydor K.K., ESC-Medien, BHM, Soul Note, Jazzwerkstatt, Storyville and 55 Records. More than two hundred of his jazz compositions and soundtrack pieces have appeared on recordings. Two compositions from Beyond the Blue were included in Sher Music’s European Real Book and The Digital Real Book, Part 2.
His performances have taken him to the United States, Japan, India, Brazil, South Africa, Tunisia, Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Lebanon, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Russia, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Poland, Estonia, France, England, Spain, Italy, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Romania, Portugal and the Czech Republic.
He began his career in Rome as a freelance drummer, appearing on many RAI television programmes between 1982 and 1988, chiefly with Bruno Biriaco’s big band. In 1986 he graduated in classical clarinet and jazz composition and arranging at the Licinio Refice Conservatory in Frosinone. From 1984 to 1996 he produced, composed and recorded television soundtracks, particularly for Primrose/Flipper Music.
Work on his debut album, Silent Will, began in 1988 and took him to Los Angeles in 1989. The album was released by Verve/PolyGram and Polydor K.K. in 1989–90 and featured Wayne Shorter, Allan Holdsworth, Bob Berg, Mike Stern and John Patitucci. It was followed by Oneness, released by Verve/Polydor K.K. in Japan and Lipstick in Europe and the United States in 1992–94, with Ralph Towner, Allan Holdsworth, Mike Mainieri, Marc Johnson, Gary Thomas and Mitchel Forman.
Marcelli moved to the United States in 1989, spending eight years in Los Angeles and four in New York before returning to Europe in 2001. His work in jazz was recognised through the award of a US green card in the extraordinary-ability category. Active in the live and studio scenes of both cities, he collaborated with Wayne Shorter, Don Menza, Bob Mintzer, Mitchel Forman, Eddie Gomez, Allan Holdsworth, Dave Carpenter, Steve Tavaglione, Rick Margitza, Bob Sheppard, John Beasley, Alan Pasqua, Alphonso Johnson, Frank Gambale, Harold Land, L. Subramaniam and Doug Webb.
He has been based in Berlin since 2001, working internationally as a performer and educator with cultural organisations around the world. His collaborators have also included Ekkehard Wölk, Johannes Fink, Markus and Simon Stockhausen, Eberhard Weber, Dave Liebman, Thomas Clausen, Jesper Lundgaard, Palle Danielsson, Hiram Bullock, Jeff Berlin, Arild Andersen and Giorgio Crobu.
Andreas Markus is a bassist whose work is documented in the international sessions collected on Andrea Marcelli’s The Invisible Child. He played double bass in the ensemble recorded at the Rytmisk Musikkonservatorium in Copenhagen in April 2002, alongside Jarkko Hakala, Fabrizio Mandolini, Bjarne Roupé and Marcelli.
These recordings include Almost Spring in Holmen and Open Talk, for which he shares composition credits. He also arranged Olle Adolphson’s Nu har jag fått den jag vill ha. The sessions bring together original compositions, collective improvisation and an arrangement of Swedish song.
Billy Drewes is an American multi-instrumentalist and composer whose principal instruments include saxophones, clarinets and flutes. Born on Long Island in 1952, he moved to Boston in 1970 and to New York in 1975. His musical practice also encompasses drums, percussion and piano.
His recording career includes more than 150 albums and collaborations with musicians such as Joe Lovano, Bill Frisell, Paul Motian and Toninho Horta. His work in Boston included engagements with Tony Bennett, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Gary Burton; in New York he worked with Kenny Werner, John Scofield, Lionel Hampton, Eddie Palmieri and Woody Herman. Alongside performing and composing, he has given educational clinics.
On Andrea Marcelli’s The Invisible Child, Drewes plays soprano saxophone in Ola Forsell’s quartet and shares the composition credit for Vertikal, recorded in New Jersey in June 2000.
Bjarne Roupé is a Swedish jazz guitarist and composer whose career includes work in Denmark and collaborations across the Scandinavian jazz scene. He has performed with the Swedish group EGBA and appears in Michael Mantler’s recording projects.
On Andrea Marcelli’s The Invisible Child, Roupé plays guitar in the ensemble recorded at Copenhagen’s Rytmisk Musikkonservatorium in April 2002. He shares the composition credits for Almost Spring in Holmen and Open Talk, and participates in the recording of Olle Adolphson’s Nu har jag fått den jag vill ha and Marcelli’s title track. With Marcelli, he also served as artistic producer of these sessions.
Dana Gooley is a pianist and musicologist at Brown University. His research connects nineteenth-century European music with the history and practice of improvisation, musical criticism and cosmopolitan musical culture. His books include The Virtuoso Liszt (2004) and Fantasies of Improvisation (2018).
He studied piano at the New England Conservatory, English at Wesleyan University and earned his doctorate at Princeton University. An active jazz pianist, he has performed in clubs in the United States and abroad. His teaching encompasses classical music, jazz, improvisation and musical theatre.
For Andrea Marcelli’s The Invisible Child, Gooley plays piano in the trio recorded at Brown University in October 2013, with bassist Dave Zinno and Marcelli. He arranged Verdi’s Amami Alfredo for the session, which also includes Marcelli’s Colori di Mare.
Dave Zinno is an American jazz bassist, bandleader and educator. A professional musician since 1980, he studied at Berklee College of Music and the University of Rhode Island. His formative work included a period in Seattle with singer Dianne Schuur, collaborations with Julian Priester and Hadley Caliman, and studies with Gary Peacock. In New York he studied with Walter Booker Jr.
His collaborators have included Jimmy Cobb, Junior Cook, Jimmy Heath, John Hicks, Victor Lewis, John Medeski and Larry Willis. His performing career has taken him throughout Europe, South America, North Africa and the United States. He has taught at the University of Rhode Island, Salve Regina University and Brown University, and led workshops in Toulon.
His group Unisphere released River, Stories Told and Fetish. On Andrea Marcelli’s The Invisible Child, he plays double bass with pianist Dana Gooley and Marcelli in the Brown University recordings of 2013.
Davide Petrocca is a bassist, guitarist, composer and teacher. He began with classical guitar before turning to bass as a teenager, and studied guitar, electric and acoustic bass, and composition in Stuttgart. He subsequently studied with Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen in Copenhagen.
His professional career includes work with Charly Antolini and international tours with Monty Alexander. His collaborators have also included Biréli Lagrène, Philip Catherine, Randy Brecker, Eddie Gomez, John Taylor, Ernie Watts and Howard Alden. He has performed in Peer Baierlein’s quartet and in ensembles that connect musicians from different European jazz scenes.
On Andrea Marcelli’s The Invisible Child, Petrocca plays double bass in the trio with pianist Serge Forté and Marcelli. Their performance of Caravan was recorded at the BIS Zentrum in Mönchengladbach in February 2007.
Ed Schuller is an American bassist and composer. He began playing bass at fifteen and entered the New England Conservatory in 1972, studying acoustic bass with Larry Wolf and composition and theory with Joe Maneri. His first US tour was with guitarist Pat Martino in 1975.
After moving to the New York area, he worked with Jaki Byard, Lee Konitz, Tim Berne, Paul Motian, Jim Pepper, Joe Lovano, Bill Frisell, Mal Waldron, Steve Lacy, Jeanne Lee and Billy Bang. His ensemble work has included Night Ark, the Mingus Epitaph Orchestra, the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra and the New England Ragtime Ensemble. He has also recorded as a leader, including projects with his Eleventh Hour Band.
Schuller plays bass on Vertikal in Andrea Marcelli’s The Invisible Child, sharing its composition credit with Ola Forsell, Billy Drewes and Marcelli.
Ekkehard Wölk is a German pianist, composer and arranger working across classical music and jazz. Born in Schleswig in 1967, he studied musicology in Hamburg and Berlin and classical piano in Hamburg and Lübeck, graduating in 1994. His training in jazz improvisation included work with Walter Norris, Dieter Glawischnig, Richie Beirach, John Taylor, Fred Hersch and Barry Harris.
Based in Berlin since 1995, he has developed a particular interest in live accompaniment and original scores for silent cinema. His work includes music for films by G. W. Pabst, F. W. Murnau and Ernst Lubitsch. With the trio Blanc et Noir, he combines piano, cello and percussion in improvised responses to film.
On Andrea Marcelli’s The Invisible Child, he performs in the Bach-inspired opening duo and in the three Blanc et Noir improvisations recorded with Kristoff Becker and Marcelli in Berlin in 2016.
Fabrizio Mandolini is an Italian saxophonist, composer, producer and educator. His early work included collaborations with Pierangelo Bertoli, Luca Carboni, Mimmo Locasciulli, Roberto Vecchioni, Goran Kuzminac, Tiromancino and Alex Britti.
Between 1993 and 2000 he pursued studies in composition, saxophone and sound technology in Los Angeles and New York. He also studied at Copenhagen’s Rytmisk Musikkonservatorium, completing its soloist programme. His Copenhagen period included collaborations with Bjarne Roupé and recordings such as La Spiga and Geometrie Semplici. After returning to Italy in 2005, he continued to work across jazz, popular music, experimental projects and film music. His Waterfalls quartet includes Massimiliano Coclite, Bruno Marcozzi and Emanuele Di Teodoro.
Mandolini plays saxophones in several Copenhagen sessions on Andrea Marcelli’s The Invisible Child, contributes as a producer and shares composition credits for Almost Spring in Holmen and Open Talk.
Jarkko Hakala is a Finnish trumpeter and composer, born in 1977. He began with piano and accordion before choosing the trumpet, and studied at the Rytmisk Musikkonservatorium in Copenhagen. His musical interests include the expressive possibilities of trumpet tone, contrasting compositional forms and the interaction between acoustic instruments and electronics.
His work includes collaborations with Kari Ikonen, the group Rodent and the quartet Punainen Voima. He has also written for big band, including Some Small Pieces. In discussing his music, he has emphasised the importance of emotional communication and of leaving space for individual responses within a composition.
On Andrea Marcelli’s The Invisible Child, Hakala plays trumpet in the Copenhagen recordings of April 2002 and piano on Distances. He shares composition credits for Almost Spring in Holmen and Open Talk.
Klavs Hovman is a Danish bassist whose work encompasses acoustic and electric bass, jazz, improvisation and music that crosses stylistic boundaries. His longstanding musical collaboration with percussionist Marilyn Mazur included Future Song, Marilyn Mazur Group and Special 4. He has also worked extensively in pianist Makiko Hirabayashi’s trio.
His collaborators have included Ernie Wilkins, Horace Parlan and singer Etta Cameron, with whom he worked for three decades. He also spent a period with the Danish rock group Savage Rose. These varied settings reflect a practice that combines a strong rhythmic foundation with flexibility in exploratory ensemble music.
Hovman plays bass on In Other Words in Andrea Marcelli’s The Invisible Child, recorded in Copenhagen in 2000 with Fabrizio Mandolini, Paolo Russo and Marcelli.
Kristoff Becker is a cellist, composer and instrument maker whose work brings together acoustic performance, electronic processing, visual art and film. He began studying cello at eight and also worked professionally as a bassist in blues, jazz and soul. His background in carpentry led him to build an acoustic bass and later develop his own electric and electro-acoustic cello designs.
In 1994 he founded Trioglyzerin, creating live music for film in venues and festivals including Documenta in Kassel, the Goethe-Institut in Cairo and the Munich Philharmonie. His solo project Cellotronics began in 2001, using electronically shaped cello sounds; the album Iron Miller followed in 2010. Other projects include the electro-tango ensemble Tangotronics and the kOffcello instrument workshop.
Becker plays cello in Blanc et Noir with Ekkehard Wölk and Andrea Marcelli. Their Berlin performance of March 2016 supplies three collective improvisations on The Invisible Child.
Ola Forsell is a guitarist whose quartet is represented on Andrea Marcelli’s The Invisible Child. The recording documents a session at Hillside Studio in Englewood, New Jersey, on 24 June 2000, engineered by Dae Bennett.
Forsell performs with tenor saxophonist Billy Drewes, bassist Ed Schuller and drummer Andrea Marcelli. Their piece Vertikal is credited jointly to all four musicians, documenting the ensemble’s collaborative approach to composition and improvisation.
Paolo Russo is an Italian pianist, bandoneon player and composer, born in Pescara in 1969 and based in Copenhagen since 1996. He studied piano in Pescara with Chiara Tiboni and Rachele Marchegiani and subsequently attended the Rytmisk Musikkonservatorium in Copenhagen. His further studies included work with Richie Beirach in New York and Néstor Marconi in Buenos Aires.
He began playing bandoneon in 2001. His musical language draws on jazz, classical music, Italian traditions, Nordic influences and Argentine music, connecting written composition with improvisation. His projects have included duo work with violinist Bjarke Falgren and guitarist Jeppe Holst.
On Andrea Marcelli’s The Invisible Child, Russo plays piano on In Other Words, recorded in Copenhagen in 2000 with Fabrizio Mandolini, Klavs Hovman and Marcelli. With Mandolini, he served as an executive producer of that recording project.
Serge Forté is a pianist, composer and arranger born in Tunis in 1960. He discovered jazz while studying musicology in Lyon and began combining teaching with performing in local groups. From 1988 to 1990 he taught at the CIM jazz school in Paris.
His musical projects have included the Latin jazz duo Vaïna, work with Michel Petrucciani, and concerts opening for Miles Davis and Stan Getz. His recordings include La Vie en Bleu, which explores French songs, Mosaïque and Jazz’in Chopin. His pianistic influences include Oscar Peterson, Thelonious Monk, Erroll Garner, Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, Phineas Newborn and Lennie Tristano.
Forté plays piano in the trio with Davide Petrocca and Andrea Marcelli on Caravan, recorded in Mönchengladbach in February 2007 and included in Marcelli’s The Invisible Child.
Andrea Marcelli is a drummer, clarinettist, composer and producer from Rome. His career has taken him to five continents. He has recorded extensively, including two solo albums of original music for Verve/PolyGram, and has also worked with Columbia TriStar, Polydor K.K., ESC-Medien, BHM, Soul Note, Jazzwerkstatt, Storyville and 55 Records. More than two hundred of his jazz compositions and soundtrack pieces have appeared on recordings. Two compositions from Beyond the Blue were included in Sher Music’s European Real Book and The Digital Real Book, Part 2.
His performances have taken him to the United States, Japan, India, Brazil, South Africa, Tunisia, Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Lebanon, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Russia, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Poland, Estonia, France, England, Spain, Italy, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Romania, Portugal and the Czech Republic.
He began his career in Rome as a freelance drummer, appearing on many RAI television programmes between 1982 and 1988, chiefly with Bruno Biriaco’s big band. In 1986 he graduated in classical clarinet and jazz composition and arranging at the Licinio Refice Conservatory in Frosinone. From 1984 to 1996 he produced, composed and recorded television soundtracks, particularly for Primrose/Flipper Music.
Work on his debut album, Silent Will, began in 1988 and took him to Los Angeles in 1989. The album was released by Verve/PolyGram and Polydor K.K. in 1989–90 and featured Wayne Shorter, Allan Holdsworth, Bob Berg, Mike Stern and John Patitucci. It was followed by Oneness, released by Verve/Polydor K.K. in Japan and Lipstick in Europe and the United States in 1992–94, with Ralph Towner, Allan Holdsworth, Mike Mainieri, Marc Johnson, Gary Thomas and Mitchel Forman.
Marcelli moved to the United States in 1989, spending eight years in Los Angeles and four in New York before returning to Europe in 2001. His work in jazz was recognised through the award of a US green card in the extraordinary-ability category. Active in the live and studio scenes of both cities, he collaborated with Wayne Shorter, Don Menza, Bob Mintzer, Mitchel Forman, Eddie Gomez, Allan Holdsworth, Dave Carpenter, Steve Tavaglione, Rick Margitza, Bob Sheppard, John Beasley, Alan Pasqua, Alphonso Johnson, Frank Gambale, Harold Land, L. Subramaniam and Doug Webb.
He has been based in Berlin since 2001, working internationally as a performer and educator with cultural organisations around the world. His collaborators have also included Ekkehard Wölk, Johannes Fink, Markus and Simon Stockhausen, Eberhard Weber, Dave Liebman, Thomas Clausen, Jesper Lundgaard, Palle Danielsson, Hiram Bullock, Jeff Berlin, Arild Andersen and Giorgio Crobu.
Andreas Markus is a bassist whose work is documented in the international sessions collected on Andrea Marcelli’s The Invisible Child. He played double bass in the ensemble recorded at the Rytmisk Musikkonservatorium in Copenhagen in April 2002, alongside Jarkko Hakala, Fabrizio Mandolini, Bjarne Roupé and Marcelli.
These recordings include Almost Spring in Holmen and Open Talk, for which he shares composition credits. He also arranged Olle Adolphson’s Nu har jag fått den jag vill ha. The sessions bring together original compositions, collective improvisation and an arrangement of Swedish song.
Billy Drewes is an American multi-instrumentalist and composer whose principal instruments include saxophones, clarinets and flutes. Born on Long Island in 1952, he moved to Boston in 1970 and to New York in 1975. His musical practice also encompasses drums, percussion and piano.
His recording career includes more than 150 albums and collaborations with musicians such as Joe Lovano, Bill Frisell, Paul Motian and Toninho Horta. His work in Boston included engagements with Tony Bennett, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Gary Burton; in New York he worked with Kenny Werner, John Scofield, Lionel Hampton, Eddie Palmieri and Woody Herman. Alongside performing and composing, he has given educational clinics.
On Andrea Marcelli’s The Invisible Child, Drewes plays soprano saxophone in Ola Forsell’s quartet and shares the composition credit for Vertikal, recorded in New Jersey in June 2000.
Bjarne Roupé is a Swedish jazz guitarist and composer whose career includes work in Denmark and collaborations across the Scandinavian jazz scene. He has performed with the Swedish group EGBA and appears in Michael Mantler’s recording projects.
On Andrea Marcelli’s The Invisible Child, Roupé plays guitar in the ensemble recorded at Copenhagen’s Rytmisk Musikkonservatorium in April 2002. He shares the composition credits for Almost Spring in Holmen and Open Talk, and participates in the recording of Olle Adolphson’s Nu har jag fått den jag vill ha and Marcelli’s title track. With Marcelli, he also served as artistic producer of these sessions.
Duke Ellington (1899–1974), born Edward Kennedy Ellington in Washington, DC, was an American composer, pianist and bandleader. His orchestra became internationally influential, and he wrote much of its repertoire, creating music around the distinctive sounds and personalities of its players.
His work ranged from songs and short instrumental pieces to extended suites and sacred concerts. His partnership with Billy Strayhorn became central to the orchestra’s musical identity. Across a career of more than fifty years, Ellington brought an exceptional sense of orchestral colour and form to jazz, leaving a body of music that continues to be performed in many different settings.
Ed Schuller is an American bassist and composer. He began playing bass at fifteen and entered the New England Conservatory in 1972, studying acoustic bass with Larry Wolf and composition and theory with Joe Maneri. His first US tour was with guitarist Pat Martino in 1975.
After moving to the New York area, he worked with Jaki Byard, Lee Konitz, Tim Berne, Paul Motian, Jim Pepper, Joe Lovano, Bill Frisell, Mal Waldron, Steve Lacy, Jeanne Lee and Billy Bang. His ensemble work has included Night Ark, the Mingus Epitaph Orchestra, the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra and the New England Ragtime Ensemble. He has also recorded as a leader, including projects with his Eleventh Hour Band.
Schuller plays bass on Vertikal in Andrea Marcelli’s The Invisible Child, sharing its composition credit with Ola Forsell, Billy Drewes and Marcelli.
Ekkehard Wölk is a German pianist, composer and arranger working across classical music and jazz. Born in Schleswig in 1967, he studied musicology in Hamburg and Berlin and classical piano in Hamburg and Lübeck, graduating in 1994. His training in jazz improvisation included work with Walter Norris, Dieter Glawischnig, Richie Beirach, John Taylor, Fred Hersch and Barry Harris.
Based in Berlin since 1995, he has developed a particular interest in live accompaniment and original scores for silent cinema. His work includes music for films by G. W. Pabst, F. W. Murnau and Ernst Lubitsch. With the trio Blanc et Noir, he combines piano, cello and percussion in improvised responses to film.
On Andrea Marcelli’s The Invisible Child, he performs in the Bach-inspired opening duo and in the three Blanc et Noir improvisations recorded with Kristoff Becker and Marcelli in Berlin in 2016.
Fabrizio Mandolini is an Italian saxophonist, composer, producer and educator. His early work included collaborations with Pierangelo Bertoli, Luca Carboni, Mimmo Locasciulli, Roberto Vecchioni, Goran Kuzminac, Tiromancino and Alex Britti.
Between 1993 and 2000 he pursued studies in composition, saxophone and sound technology in Los Angeles and New York. He also studied at Copenhagen’s Rytmisk Musikkonservatorium, completing its soloist programme. His Copenhagen period included collaborations with Bjarne Roupé and recordings such as La Spiga and Geometrie Semplici. After returning to Italy in 2005, he continued to work across jazz, popular music, experimental projects and film music. His Waterfalls quartet includes Massimiliano Coclite, Bruno Marcozzi and Emanuele Di Teodoro.
Mandolini plays saxophones in several Copenhagen sessions on Andrea Marcelli’s The Invisible Child, contributes as a producer and shares composition credits for Almost Spring in Holmen and Open Talk.
Giuseppe Verdi: (b Roncole, nr Busseto, 9/10 Oct 1813; d Milan, 27 Jan 1901). Italian composer. By common consent he is recognized as the greatest Italian musical dramatist.
Jarkko Hakala is a Finnish trumpeter and composer, born in 1977. He began with piano and accordion before choosing the trumpet, and studied at the Rytmisk Musikkonservatorium in Copenhagen. His musical interests include the expressive possibilities of trumpet tone, contrasting compositional forms and the interaction between acoustic instruments and electronics.
His work includes collaborations with Kari Ikonen, the group Rodent and the quartet Punainen Voima. He has also written for big band, including Some Small Pieces. In discussing his music, he has emphasised the importance of emotional communication and of leaving space for individual responses within a composition.
On Andrea Marcelli’s The Invisible Child, Hakala plays trumpet in the Copenhagen recordings of April 2002 and piano on Distances. He shares composition credits for Almost Spring in Holmen and Open Talk.
Johann Sebastian Bach: (b Eisenach, 21 March 1685, d Leipzig; 28 July 1750). Composer and organist. The most important member of the family, his genius combined outstanding performing musicianship with supreme creative powers in which forceful and original inventiveness, technical mastery and intellectual control are perfectly balanced. While it was in the former capacity, as a keyboard virtuoso, that in his lifetime he acquired an almost legendary fame, it is the latter virtues and accomplishments, as a composer, that by the end of the 18th century earned him a unique historical position. His musical language was distinctive and extraordinarily varied, drawing together and surmounting the techniques, the styles and the general achievements of his own and earlier generations and leading on to new perspectives which later ages have received and understood in a great variety of ways.
The first authentic posthumous account of his life, with a summary catalogue of his works, was put together by his son Carl Philipp Emanuel and his pupil J.F. Agricola soon after his death and certainly before March 1751 (published as Nekrolog, 1754). J.N. Forkel planned a detailed Bach biography in the early 1770s and carefully collected first-hand information on Bach, chiefly from his two eldest sons; the book appeared in 1802, by when the Bach Revival had begun and various projected collected editions of Bach’s works were underway; it continues to serve, together with the 1754 obituary and the other 18th-century documents, as the foundation of Bach biography.
Juan Tizol (1900–1984) was a Puerto Rican valve trombonist and composer whose music helped introduce Latin influences into the jazz orchestra. He received much of his early training from his uncle Manuel Tizol, a conductor in San Juan, and gained experience in concert, theatre and dance ensembles.
After moving to Washington, D.C., in 1920, he worked at the Howard Theater and later joined Duke Ellington’s orchestra in 1929. His precise playing, warm tone and skill in preparing instrumental parts made him an important member of the ensemble. His compositions include the jazz standards Caravan and Perdido. He also worked extensively with Harry James and other musicians on the West Coast.
Andrea Marcelli’s The Invisible Child includes Caravan, credited to Tizol and Ellington, performed by Serge Forté, Davide Petrocca and Marcelli.
Kristoff Becker is a cellist, composer and instrument maker whose work brings together acoustic performance, electronic processing, visual art and film. He began studying cello at eight and also worked professionally as a bassist in blues, jazz and soul. His background in carpentry led him to build an acoustic bass and later develop his own electric and electro-acoustic cello designs.
In 1994 he founded Trioglyzerin, creating live music for film in venues and festivals including Documenta in Kassel, the Goethe-Institut in Cairo and the Munich Philharmonie. His solo project Cellotronics began in 2001, using electronically shaped cello sounds; the album Iron Miller followed in 2010. Other projects include the electro-tango ensemble Tangotronics and the kOffcello instrument workshop.
Becker plays cello in Blanc et Noir with Ekkehard Wölk and Andrea Marcelli. Their Berlin performance of March 2016 supplies three collective improvisations on The Invisible Child.
Ola Forsell is a guitarist whose quartet is represented on Andrea Marcelli’s The Invisible Child. The recording documents a session at Hillside Studio in Englewood, New Jersey, on 24 June 2000, engineered by Dae Bennett.
Forsell performs with tenor saxophonist Billy Drewes, bassist Ed Schuller and drummer Andrea Marcelli. Their piece Vertikal is credited jointly to all four musicians, documenting the ensemble’s collaborative approach to composition and improvisation.
Olle Adolphson (1934–2004) was a Swedish singer, songwriter and composer whose work holds an important place in the Swedish visa tradition. He made his debut with the song collection Aubade in 1956 and became known that year for Okända djur, written with Beppe Wolgers. His first full-length album, En stol på Tegnér, appeared in 1962.
His songs include Trubbel, Gustav Lindströms visa, Siv och Gunne and Nu har jag fått den jag vill ha. He also interpreted Evert Taube, wrote and translated lyrics, and worked in poetry, visual art, documentary film and radio. His choral work includes Mässa på svenska språket, premiered in 1983.
Nu har jag fått den jag vill ha appears on Andrea Marcelli’s The Invisible Child in an arrangement by Andreas Markus.
The Invisible Child — Live and Unreleased 2000–2016 Album notes by Andrea Marcelli. English revised from the original booklet. The selections on The Invisible Child reflect some of the valuable musical experiences I have shared in recent years with artists from Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and the United States. The projects include musicians such as pianist Ekkehard Wölk, with whom I have worked regularly since 2002, as well as musicians with whom I played for a shorter period. Everyone was committed to sincere creativity. We shared an open…
Album notes by Andrea Marcelli. English revised from the original booklet.
The selections on The Invisible Child reflect some of the valuable musical experiences I have shared in recent years with artists from Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and the United States. The projects include musicians such as pianist Ekkehard Wölk, with whom I have worked regularly since 2002, as well as musicians with whom I played for a shorter period. Everyone was committed to sincere creativity.
We shared an open approach to music, giving priority to interaction and musical dialogue, often discovering aspects of the arrangements spontaneously and instinctively during performances. The result is an album bringing together original compositions, ballads, collective improvisations and personal arrangements of well-known pieces.
I am aware that drumming is often moving in an increasingly technical direction. For this project, however, I also needed to express other aspects of human sensitivity and my inner world, through deeply felt melodies and a sense of space. In some pieces we also found ways of celebrating life through rhythm and lively interaction.
This music carries messages of peace and profound respect for the sensitivity of human life. I hope you will give it a chance and feel the love we wish to convey. Here are some thoughts about my compositions on the album.
Colori di mare is dedicated to my third son, Julius Marcelli. While composing it, I kept returning to the memory of Julius seeing the sea for the first time. His amazement at the vastness of the Mediterranean’s dark-blue water moved me. Much of the piece was written during afternoons when my three sons were playing noisily together at home in Berlin. I have now written at least one tune for each of you: Beyond the Blue for Claudia, Welcome for Paul, Strawberry Moments for Anton and Colori di mare for the youngest, Julius. I hope you like them.
In Other Words describes the feeling of finding a different way to express what is inside me. The Invisible Child is the child within each of us whom other people often fail to see. I hope we can keep that child alive, as well as our ability to recognise the child within others. Distances is dedicated to the people we love and miss because they live far away.
All tracks appear courtesy of the musicians, engineers and organisations involved in the recordings, whose contributions are detailed below. My sincere appreciation and thanks go to these sensitive musicians and to everyone who helped bring the album to life. Each made a special and unique contribution.
1. Siciliano — Reflections on Bach
Music by Johann Sebastian Bach; arranged by Andrea Marcelli and Ekkehard Wölk.
Andrea Marcelli — clarinet; Ekkehard Wölk — piano.
Recorded live on 3 December 2007 by Peter Kautzsch at the Bachtage festival, St. Johannis Kirche, Würzburg, Germany.
2. Amami Alfredo · 3. Colori di mare
Amami Alfredo is from Giuseppe Verdi’s La traviata, arranged by Dana Gooley. Colori di mare is by Andrea Marcelli.
Dana Gooley — piano; Dave Zinno — bass; Andrea Marcelli — drums.
Recorded live on 10 October 2013 by Matthew McGarrell at Brown University’s Grand Recital Hall, Providence, Rhode Island, USA. The concert marked Verdi’s bicentenary during a tour for the Year of Italian Culture in the United States.
Thanks to Alberto Di Mauro and the Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles.
4. In Other Words — Four Trees
Music by Andrea Marcelli.
Fabrizio Mandolini — soprano saxophone; Paolo Russo — piano; Klavs Hovman — bass; Andrea Marcelli — drums.
Recorded on 31 October–1 November 2000 by Morten Büchert at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory’s Studio A, Holmen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Mixed by Morten Büchert, Fabrizio Mandolini and Andrea Marcelli. Producer: Andrea Marcelli. Executive producers: Fabrizio Mandolini, Paolo Russo and RMC. Four Trees was developed by Russo and Mandolini during the second semester of 2000 at the conservatory.
5. Almost Spring in Holmen · 6. Nu har jag fått den jag vill ha · 7. Open Talk · 8. The Invisible Child · 9. Distances
Almost Spring in Holmen and Open Talk are credited jointly to Jarkko Hakala, Fabrizio Mandolini, Bjarne Roupé, Andreas Markus and Andrea Marcelli. Nu har jag fått den jag vill ha is by Olle Adolphson, arranged by Andreas Markus. The Invisible Child and Distances are by Marcelli.
Tracks 5–8: Jarkko Hakala — trumpet and flugelhorn; Fabrizio Mandolini — soprano saxophone; Bjarne Roupé — twelve-string acoustic guitar, also electric guitar on The Invisible Child; Andreas Markus — bass; Andrea Marcelli — drums.
Distances: Fabrizio Mandolini — soprano saxophone; Jarkko Hakala — piano; Andreas Markus — bass; Andrea Marcelli — drums.
Recorded on 26–28 April 2002 by Søren Siig at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory’s Studio A, Holmen, Copenhagen. Mixed on 3–4 May 2002 at DR Radiohuset, Studio 3, Copenhagen, by Søren Siig, Lars Palsig and the band.
Producer: Ole Mathiesen. Artistic producers: Bjarne Roupé and Andrea Marcelli. Executive producers: Andreas Markus, Jarkko Hakala, Fabrizio Mandolini and RMC. The project was developed during the first semester of 2002 at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory.
10. Melankolie · 11. Verschwörung · 12. Böse Vorahnung — Blanc et Noir
Music jointly credited to Andrea Marcelli, Kristoff Becker and Ekkehard Wölk.
Andrea Marcelli — clarinet; Kristoff Becker — cello and effects; Ekkehard Wölk — piano and effects.
Recorded live on 27 March 2016 by Reza Poodat at Kunstfabrik Schlot, Berlin, Germany.
Thanks to John Kunkeler and the Kunstfabrik Schlot Jazz Club.
13. Vertikal — Ola Forsell Quartet
Music jointly credited to Ola Forsell, Billy Drewes, Ed Schuller and Andrea Marcelli.
Billy Drewes — soprano saxophone; Ola Forsell — electric guitar; Ed Schuller — bass; Andrea Marcelli — drums.
Recorded and mixed on 24 June 2000 by Dae Bennett at Hillside Studio, Englewood, New Jersey, USA. Produced and arranged by Ola Forsell.
14. Caravan — Andrea Marcelli Trio
Music by Juan Tizol and Duke Ellington.
Serge Forté — piano; Davide Petrocca — bass; Andrea Marcelli — drums.
Recorded live and mixed on 28 February 2007 by Christian Frentzen at Jazz Visions, BIS Zentrum, Mönchengladbach, Germany, during a European tour.
Thanks to Maria Lella and the Italian Cultural Institute of Cologne.
Marcelli’s original compositions Colori di mare, In Other Words, The Invisible Child and Distances are published by Silent Will Music / BMI.
Front- and back-cover paintings, oil on wood: Andrea Marcelli.
Black-and-white artwork: Andrea Marcelli.
Portrait photograph in the booklet: Gerhard Richter.
Production, design and art direction: OMK-Da Vinci.
Printed with the support of S.P.L.M., L’aulos di Marzia and EboliMusica.
Selected awards, reviews and interviews. Radio broadcasts and podcasts are listed separately below.
Take the “A” Train
“brilliant dialogues and musical interactions”
A positive review of Marcelli’s international collaborations, highlighting ensemble dialogue, his clarinet playing and the adventurous Blanc et Noir improvisations.
Read the review ↗ - Take the “A” Train![Dialogoi [Διάλογοι]: Johann Sebastian Bach reworked by Carlo Maria Barile](https://i0.wp.com/davinci-edition.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/753-New-Booklet-8-Pages.jpg?fit=768%2C768&ssl=1)
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