Giancarlo Schiaffini: trombone, euphonium, tuba | Sebi Tramontana: trombone. euphonium

Tracks 1-13 Recorded to Diapason Studio in Rome on May 2010 by Simone Satta. Tracks 14-16 Recorded Live in Rome on May 2010. Mixed by Lucio Leoni. Photo by A. Carpentieri. Art by Ale Sordi. Produced by Giancarlo Schiaffini and Sebi Tramontana.

Tracklist: 1. Quiet as a Bone [3.07]  2. As Tone lies Lost [1.54] 3. As the Heartless Ghost [5.21]  4. As they Dive [2.12]  5. As in my Bones [2.22] 6. This Shade [3.08] 7. Beautiful Roots [3.45] 8. Holy Leaves [3.00]  9. In the Wind’s Wakes [1.49] 10. As a Purple Sofa [3.20] 11. She was Still Stoned [4.10] 12. As an Empty Stone [2.18]  13. As a Strange Tongue [3.16]  14. About Sleepwalkers and Wind [5.06] 15. Stones and Deadwood [6.58] 16. Wind and Slap [4.30]

Wind & Slap is an intense dialogue

sincere and straightforward, made of sinuous complementary lines. Music is a fascinating intimate account, a succession of consecutive paintings that gain the hearing in a sequence – like smooth moves in a solitary suite. When it comes to live tracks, the dialogue, enhanced by a third element, goes at a faster pace and music is tinged with bluesy tones.

Giancarlo Schiaffini

Giancarlo Schiaffini, composer-trombonist-tubist, was born in Rome in 1942 and graduated in Physics at the University of Rome in 1965. Self-taught, he appeared as soloist in the first free-jazz concerts in Italy and subsequently presented his own compositions widely in the mid 1960’s.

In 1970 he studied at Darmstadt with Stockhausen, Ligeti and Globokar and formed the contemporary chamber ensemble Nuove Forme Sonore. He also worked with Franco Evangelisti in 1972 and has since collaborated with the Gruppo di Improvvisazione di Nuova consonanza until 1983. In 1975 he founded the Gruppo Romano di Ottoni performing Renaissance and Contemporary music. He is member of the well known Italian Instabile Orchestra.

For more that 30 years he taught at the Conservatorio “A. Casella” in l’Aquila and at the Summer Courses of Siena Jazz (instrument, improvisation, composition) He teaches also Contemporary Music, Jazz and Improvisation in Clinics and Seminars all over the World (like New York University, Monash University Melbourne, Hochschule Freiburg i. B., Acanthes-Villeneuve d’Avignon, UNEAC-Cuba).

He plays Contemporary Music, Jazz and Improvisation in concerts and International Festivals of Contemporary music and Jazz like Teatro alla Scala, Accademia di S. Cecilia, Biennale Musica di Venezia, Autunno Musicale di Como, Settembre Musica di Torino, IRCAM, Upic and Festival d’Automne (Paris), Reina Sofia (Madrid), Ars Musica (Bruxelles), Europa Jazz Festival du Mans, Jazz a Mulhouse, Tramway (Rouen), Wien Modern, Aspekte (Salzburg), Donaueschinger Musiktage, Moers, Tage fuer Neue Musik (Zurich), Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon), Alte Oper (Frankfurt), Berliner Philarmonie, Festival di Gibellina, FIMAV Victoriaville and New Music Concerts-Toronto (Canada), Nuova Consonanza, Bimhuis (Amsterdam), JazzYatra (India), Darmstadter Ferienkurse, Pomeriggi Musicali and Musica del nostro tempo di Milano, UNEAC (Cuba), Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Lincoln Center and Hunter College (New York).

Since 1988 Mr Schiaffini has been working with the singer and writer Silvia Schiavoni to the composition and performance of multi-media events inspired by literature and visual arts (Joyce, Gauguin, Ibsen, Boccioni, Ammaniti, Belli, and others), with images created by Ilaria Schiaffini. In 2000 he has been Composer in residence for the International Composers & Improvisers Forum Munich.

Mr. Schiaffini has collaborated with John Cage, Karole Armitage, Luigi Nono and Giacinto Scelsi in various performances and works for solo trombone or tuba have been dedicated to him by Scelsi, Nono, Amman, Alandia, Dashow, Villa-Rojo, Renosto, Laneri, Guaccero.

He has performed for the National Radios in Austria, Canada, Holland, Germany, Mexico, Italy, Spain Sweden, France as well as having recorded for BMG, Curci, Cramps, Edipan, Horo, Pentaflowers, Pentaphon, Red Records, Ricordi, Vedette. His music has been published by BMG, Curci, Edipan, Ricordi. The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz (Oxford University Press) and the Enciclopedia della Musica (Utet/Garzanti) dedicate an entry-word to Mr Schiaffini. His treatise on contemporary trombone techniques is published by Ricordi.

Sebi Tramontana

Sebi Tramontana, born 12 December 1960 in Rosolini, Sicily; trombone. Sebi Tramontana started playing guitar as a child and then moved to the soprano saxophone in the late 1970s. He switched to trombone in 1982 and during a radio production with Bruno Tommaso met Giancarlo Schiaffini, who convinced him to move to Rome and study with him at A. Casella Conservatorio in L’Aquila. In Rome he calloborated with Martin Joseph, Eugenio Colombio and Mario Schiano and in 1986 was a member of the New Talents Orchestra, performing at the Rocella Jonica Festival. He guested with Gruppo Romano Free Jazz for their 30th anniversary in 1996.

In 1987 he started a trio with Daniel Studer and Roberto Altamura which played at the Contraindicazione Festival in Rome and subsequently performed with Paul Rutherford, Barry Guy, Gerard Siracusa, Eugenio Colombo, Co Streiff and Martin Mayes. Tramontana was invited by Mario Schiano in 1988 to take part in the recording of Red and blue with Vladimir Tarasov and Vladimir Chekasin. In 1990 he completed his studies at A. Casella Conservatorio and joined the Italian Instabile Orchestra.

His first solo performance was in Rome in 1992 and this has been followed by performances in Zürich, Mulhouse, Clusone, Köln, Ruvo Di Puglia, Roccella, Jonica and Göttingen. In 1994 he was invited by Georg Gräwe to “Two Nights Of Random Acoustics” in Köln, subsequently joining the Georg Graewe Quintet and touring Europe. In 1998, he recorded a duo with Graewe for the Italian Splasc(h) label and in July 2003 became a member of the Georg Graewe new quintet, with Tobias Delius, Kent Kessler and Michael Vatcher. In 1996 Tramontana performed at the festival di Roccella Jonica with Barre Phillips, Michel Doneda and two dancers and then at the Victoriaville festival with Mario Schiano, Evan Parker, Paul Lovens and Barry Guy. He also appeared at the Empty Bottle in Chiacgo with Hamid Drake, Kent Kessler, Ken Vandermark and Mars Williams. In 1997 he performed the ‘Art Of Dialogue’ in Munich with Joëlle Léandre.

In 1999 he received a scholarship from the City of Munich for 6 week residence in the US and as a result visited Chicago (playing at the Empty Bottle festival and recording with Jim Baker, Fred Lonberg Holm, Michael Zerang, Lou Mallozi, Jeb Bishop, Ken Vandermark and Kent Kessler), San Francisco and New York. From 1999 to 2002 he was Artistic Director (with Ch.Hofig department of Culture of the City of Munich) of the festival “Come Sunday” and during this period he also founded the group XAXA with Phil Wachsmann, Mats Gustafsson and Paul Lovens.

In 2001 Tramontana undertook concerts and recordings in Chicago with the “Night People” project (a homage to Dickie Wells), a string quartet with Guiellermo Gregorio on clarinet and in duo with Jeb Bishop (Chicago defenders). He also began to play in duo with Paul Lovens (with the Buster Keaton The General project), performing in Munich, Ljubljana, Graz, Cologne, Regensburg, Rome, Maribor, Kassel and Göttingen. In 2002-03 he was a member of the Mats Gustafsson’s Nu Ensemble. In 2003 he appeared at the Banlieues Bleu Festival in Paris and Ghent (Belgium) with Joëlle Léandre’s European Quartett featuring Carlos Zingaro Paul Lovens and special guest Irène Schweizer. He played a duo with Léandre at the Ulrichsberg Kaleidophon and also performed in the Trombone Trio – in Ljubljana and Maribor – with Vinko Globokar and Johannes Bauer.

Since 1999 Sebi Tramontana has toured Germany and Austria with TV and movie actor Udo Wachtveitl and, since 2001, been a musician and actor with the Dance Company En Knap of Iztok Kovac from Ljubljana. He appeared in the film of Under my skin, directed by Saso Podgorsek, in 2004. 2004 also saw a collaboration with the electronic 48 nord group in Munich. In November 2004 he will exhibit his paintings in an exhibition in Chicago entitled Stop, Look & Listen: Artwork by Musicians alongside works by Pee Wee Russel, Hal Rammel, Han Bennink, Peter Brötzmann and others. In April 2005 he will tour with Joëlle Léandre and Paul Lovens and will be in Chicago to perform with a new project of Lou Mallozzi.

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