Stefano Bollani

Stefano Bollani (born 5 December 1972) is an Italian composer, pianist and singer, also active as a writer and a television presenter.

He has worked with such musicians as Gato Barbieri, Chick Corea, Bill Frisell, Sol Gabetta, Richard Galliano, Trilok Gurtu, Chuco Valdes, Egberto Gismonti, Lee Konitz, Bobby McFerrin, Pat Metheny, Caetano Veloso, Phil Woods, Hector Zazou and has recorded more than 15 albums with trumpeter Enrico Rava.

Bollani has performed with several symphonic orchestras (Filarmonica della Scala, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, among others) and with directors such as Riccardo Chailly, Daniel Harding, Kristjan Järvi, Zubin Mehta, Gianandrea Noseda and Antonio Pappano.

He has also played with Italian pop-rock artists and has participated in and hosted TV and radio shows.

Currently, he has published 49 albums alone (31 studio).

Born in Milan to Roberto Bollani, from Lombardy, and a Venetian mother from Rovigo, Maddalena, he has a sister named Manuela born in Alba, Piedmont.

He grew up in Florence where he began his studies in the Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini at the age of 6 and where he graduated in 1993 under the supervision of Maestro Antonio Caggiula.

At 15 he had already started to perform professionally.

After a short experience touring as a pop artist and after playing in the pop-rock band La Forma, since the mid-nineties he established himself in the jazz scene.

A crucial event for Bollani's career was meeting Enrico Rava, who he started playing with in 1996.

Together they have performed in hundreds of concerts and have recorded more than 15 albums, the first of which are Certi angoli segreti (1998), Rava Plays Rava and Shades of Chet (1999).

Around these years Bollani also started playing with some of the most important Italian jazz artists: Paolo Fresu, Roberto Gatto and Enzo Pietropaoli.

In 1998 he recorded his first album Gnòsi delle fànfole, based on poems by Fosco Maraini, with singer-songwriter Massimo Altomare.

In the same year, he played for the first time with American saxophonist Lee Konitz in TenderLee for Chet, and won the prize for best new talent awarded by Italian magazine Musica Jazz.

In 1999 two more albums came out: Mambo Italiano – recorded with one of his most trusted collaborators, double bass player Ares Tavolazzi – and L'orchestra del Titanic, recorded with the orchestra that gave the name to the album: Antonello Salis, Riccardo Onofri, Raffaello Pareti and Walter Paoli, besides Bollani himself.

He also participated in Passatori, by the French accordionist Richard Galliano, with the Solisti dell'Orchestra della Toscana.

Bollani's collaborations in the first years were not limited to jazz, but included works with Italian pop artists such as Elio, Irene Grandi, Marco Parente, Peppe Servillo, Bobo Rondelli, Banda Osiris, Bandabardò, Massimo Ranieri.

In the meantime, the partnership with Enrico Rava kept flourishing and together they released Montréal Diary/B (2001),Tati (2005), The Third Man (2007) and New York Days (2009).

Furthermore, Bollani featured in several albums and international tours where he played with such musicians as Gianni Basso, Gianluca Petrella, John Abercrombie, Jeff Ballard, Larry Grenadier, Paul Motian, Mark Turner, Phil Woods, Gato Barbieri and Pat Metheny.

Between 2002 and 2006, Bollani recorded six albums for French Label Bleu.

The series began with Les Fleurs bleues (2002), inspired by the novel by Raymond Queneu and recorded with Scott Colley and Clarence Penn, followed by Småt Småt (2003) highlighted by English magazine Mojo as one of the best albums of the year.

During these same years, Japanese label Venus Records released four albums by the “Stefano Bollani Trio” formed with Ares Tavolazzi on contrabass and Walter Paoli on drums: Black and Tan Fantasy (2002), Volare (2002), Falando de amor (2003), Ma l'amore no (2004) and I'm in the Mood for Love (2007).

At the same time Bollani began an intense collaboration with contrabass player Jesper Bodilsen and drummer Morten Lund, with whom he formed the “Danish Trio”.

Two notable collaborations occurred in 2003: one with Russian singer Sainkho Namtchylak (Who Stole the Sky?), and one with Hector Zazou who invited Bollani to play alongside him in Strong Currents (other guests were Laurie Anderson, Jane Birkin and Ryuichi Sakamoto).

In a three-year span, Stunt label released Mi ritorni in mente (2003), Close to You (2004, with Danish singer Katrine Madsen) and Gleda: Songs from Scandinavia (2005).

In 2004 Concertone was released, the first album Bollani recorded with a symphonic orchestra – the Orchestra della Toscana directed by Paolo Silvestri – based on which choreographer Mauro Bigonzetti crafted a ballet for the Stuttgart Ballet.

In the same year Bollani also won the New Star Award, conferred for the first time to a non-US musician by Japanese magazine Swing Journal.

The last of the four albums was released in 2006, titled I visionari and recorded with the homonym band formed by Mirko Guerrini, Nico Gori, Ferruccio Spinetti and Cristiano Calcagnile, with special features by Mark Feldman, Paolo Fresu and Petra Magoni (at the time his wife ).

In 2006, Piano Solo was released and the Italian magazine Musica Jazz awarded it the best album of the year and nominated Bollani for the best Italian musician of the year.

The following year, Bollani tackled classical repertoire with the Filarmonica '900 of the Teatro Regio of Turin, directed by Jan Latham-Koenig, by recording the Concert champêtre, Les Animaux Modèles, and the Improvisations number 13 and 15 by Francis Poulenc.

A few months later BollaniCarioca came out, recorded with important Brazilian artists.

In 2007 he played a piano in a Rio de Janeiro favela: only Antônio Carlos Jobim had done this before.

In the same year he won the Hans Koller European Jazz Prize as the best European musician of 2007 and was listed among the five most important musicians of the year by American website All About Jazz alongside Dave Brubeck, Ornette Coleman, Charles Mingus and Sonny Rollins.

Finally, in 2009, ECM published Stone in the Water.

Around this time, Bollani appeared again in the Italian pop music scene, but the most relevant collaboration was that started in 2009 with jazz pianist Chick Corea, with whom Bollani toured through various Italian cities showcasing a totally new duo performance.

The live album Orvieto is based on these performances.

On 15 July 2010, Bollani received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music.

On September 14, the award was presented on the main stage of the Umbria Jazz Festival in Perugia, Italy by Berklee's former vice president of academic affairs, Larry Monroe.

The same year Rhapsody in Blue – Concerto in F was released.

The album includes three classical works by George Gershwin played by the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra directed by Riccardo Chailly: Rhapsody in Blue (in the piano and jazz band version by Paul Whiteman), Piano Concerto in F, and Rialto Ripples.