Nicola C. Salerno: Italian musician from Verona, header of many music project like Art Erios, Logo, Niù Abdominaux Dangereux and Radar. Also known as Ennio Bastach, Nijk Salerchia, Nic de la Salle, Nicola Cosmo. He is the brother of Nini Salerno.-Discogs (https://www.discogs.com/artist/1236707-Nicola-Salerno-2)
5/7/2025

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"Roberto Zorzi is to be considered a highly unique character on the Italian music scene: in part because, as far as I know, there are no other guitarists named Zorzi (although there are plenty of Roberto's, but we won't go into that). What matters most is how he plays his guitar, where he chooses to play, the musical acquaintances he has and the number of excellent restaurants he has taken me to.

Well, enough of the idle banter, let's get down to the more serious stuff. Roberto, born and raised in Verona and a passionate lover of improvised music (to such an extent that he took part in the organisation of the Verona Jazz Festival) is in the fourth decade of his life (and is often heard to say that he would like to remain there for a very long time) and can boast having collaborated with a very worthy set of musicians who play music without frontiers. In recent years he has involved high calibre people such as Tim Berne, Bobby Previte, Elliot Sharp, Fred Frith, Ernst Rejiseger, Trilok Gurtu, Franco D'Andrea in unimaginable projects, where the love for spontaneous creation and for electronic music has often been coupled with reminiscences of the formative years, unpredictably influenced by the ecumenical rock of King Crimson, the blues rock of Cream and Led Zeppelin, of Pink Floyd: visionaries of Ummagumma.

The unison of these great musicians of the British music scene was extremely influential thanks also to the long lived love affair with Ornette Coleman. Other sources of inspiration have become Golden Palominos, Massacre, Henry Kaiser (with the help of whom Roberto Zorzi has deepened his knowledge of the creative use of digital effects with the guitar). As a member of the band NAD Niù Abdominaux Dangereux, Zorzi has participated in the recording of the album Ghosts. The album already showed mature signs of his poetry, which is in tune with the other members of the band and is emphasised by such guests as Sharp, Frith, Kaiser and Denardo Coleman. Zorzi has brought to the recording studio a very varied group of artists such as Franco D'Andrea, Albert Mangelsdorff, Trilok Gurtu, Ernst Rejiseger, Paolo Damiani and Roberto Ottaviano: The result being the album Similado. "Similado". "The Bang" dates back to 1990. This CD was recorded live during the festival held at Roccella Jonica by a group of artists including Berne, Previte, Mark Feldman, Herb Robertson, Percy Jones and Matteo Ederle. Despite the spontaneity of the event, one can appreciate the effort involved in reproducing the style of progressive rock reminiscent of the sixties: comparing this style with the style influenced by some of the best artists of the New York Music scene.

Following this, we come across the experiences with LA1919, Chris Cutler, Charles Hayward and, once again and with much emphasis, Elliot Sharp. Having widely visited, not only the present but the future of the electric guitar, Roberto has had the excellent idea to take a look at the past too: he has rediscovered the pleasure of acoustics and the sublime roughness of the Delta Blues. All this without excluding from his acquaintances the likes of Paul Lovens, Steve Jansen (ex Japan), Chianura Bros, Gabbiani e Musci, the theatrical actress Elisabetta Fadini, Mike Cooper etc .. Roberto's most recent work finds him with his bosom buddy Henry Kaiser: they are half way between the city and the countryside in a sort of imaginary city outskirts. The landscape is no longer urban but not yet rural, both feelings are nevertheless represented and reprocessed with a very personal touch. What comes next? Up until now his itinerary has been so irregular and varied that it impossible to predict where we will next turn up. It's no use waiting for him or trying to hunt him down: when the time comes, he will track us down and surprise us..."

-Niccosmo.Org (http://www.niccosmo.org/zorzi/bioeng.html)
5/7/2025

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"Hailed by many as the world's leading solo bassist, Michael Manring has been pushing back the boundaries of what's possible on the bass guitar for decades. While his technical skill and innovations always make an impression, it is his ability to communicate on a profound emotional level that most touches listeners. As editor Tom Darter wrote in Keyboard magazine after seeing one of Michael's solo concerts, "Forget his astounding technique and musicality; forget his absolute command of his instruments; forget how seamlessly the musical ideas and the performance of them were wedded together...The enlightenment came most from feeling (seeing, hearing) the joy Michael felt to be playing...his brand of transcendental chops and musical understanding...was all in the service of the final outcome, the joy of making music."

Building on the conceptions of his teacher, the late bass legend Jaco Pastorius, Michael has developed an approach to the instrument that includes unorthodox tunings, techniques and methodologies. He has honed his skills on hundreds of recordings as a session musician and thousands of concerts throughout the world in venues including Carnegie Hall in New York, Yamaha Hall in Tokyo and Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco. Michael has worked with a diverse collection of musicians from New Age keyboardist Suzanne Ciani to avant-improv guitar innovator Henry Kaiser to celebrated folk troubadour John Gorka to experimental post-metal rockers Tim Alexander (Primus) and Alex Skolnick (Testament) to electro-pop pioneer Thomas Dolby. His long-term collaboration and close friendship with the late acoustic guitar genius Michael Hedges led to a lengthy stint as house bassist for Windham Hill Records; a label for whom he also worked as a solo artist, releasing four recordings under his own name: Unusual Weather (1986), Toward the Center of the Night (1989), Drastic Measures (1991) and Thonk (1994). These, along with his 1998 release The Book of Flame on the Alchemy record label earned him an international reputation as "a master of the fretless bass without rival." (Guitar Club Magazine, Italy). His two solo bass recordings, Soliloquy (2006) and Small Moments (2020) showcase the approach to the bass that lead one writer to conclude, "Manring can do more with a bass than even the most creative individual could imagine" (L. Pierce Carson, Napa Valley Register). He has garnered three gold records, Grammy and Bammie nominations, a Berklee School of Music Distinguished Alumni Award, three Just Plain Folks Awards and numerous Bass Player Magazine Readers' Poll awards including 1994 Bassist of the Year. He was also the subject of a PBS TV documentary, "The Artist's Profile: Michael Manring" and a Youtube video of him playing his iconic solo piece "Selene" has well over 1.5 million views. We hope you'll follow the advice of France's Musicien magazine: "Do not miss your next opportunity to discover the bassist with the most fresh and inventive playing today." "

-Michael Manring Website (https://manthing.com/bio)
5/7/2025

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"Scott Amendola (born February 6, 1969) is an American drummer from the San Francisco Bay Area. His styles include jazz, blues, groove, rock and new music. He is considered central to the Bay Area music scene.

Amendola was originally from New Jersey and studied at Berklee School of Music in Boston. After relocating to the San Francisco Bay Area he came to popularity in the 1990s as a member of T.J. Kirk with Charlie Hunter, Will Bernard and John Schott. Their second album received a Grammy Award nomination. He has led his own bands and trios which have included Nels Cline, Jenny Scheinman, Jeff Parker and John Shifflett as well as Ben Goldberg and Devin Hoff. Often favoring guitarists he has toured with Bill Frisell and Kelly Joe Phelps and recorded with Pat Martino, Jim Campilongo, G.E. Stinson, Nels Cline and Tony Furtado. He is an original member of the Larry Ochs Sax & Drumming Core. He has been a session percussionist for Noe Venable, Carla Bozulich and Odessa Chen.

In 2011 Amendola will have his new orchestral work performed in conjunction with the Oakland East Bay Symphony as one the symphony's New Visions/New Vistas premieres. Amendola will be joined by Nels Cline and Trevor Dunn."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Amendola)
5/7/2025

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"Henry Kaiser (born September 19, 1952) is an American guitarist and composer, known as an idiosyncratic soloist, a sideman, an ethnomusicologist, and a film score composer. Recording and performing prolifically in many styles of music, Kaiser is a fixture on the San Francisco Bay Area music scene. He is considered a member of the "second generation" of American free improvisers. He is married to Canadian artist Brandy Gale.

In 1977, Kaiser founded Metalanguage Records with Larry Ochs (Rova Saxophone Quartet) and Greg Goodman. In 1979 he recorded With Friends Like These with Fred Frith, a collaboration that lasted for over 20 years. In 1983 they recorded Who Needs Enemies, and in 1987 the compilation album With Enemies Like These, Who Needs Friends? They joined with fellow experimental musicians John French, and English folk-rocker Richard Thompson to form French Frith Kaiser Thompson for two eclectic albums, Live, Love, Larf & Loaf (1987) and Invisible Means (1990). In 1999 Frith and Kaiser released Friends and Enemies, a compilation of their two Metalanguage albums along with additional material from 1984 and 1999.

In 1991, Kaiser went to Madagascar with guitarist David Lindley. They recorded roots music with Malagasy musicians and discovered music that, he says, "changed us radically and permanently". Three volumes of this music were released by Shanachie under the title A World Out of Time. In 1994 he made a similar trip to Norway, again with Lindley, recording music that was released as Sweet Sunny North (2 volumes, 1994 and 1996).

Since 1998, Kaiser has been collaborating with trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith in the "Yo Miles!" project, releasing a series of tributes to Miles Davis's 1970s electric music. This shifting aggregation has included musicians from the worlds of rock (guitarists Nels Cline, Mike Keneally and Chris Muir, drummer Steve Smith), jazz (saxophonists Greg Osby and John Tchicai), avant-garde (keyboardist John Medeski, guitarist Elliott Sharp), and Indian classical music (tabla player Zakir Hussain).

Kaiser has appeared on more than 250 albums and scored dozens of TV shows and films, including Werner Herzog's Encounters at the End of the World (2007). He was given a Grammy Award for his work on the Beautiful Dreamer tribute to Stephen Foster.

In 2001, Kaiser spent two and a half months in Antarctica on a National Science Foundation Antarctic Artists and Writers Program grant. He has subsequently returned for nine more visits to work as a research diver. His underwater camera work was featured in two Herzog films, The Wild Blue Yonder (2005) and Encounters at the End of the World (2007), which he also produced, and for which he and Lindley composed the score. Kaiser served as music producer for Herzog's Grizzly Man (2005). He was nominated for an Academy Award for his work as a producer on Encounters at the End of the World."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Kaiser_(musician))
5/7/2025

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