Claudio Fasoli

Claudio Fasoli (born 29 November 1939) is an Italian jazz - saxophonist (tenor and soprano saxophone) and composer of modern jazz.

Born in Venice, he now lives in Milan, Italy.

After a long apprenticeship and many sessions with various prominent musicians, he achieved popularity in the '70s playing with Perigeo Quintet, among whose other artists were Giovanni Tommaso and Franco D'Andrea.

This group performed throughout Europe and also overseas, and with it Fasoli gained considerable experience both as soloist and composer.

When Perigeo disbanded in 1978, he became leader of his own groups, putting together mostly trios or quartets, with Aldo Romano, Bill Elgart, Bobo Stenson, Henri Texier, Jean-François Jenny Clark, Kenny Wheeler, Lee Konitz, Manfred Schoof, Mick Goodrick, Palle Danielsson, and Tony Oxley.

He introduced his own compositions in concerts and festivals around the world.

In addition to his native Italy, he has performed in France, Switzerland, Jugoslavia, Poland, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Spain, Finland, Luxembourg, Denmark, Sweden, England, Ireland, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, and the United States.

He played in the first performances of the Grande Orchestra Nazionale in Italy and in the Lydian Sound Orchestra.

He has also participated with and conducted the European Music Orchestra in live and studio performances and has played with the Manfred Schoof International Band.

He contributed also to the Giorgio Gaslini Quintet and other bands.

Fasoli adapts well to various musical settings but has developed his own solo style and a recognizable, always-developing, sound and compositional approach.

Acclaimed even abroad, he continues to work with the best Italian and foreign musicians.

Since the Siena International Jazz Clinics was founded in 1978, Fasoli has been responsible for the classes in tenor and soprano saxophones and the master classes in improvisation.

He founded the saxophone courses at Milan's Civic School of Jazz and has taught jazz at National Conservatories.

He conducts clinics throughout Italy and abroad.

He has been Artistic Director of Padua Jazz Festival (2003–2010).

His name appears in music and jazz dictionaries in Italy and abroad.

In 2010 he created the project "Inner Sound Of Seven Hours" for quartet with voice, inspired by fragments from "HorÆ CanonicÆ" by Wystan Hugh Auden.

Nat Hentoff, one of America's leading music critics, wrote of him, "What strikes me most about Claudio Fasoli is the clarity and individuality of the narrative; he really 'speaks' with his horns, his reeds. One cannot confuse him with anyone else. He plays with an intensity of feeling - from reflection to exultation - that has a powerful immediacy. There is no ostentation, he does not play notes without a story connecting them. Then there is Fasoli the composer. His writing has a distinguishable form. His lines are clear and strong, and he knows the expressive value of leaving room for breath, for interval."

In 2017, Claudio Fasoli's book "Inner sounds. In the orbit of jazz and free music", published by Agenzia X. The forewords are by philosopher Massimo Donà, musicologist Carlo Boccadoro, and Franco Caroni, president of Siena Jazz; the book also contains many other contributions, including those by Ashley Kahn, Stefano Zenni, and Flavio Caprera (in 2020 the second expanded and updated edition came out).

In 2018, a referendum held by the magazine "Musica Jazz" (n.806, January 2018) among music critics awarded Claudio Fasoli as Musician of the Year.

In the film "Voices" (awarded in over twenty international festivals), director Alberto Nacci dedicates one of the portraits to Claudio Fasoli.

In 2018 the film Claudio Fasoli's Innersounds by Angelo Poli and Carlodavid Mauri is also released.

Written by Angelo Poli and Marc Tibaldi.

Directed by Angelo Poli.

Music by Claudio Fasoli.

The film is a journey into the creative processes of jazz musician Claudio Fasoli, a journey in stages, an intimate and unedited black and white portrait.

Fasoli's voice reveals his thoughts as he speaks directly to each individual viewer and helps us to enter the evolution of the creative process, and its key concepts such as time, improvisation, silence, subtraction, risk, unpredictability.

The film follows the entire process of creation of a new composition by Claudio Fasoli: idea, composition, sharing with the group, improvisation.

The composition and the chords drawn on the piano, played with the sax, the musical arrangement with the Quintet in the rehearsal room, up to the live performance.

The editing is marked by the absolute respect of Claudio's music, for this reason "Claudio Fasoli's Innersounds" as well as being a portrait of a great of jazz, aspires to be in itself a true jazz film.

The film was awarded Best International Documentary at Västerås Film Festival 2018, Prisma International Film Festival, Parma Film Festival, and other international festivals, including: Short Sounds Film Festival, Bournemout; Doc'n Roll Film Festival, London; Sonic Scene Music Film Fest, Trani; The Summershort Filmfestival, Munich.

In January 2022, the historic magazine "Musica Jazz" awarded "Next" (Abeat records) as the best cd of 2021.