Set 1
FRANCO D'ANDREA trio

Franco D'Andrea piano
Gabriele Evangelista double bass
Roberto Gatto drums

Franco D’Andrea returns to Bergamo Jazz with a new trio, or rather a supertrio. Alongside the highly respected leader, the line-up includes the double bass player Gabriele Evangelista, a regular partner of Enrico Rava and Stefano Bollani, and the drummer Roberto Gatto, a veteran of endless musical battles to the sound of cymbals and drums. The three have recorded together for Parco della Musica Records Something Bluesy and More, an album that includes immortal tracks such as “St. Louis Blues”, “Caravan” by Duke Ellington, “A Love Supreme” by Coltrane and “Soft Winds” by Benny Goodman, as well as an improvised track with the unequivocal title of “Exploration”. The idea behind D’Andrea’s meeting with Evangelista and Gatto was to bring into the trio formula the rhythmic and intervallic inventions, as well as his sense of freedom, typical of the pianist’s music, and to confront a repertoire little frequented by this type of formation. From blues to early jazz, to its more advanced forms and to pure invention, D’Andrea retrieves from the origins of jazz a bluesy feeling that permeates the poetics of the trio and gives life to a free, joyful and extremely communicative music.
Born in Merano in 1941, Franco D’Andrea began playing the piano at the age of 17, having previously dedicated himself to trumpet, soprano sax and clarinet. His professional activity began in 1963, with Nunzio Rotondo at the RAI in Rome. In 1964 he recorded his first record with Gato Barbieri, with whom he collaborated for two years. In 1968 he formed the Modern Art Trio with Franco Tonani and Bruno Tommaso. In 1972 he joined the progressive jazz group Perigeo. In 1978 he formed a quartet with Tino Tracanna, Attilio Zanchi and Gianni Cazzola. The group was joined in 1986 by percussionist Luis Agudo, in 1989 by percussionist Naco and trombonist Glenn Ferris, and in 1991 by vibraphonist Saverio Tasca. Since the early 1990s, there has been a succession of groups of different sizes: Current Changes, a trio with trumpeter David Boato and Naco, Franco D’Andrea Eleven, a formation expanded to 11 elements, various trios and quartets, also with the addition of electronic sounds. Also worth mentioning is his fruitful association with Enrico Rava. He has over 160 recordings to his credit. All of this is always under the banner of that expressive rigour that has always distinguished the pianism and music of D’Andrea, a jazz musician in one piece, capable of renewing himself while always remaining true to himself.

Set 2
MELISSA ALDANA quartet

Melissa Aldana tenor sax
Pablo Held piano
Pablo Menares double bass
Kush Abadey drums

If the saxophone is increasingly becoming a female instrument, it is thanks to young female musicians whose talent is recognised worldwide. Among them is the Chilean Melissa Aldana, whose rare ability to balance a brilliant technique with a rich emotional palette has been emphasised by the well-known American critic Nate Chinen.
Born in Santiago, Melissa Aldana was the first woman to win the prestigious Thelonious Monk Competition for saxophonists in 2013 and is now a permanent fixture at the top of the Down Beat referendums.
A child of the arts, Melissa Aldana was initiated into music by her father, a professional saxophonist well known in Chile. In 2005, she was noticed by pianist Danilo Perez who invited her to play at the Panama Jazz Festival and to participate in auditions to study at American schools. Hence her studies at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she graduated in 2009 and where she was tutored by Joe Lovano. The rest has been a high-level musical career consecrated by joining the stable of one of the most famous record labels, Blue Note, for which she signed the 12 Stars album in 2022, followed in 2024 by Echoes of the Inner Prophet, a personal journey with a particularly introspective point of view. The inner prophet è my now more mature self, which possesses the knowledge, insight and truth about what my path should be, specifies the saxophonist herself.
Although the influence of Sonny Rollins on Melissa Aldana's playing is tangible, it is the aura of Wayne Shorter that dominates in Echoes of the Inner Prophet, particularly in the way composition and improvisation provide constant surprises, sometimes challenging, while maintaining an enjoyable charm. Her interest in Shorter's music, while enduring, has grown in recent years, reflecting the themes of maturation and endless discovery that the Chilean musician explores in Echoes: «As I get older, I think I can identify with his music and his playing in a way that I perhaps couldn't when I was younger,> she comments. For Melissa Aldana, this means absorbing Shorter's lessons on the use of space, storytelling, the way of communicating, the way of painting: when I think of Wayne, I think of how to use colours, nuances».