Sonia Schiavone: Wayne Shorter’s Legacy

Aldo Caramellino is a trombonist featured on Sonia Schiavone’s Wayne Shorter’s Legacy. He contributes to the horn arrangements alongside trumpeter Cesare Mecca and woodwind player Gianni Virone.

Cesare Mecca is a trumpeter featured on Sonia Schiavone’s Wayne Shorter’s Legacy. He appears in the ensemble alongside Aldo Caramellino, Gianni Virone, Fabio Gorlier, Stefano Profeta and Donato Stolfi.

Donato Stolfi is a drummer featured on Sonia Schiavone’s Wayne Shorter’s Legacy, a programme of vocal adaptations of Shorter’s music and original songs. He forms the rhythm section with pianist Fabio Gorlier and double bassist Stefano Profeta.

Fabio Gorlier studied piano at the Musical Institute of Alba under the guidance of Valter Protto and graduated from the Conservatory of Turin. Meanwhile, he approached jazz. He attended many courses about jazz piano and joined many seminars such as the International Seminars of Siena, Arquato Jazz and Nuoro Jazz. He graduated in Performing Arts from Turin University. He has been going through a remarkable concerts activity, and despite his being into jazz, he plays classical music and modern music too. He took part in many Italians festivals such as Torino Jazz Festival, MiTo, Dolomiti Ski Jazz, Europa Cantat, Venezia Jazz Festival and performed in some important theatres such as Teatro La Fenice in Venice or Auditorium “Giovanni Agnelli” in Turin. He also performed in Scotland, Ireland, France, Turkey, Australia, Croatia, Switzerland, Austria, Ecuador and China. He played with great musicians like Billy Cobham, Diane Schuur, Andy Sheppard, Furio di Castri, Kyle Eastwood, Stefano di Battista.

Sonia Schiavone. A Turinese singer, she began her studies of classical music at the age of seven, later continuing in the field of jazz music, by following many courses and workshops with internationally famous teachers, such as Sheila Jordan, Sandy Patton, Maria Pia De Vito, Bob Stoloff, Diana Torto, Garry Dial, John Riley, Mike Abene, John Taylor, Ben Allison, Stefano Battaglia and many others. She earned a degree in Architecture at the Politecnico of Turin with the highest score and with honours, and a degree in Jazz at the Conservatory Niccolò Paganini of Genoa with a dissertation about Wayne Shorter’s music, under the supervision of Paolo Silvestri. Over the years her versatile interests have encompassed voice and vocality in the broadest possible meaning; jazz, exploring all of its styles; gospel, operatic singing, a cappella vocal music; the development of childhood musicianship; harmonic singing; extemporaneous vocal improvisation. As a professional musician, she co-operated for twenty years with numerous jazz musicians. She performed in numerous festivals and seasons with her own eponymous projects. In the last twenty years, she has also actively and passionately focused on musical education. She has been awarded numerous prizes and honours at singing competitions of jazz, pop and gospel music, both as a performer and as a songwriter, including a First Prize at the “Gospel Showcase 2002”, during the Prima Rassegna Internazionale di Gospel, Blues, Spiritual & Black Music "Gospel in Castelbrando" in Cison di Valmarino (TV), organized by Cheryl Porter; First Prize at the “Talents 2002” Competition, in the section dedicated to jazz singing, organized by the Istituto musicale di Rivoli (Turin; the Diploma of Honour at the TIM Torneo Internazionale di Musica, Moncalieri (Turin), section Jazz; in 2012 she was a finalist at the XII Concorso Internazionale “Scrivere in Jazz” in Sassari – section Singing; in 2017 she was a finalist at the "19° Biella Festival Autori e Cantautori" with her original work "In viaggio".

Stefano Profeta began his musical studies at the age of nine with classical guitar; later he studied double bass at the State Conservatory of Music in Alessandria graduating with honors in double bass jazz and in Jazz Music, Polular and Improvised Music.
After a few stays in India he began to study sitar and rhythmic forms related to tabla, then deepening his knowledge of Indian music by following the courses of the Center for Oriental and Middle Eastern Studies in Turin.
Numerous are his collaborations in the jazz field, including those with John Riley, Alberto Mandarini, Kyle Gregory, Gianluigi Trovesi, Gianni Cazzola, Sandro Gibellini, Maria Pia De Vito, Joe Magnarelli and many others.
In addition to jazz, he has often worked in studio recordings and pop music tours.
He has, to his credit, a discography of 23 Cds, including jazz, pop, classical and ethnic music productions. He has played in tours and festivals in Italy, Spain, France, Croatia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay.

Gianni Virone is a saxophonist, arranger and composer from Chieri, near Turin, Italy. Professionally active since 2002, he has worked with small ensembles, big bands and orchestras, and in recording sessions as an arranger, section player and soloist. He also performs his own compositions with his trio. His teaching encompasses saxophone, improvisation, jazz harmony, composition, arranging and big-band performance.

He graduated with the highest marks and honours from the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Turin, studying with Furio Di Castri. He attended masterclasses in Italy and abroad with musicians including Dave Liebman, Airto Moreira, Jerry Bergonzi, Enrico Rava, Gianluigi Trovesi, Steve Coleman and Ayn Inserto. He received scholarships at Siena Jazz in 2002 and Nuoro Jazz in 2003, where he was also recognised as the best student. Following the Nuoro workshop, he was selected to perform at the 2004 Berchidda Jazz Festival.

In 2003 he won the Talens competition for jazz soloists organised by the Istituto Musicale di Rivoli, and attended the New School University’s summer workshop in Bassano del Grappa, where he was selected for a scholarship. He won the first national Nuovi Talenti del Jazz Italiano competition in 2004 and was a finalist that year in the Premio Nazionale Massimo Urbani. His writing for large jazz ensembles reached the finals of Barga Jazz in 2007 and Scrivere in Jazz in 2010 and 2014.

As both arranger and section player, he has worked with several big bands, playing saxophones, clarinet, bass clarinet and flute. His collaborators have included Paolo Fresu, Furio Di Castri, Roberto Gatto, Gianni Basso, John Riley, Fabrizio Bosso, Flavio Boltro, Javier Girotto, Rita Marcotulli, Scott Hamilton, Dusko Gojkovic, Jimmy Cobb, Philip Harper, Terell Stafford, Eric Vloeimans, Maria Pia De Vito, Danilo Rea, Emanuele Cisi, John De Leo, Nguyên Lê and Pietro Tonolo. He has been an endorser of the Italian saxophone maker Rampone & Cazzani since 2004.

Shorter, Wayne
(b Newark, NJ, 25 Aug 1933). American jazz tenor and soprano saxophonist and composer. He began playing the clarinet at the age of 16, then changed to the tenor saxophone. From 1952 he studied music at New York University (1956, BME) and played in a local band. He performed briefly with Horace Silver in 1956 before being drafted, and in 1958 he joined Maynard Ferguson’s group, in which he first met Joe Zawinul. Shorter then began an important association with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers (1959–64), ultimately serving as the band’s music director. After a brief period of rest and work on his own recordings he joined Miles Davis’s quintet in September 1964. He remained with the group until 1970, taking up the soprano saxophone in late 1968 as Davis experimented with electronic instruments and new ensembles, though during the same period he recorded regularly as a leader. Late in 1970, with Zawinul, he founded Weather Report, which the two men continued to lead into the 1980s. Shorter also recorded an acclaimed album presenting Milton Nascimento (1974) and returned to acoustic jazz when he toured and recorded with Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, Freddie Hubbard and Tony Williams as V.S.O.P. (1976–7). From the mid-1970s he has devoted his time equally to playing tenor and soprano saxophones. In 1985 he greatly reduced his activities with Weather Report, concentrating instead on recording, making international tours with his new group and appearing in reunion concerts with many of his colleagues from the 1960s, most notably Hancock. He also performed in the film Round Midnight (1986). In 1988, with Carlos Santana, he led a Latin jazz-rock group which toured internationally. He toured further with Hancock in the 1990s.