Giorgio Gaslini

Giorgio Gaslini
Photograph of Giorgio Gaslini in his late twenties Giorgio Gaslini in 1957
Background information
Born	(1929-10-22)22 October 1929 Milan, Italy
Died	Borgo Val di Taro, Parma, Italy
Genres	Jazz
Occupation(s)	Musician, composer, conductor
Instruments	Piano
Website	giorgiogaslini.it

Giorgio Gaslini (Italian pronunciation: [ˈdʒordʒo ɡaˈzliːni]; 22 October 1929 – 29 July 2014) was an Italian jazz pianist, composer and conductor.

He began performing at 13 and recorded with his jazz trio at 16. In the 1950s and 1960s Gaslini performed with his own quartet. He was the first Italian musician mentioned as a "new talent" in the Down Beat poll and the first Italian officially invited to a jazz festival in the USA (New Orleans 1976-77). He collaborated with leading American soloists, such as Anthony Braxton, Steve Lacy, Don Cherry, Roswell Rudd, Eddie Gómez, Max Roach, Nacci Alberto, but also with the Argentinian Gato Barbieri and Frenchman Jean-Luc Ponty. He has also adapted the compositions of Albert Ayler and Sun Ra for solo piano, which the Soul Note label has issued. He also composed the soundtrack of Michelangelo Antonioni's La notte (The Night, 1961).

From 1991 to 1995 Gaslini composed works for Carlo Actis Dato's Italian Instabile Orchestra, and was the first holder of jazz courses at the Santa Cecilia Academy of Music in Rome (1972–73). As to contemporary music, he composed symphonic works, operas and ballets represented at the Scala Theatre in Milan and other Italian theatres, in addition to film scores, including Your Hands on My Body (1970), Cross Current (1971), The Hassled Hooker (1972), The Night of the Devils (1972), So Sweet, So Dead (1972), When Women Were Called Virgins (1972), Five Women for the Killer (1974) and Kleinhoff Hotel (1977). In 1975 he was contacted by Dario Argento to score Deep Red, having previously scored Argento's The Five Days in 1973. Unfortunately he was disappointed by the music and only three of Gaslini's original themes were retained.

Gaslini died at 84 in Borgo Val di Taro, in the province of Parma, where he had been living for years together with his longtime wife and 14 amongts dogs and cats.

Discography (selected)

Albums

• New Sound Jazz #2 - Cinevox (1967)
• Il fiume Furore - I dischi del sole (1968)
• Grido - (Durium (1969)
• Un quarto di vita - Durium with I Nuovi Angeli and Edmonda Aldini 1969))
• Africa! - (Bluebell_Records (1969)
• Newport in Milan - Produttori Associati, Giorgio Gaslini Big Band) (1970)
• Una cosa nuova (Produttori Associati, PA/LP 45)
• Favola pop - Produttori Associati (1973)
• Fabbrica occupata - Produttori Associati, with Jean-Luc Ponty 1973)
• Jazz a confronto: Mario Schiano with Giorgio Gaslini - Horo (1974)
• Message - BASF (1974)
• Colloquio con Malcom X - PDU (1975)
• Canti di popolo in jazz - PDU (1975)
• Jean-Luc Ponty meets Giorgio Gaslini - Produttori Associati (1976)
• Murales live - Dischi della Quercia]]) (1976)
• Gaslini Plays Monk - Soul Note (1981)
• Jelly's Back In Town - Giorgio Gaslini/Ensemble Mobile - Dischi Della Quercia 1996)
• Sacred Concert. Jazz Te Deum - Soul Note (2000)
• L'Integrale, Vol. 1 & 2 - Giorgio Gaslini, (1948/1964) - Soul Note 2002)
• Il Brutto Anatroccolo - Giorgio Gaslini/Orchestra Jazz della Sardegna - Il Manifesto (2002)
• Urban Griot - Giorgio Gaslini/Proxima Centauri Orchestra - Soul Note 2003)
• Elle - Lucia Minetti/Giorgio Gaslini - Velut Luna (2004)
• Musica Totale - Azzurra (2006)
• Giorgio Gaslini: Sinfonico 3 - Velut Luna (2010)
• Ellaura - Laura Conti/Giorgio Gaslini - Velut Luna (2010)
• Piano Solo - Cam Jazz (2011)
• Gaslini sinfonico 4 - Velut Luna (2014)

External links

• Official website
• Giorgio Gaslini at the Internet Movie Database