Mauro Ottolini, trombone, bass trumpet, shells (caxixi)
Vanessa Tagliabue Yorke, voice
Thomas Sinigaglia, accordion
Marco Bianchi, classical guitar, haitian guitar, baritone guitar
Giulio Corini, double bass
Valerio Galla, percussions
Gaetano Alfonsi, drums
Mauro Ottolini
Mauro Ottolini is one of Italy’s most important and creative musicians. He collaborates as an arranger and instrumentalist with leading names in the international jazz, pop, and black music scenes.
In Italy, he has worked extensively with Enrico Rava and Franco D’Andrea, and he continues to collaborate with the renowned singer-songwriter Vinicio Capossela. Mauro Ottolini has played and recorded with Kenny Wheeler, Dave Douglas, Paolo Fresu, Trilok Gurtu, Stefano Bollani, Jan Garbarek, Carla Bley, Fabrizio Bosso, Frank Lacy, Steve Swallow, Tony Scott, Han Bennink, Maria Schneider, Steve Turre, and many of the finest figures in the soul and R&B world, including Grace Jones, Gino Vannelli, Amii Stewart, and Joe Bowie.
In 2012, he won the prestigious TOP JAZZ award as the best Italian jazz musician, consistently ranking among the top Italian trombonists and arrangers.
He has recorded over 400 albums, including thirty as a leader, serving as composer, soloist, multi-instrumentalist, conductor, and arranger.
Ottolini’s unique research on marine shells has led him to transform them into wind instruments with a singular and unmistakable sound. This innovative work culminated in the 2019 album SEA SHELL – Music for Shells, featuring an entire orchestra of shells he has collected over the years, creating a truly unique musical experience.
In the same year, a new species of mollusk was discovered and cataloged by the Malacological Museum of Cupra Marittima. It was named “Turritella ottolinii” in honor of Mauro Ottolini and his extraordinary skill in playing shell instruments.
He has been appointed Cultural Ambassador for UNESCO in the Veneto region in recognition of his artistic and innovative contributions to music.
Vanessa Tagliabue Yorke
Vanessa Tagliabue Yorke is a jazz singer and sound language experimenter, known for her dramatic intensity and vocal versatility, which she brings to highly original recording projects alongside some of the most prominent Italian musicians. A sculptor and painter, she graduated with top honors from the Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti in Milan and the Conservatorio “Lucio Campiani” in Mantua. As a composer and arranger of her own projects, she weaves together different musical and linguistic worlds in a synthesis that London critic Chris May has described as “Art Music”.
A scholar of early jazz, she began her artistic journey in the American Midwest. In 2012 she was the only international guest at the festival A Tribute to Bix (Wisconsin, USA), which led to the album Racine Connection released by Rivermont Records. That same year she began her long-standing collaboration with Mauro Ottolini’s Sousaphonix, recording four albums. Since 2013 she has also appeared regularly at the Club Tenco Festival in Sanremo, performing at the Teatro Ariston alongside leading Italian songwriters such as Carmen Consoli, Roberto Vecchioni, Nada, and Morgan.
Her Italian recording debut, Contradanza (2015, Abeat Records), attracted wide critical attention for its innovative blend of free jazz and rock. This was followed by We Like It Hot (2016), Nocturnes (2017, dedicated to French music of the 20th century and to Edith Piaf), and her participation in Fra la via Aurelia e il west (Ala Bianca, 2017), featuring the Sanremo Symphony Orchestra. In 2017, on the 50th anniversary of Luigi Tenco’s death, she was invited by Club Tenco and RAI as a soloist in a concert broadcast live on Rai5, later released on the album Tenco come ti vedono gli altri.
Recent highlights include Storyville Story (Parco della Musica Records, 2020), a project with Fabrizio Bosso and Mauro Ottolini exploring the repertoire of William Christopher Handy, and Diverso Lontano Incomprensibile (Artesuono, 2020), where her compositions and arrangements intertwine oriental influences with the spectral aesthetics of 20th-century French music. In 2022 she released The Princess Theatre (Azzurra Music), an intense reflection on the song form, recorded in duo with Paolo Birro and featuring Fabrizio Bosso on two original tracks.
She has performed at Italy’s most prestigious festivals – Umbria Jazz, MITO, Time in Jazz, Verona Jazz, Torino Jazz Festival, Vicenza Jazz, Ravello Jazz Festival, Crossroads, Treviso Suona Jazz – as well as internationally at Umbria Jazz China and the Italian Festival of Thailand. Her closest collaborations include Fabrizio Bosso, Paolo Birro, Francesco Bearzatti, Enrico Terragnoli, Michele Rabbia, Giovanni Maier, Salvatore Maiore, Vincenzo Vasi, and Ethan Uslan.
Her recordings have received critical acclaim and reviews in L’Unità, Il Manifesto, La Repubblica, Il Giornale della Musica, Musica Jazz, Jazzit, Suono, along with numerous features on Radio Rai Tre.