DA VINCI PUBLISHINGAxes Duo

Additional information

Artist(s)	Alessandro Chiappetta, Gianni Virone
Composer(s)	Bill Evans, Charles Mingus, Charlie Parker, Irving Berlin, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Spencer Williams, Thelonious Monk
Edition	Da Vinci Jazz
Format	1 Cd
Genre	Chamber, Instrumental
Instrumentation	Clarinet, Electric Guitar, Guitar, Tenor Saxophone
Period	Contemporary
Publication year	2026
EAN Code	7.46160919584

Description

My collaboration with guitarist Alessandro Chiappetta has lasted for over twenty years, a long musical journey characterized by research, experimentation, and a deep artistic connection. Over the years, we have developed a common language that has allowed us to explore different styles and sounds, while always keeping alive the desire to innovate and reinvent ourselves.
Through numerous concerts, recordings, and shared projects, we have refined our musical dialogue, finding a unique balance between saxophone and guitar. This synergy has led us to reinterpret jazz standards in our own way, experimenting with new harmonic and improvisational solutions.
Our experience together is not only the result of musical understanding but also of a solid friendship, which has made every performance a moment of authentic and inspired exchange. This album represents an important milestone in our artistic journey, a tribute to the passion and creativity that have accompanied us for two decades.
The choice of such a diverse repertoire stemmed from the desire to explore different improvisational directions and to fully express the potential of our duo. The saxophone-guitar formation gives these pieces, commonly referred to as “standards,” a new, more dynamic, and chamber-like character. The absence of the traditional rhythm section with bass and drums has pushed us to find alternative solutions for the accompaniments, constantly testing ourselves in a delicate balance between our parts.
“Axes” expresses our constant musical equilibrium, the search for harmony between sound, dynamics, and improvisation.

Gianni Virone

Artist(s)

Alessandro Chiappetta is a guitarist and composer. He has participated in numerous seminars with famous guitarists such as Jim Hall, Scott Henderson, Joe Diorio, Mick Goodrick, and John Scofield. Chiappetta has collaborated with various artists such as Andrea Aiace Ayassot, Enzo Zirilli, Luigi Bonafede, Andrea Allione, Ellade Bandini, Fabrizio Bosso, Miroslav Vitous, Gianluca Petrella, Rob Sudduth, Tineke Postma, George Garzone, Roberto Gatto, Larry Goldings, Alex Garnett, Quentin Collins, Riccardo Zegna, Paolo Fresu, Daniele Di Bonaventura, Alberto Tafuri, Ares Tavolazzi, Misha Mullov Abbado, and Rob Luft. In 2005, he was awarded a scholarship to attend the Berklee College of Music in Boston. In 2009, he won the Moncalieri Jazz Festival contest. He has recorded under his own name for the Philology Jazz Records label.

Gianni Virone (Saxophonist). He is native to Chieri (Turin, Italy). Saxophone player, arranger and composer since 2002, he worked with small groups, big bands/orchestras and recording as arranger, section player and soloist before playing his compositions with his own trio. His professional activities also include teaching saxophone, improvisation techniques, jazz harmony, composition/arranging and big band class in several schools. He graduated at “Conservatorio G.Verdi” in Turin with Furio Di Castri with the highest degree and attended several masterclasses in Italy and abroad with artists like Dave Liebman, Airto Moreira, Jerry Bergonzi, Enrico Rava, Gianluigi Trovesi, Steve Coleman, Ayn Inserto and many others. During the “Siena Jazz Summer Workshop 2002” he won the award named “Nuoro Jazz Workshop 2003”. The next year in Nuoro, he was selected to play at the “Berchidda Jazz Festival 2004”. In 2003, he also won the “Talens” competition for soloists organized by the “Istituto Musicale di Rivoli”. Thanks to them, he attended the Summer Workshop organized by the New School University of New York in Bassano Del Grappa where he was selected for a scholarship. He won the first edition of the national competition “Nuovi Talenti del Jazz Italiano” in 2004. The same year he was a finalist of the “Premio Nazionale Massimo Urbani”. As a big band composer, he was a finalist in several international contests like “Barga Jazz 2007” and “Scrivere in Jazz 2010 and 2014”. He collaborated with various big bands both as an arranger and section player (all saxes, clarinet, bass clarinet and flute) and he played also with: 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, Terrell Stanford, Eric Vloeimans, Maria Pia De Vito, Danilo Rea, Emanuele Cisi, John De Leo, Nguyèn Lè, Pietro Tonolo and many others. He is an endorser of the Italian saxophone factory Rampone & Cazzani since 2004.

Composer(s)

Charles (Jr) Mingus
(b Nogales, AZ, 22 April 1922; d Cuernavaca, Mexico, 5 Jan 1979). American jazz double bass player, pianist, composer and bandleader.

Charlie Parker
(b Kansas City, KS, 29 Aug 1920; d New York, 12 March 1955). American jazz alto saxophonist. He was one of the most important and influential improvising soloists in jazz, and a central figure in the development of bop in the 1940s. A legendary figure in his own lifetime, he was idolized by those who worked with him, and he inspired a generation of jazz performers and composers.

Irving Berlin
(b Mogilyov, 11 May 1888; d New York, 22 Sept 1989). American composer of Russian birth. The son of an impoverished Jewish cantor, he was taken to America at the age of five. His father died when he was 13, and a year later he ran away from home, rather than be a burden to his mother. He sang for pennies outside cabarets, became a chorus boy, a stooge in vaudeville, a song plugger and a singing waiter. Berlin had no formal musical training, but taught himself to play the piano, if only in one key, F. He began churning out songs, usually serving as his own lyricist, and finally caught America’s ear with Alexander’s Ragtime Band in 1911.

John Coltrane
(b Hamlet, NC, 23 Sept 1926; d New York, 17 July 1967). American jazz tenor and soprano saxophonist, bandleader and composer. He was, after fellow black jazz musician Charlie Parker, the most revolutionary and widely imitated saxophonist in jazz.

Sonny Rollins
(b New York, 9 Sept 1930). American jazz tenor saxophonist.

Spencer Williams (October 14, 1889 – July 14, 1965)[1] was an American jazz and popular music composer, pianist, and singer. He is best known for his hit songs "Basin Street Blues", "I Ain't Got Nobody", "Royal Garden Blues", "I've Found a New Baby", "Everybody Loves My Baby", "Tishomingo Blues", and many others.

Thelonious Monk
(b Rocky Mount, NC, 10 Oct 1917; d Englewood, NJ, 17 Feb 1982). American jazz pianist and composer. Although he remained long misunderstood and little known, both his playing and his compositions had a formative influence on modern jazz.