| La Dolce Vita (Movie-Ing Jazz) is the first of two CDs by the Tommaso/Rava Quartet based on Italian film soundtracks. This CD unites Tommaso with trumpeter Rava, pianist Stefano Bollani and drummer Roberto Gatto.
Says Tommaso: When I was asked to record this album, I immediately called Enrico Rava. He is the only trumpet player in the world who could have reinterpreted the great music of the Italian cinema. His sound, his poetic and ironic vein have made this work really unique.”
La Dolce Vita is a gift of personal interpretation by these great musicians of some of the most famous themes from Italian cinema. Produced by CAM Jazz, the CD contains over one hour of music recorded by the quartet in Rome, including nine cover versions from various film soundtracks and two original compositions created for the CD – “Cinema Moderno” composed by Tommaso and “Il Sogno Di Hitchcock” composed by Rava. La Dolce Vita (Movie-Ing Jazz) was the winner of the 2001-2002 Jazziz Critic’s Picks in Europe.
A double-bass player, composer, arranger and an orchestra conductor, Tommaso is one of the most penetrating figures in the panorama of Italian jazz. Born in Lucca (in the Tuscan region of Italy), he began his jazz career in 1957 with the group "Quartetto di Lucca". Between the years 1959 and 1960, he spent some time in New York and in 1967 he moved to Rome. During his career he collaborated with some of the greatest names in jazz such as Dexter Gordon, Gil Evans, Chet Baker, Joe Henderson, Don Byas, to name a few. In the seventies, he founded the Perigeo, the most important Italian jazz-rock music group. Since 1986, he managed the "Umbria Jazz Clinics" seminars, a joint action with the Berklee College of Music and taught jazz music at the "Conservatorio Statale di Musica Francesco Morlacchi" in Perugia. In addition to composing soundtrack scores for film and television, he also produces and arranges pop music, collaborating with famous artists like Riccardo Cocciante, Mina, Gianni Morandi, Rino Gaetano, Ivan Graziani, Anna Oxa, Lucio Dalla and Sammy Davis Jr. He is the only Italian musician to have been voted top five in three categories (Album of the Year, Musician of the Year and Group of the Year) by Music Jazz magazine's annual critics survey. |