Morricone Stories Stefano Di Battista

• 1Cosa avete fatto a Solange (From "What Have You Done to Solange?")03:59
• 2Peur sur la ville (From "Fear over the City")03:22
• 3La cosa buffa04:21
• 4Verushka04:45
• 5Deborah's Theme (From "Once Upon a Time in America")03:42
• 6Metti, una sera a cena03:54
• 7Apertura della caccia (From "1900")04:56
• 8Il grande silenzio (From "The Great Silence")04:16
• 9Flora02:34
• 10La donna della domenica (From "Sunday Woman")06:39
• 11Gabriel’s Oboe (From "The Mission")03:30
• 12The Good, the Bad and the Ugly03:31
• Total Runtime49:29

Info for Morricone Stories

Ennio Morricone’s film music provides an infinite treasure trove of creative thinking, associated with the most varied of images. It is also extremely versatile, just waiting to be delved into, reworked and rediscovered – his compositions would still be equally enjoyable and perfectly recognizable performed by a Bulgarian choir or a quintet of ocarinas. But throwing jazz into the mix takes things to a whole new level, creating what feels like a perfect match, a natural, perhaps even inevitable partnership. This stems in part from a distinctive feature of Morricone’s music: it places highly emotional melodies within a texture of intelligent harmonies, and jazz does exactly the same, particularly in the hands of someone like Stefano Di Battista.

The saxophonist takes the composer’s themes and plays with them as if they were a magical substance, that special and mysterious music that almost inexplicably fills our souls. And he didn’t feel compelled to stick to Morricone’s most famous film scores, the ones etched into the public consciousness. In some cases, Stefano has chosen lesser-known themes, or rather tunes from lesser-known or forgotten films, like “Veruschka” or “What Have You Done to Solange?” both to dig deeper into a repertoire where there is still much to be explored, and as a reminder that Morricone provided the soundtrack to more than 500 films, only a handful of which are still celebrated today. These tunes are both refined and very precious, and of course you also get the pure pleasure of hearing themes you know inside and out turned into perfect jazz standards, like the swinging and witty “Metti, una sera a cena”, or “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” reinvented as a duelling improvisation, with the sax taking on the brief flurry of notes inspired by the call of the coyote, before dissolving into the pure emotion of “Deborah’s Theme” from Once Upon a Time in America. This is one of Morricone’s greatest ever works, one he was very fond of because it epitomised his ideal of a melody that achieves the maximum possible result with the minimum number of notes.

Then there is a nimble reworking of The Mission, with the original oboe effortlessly transposed to the soprano sax, and Flora, a surprise, previously unreleased number that the revered composer gifted to Di Battista. Ultimately, the mechanism feels flawless and could spawn a series of other records – as if part of Morricone’s thinking was always, perhaps unwittingly, directed towards jazz. The album “Morricone Stories” will be released April 2021.

Stefano Di Battista, alto- and soprano saxophone
Fred Nardin, piano
Daniele Sorrentino, double bass
Andre Ceccarelli, drums

Stefano di Battista
Born February 14, 1969 in Rome, Stefano Di Battista initiated himself into music during childhood, in a neighborhood orchestra composed mainly of brass. Having started the saxophone at the age of thirteen, he came to jazz through the records of Art Pepper and Cannonball Adderley, two musicians who will remain lasting influences. He then follows an academic training before starting to “do the job” in pop music. His first meeting with Massimo Urbani (1957-1993), an Italian alto saxophonist admirative of Charlie Parker’s style, also plays a decisive role in his ambition to become a jazz musician. However, it takes a combination of circumstances so that the talent of the young Roman saxophonist can burst into the open.

Encouraged to go to Paris by the pianist Jean-Pierre Como who heard him during the summer of 1992 at the Festival of Calvi, Stefano Di Battista quickly makes his way among several musicians of the French capital, who help him getting started, notably drummer Aldo Romano (Stefano is a guest on two albums) and conductor Laurent Cugny, who invites Stefano and his fellow trumpeter Flavio Boltro to join the Orchestre National de Jazz he established in 1994. Even if he is mainly active in France, he maintains close links with the Italian jazz community, recording with his compatriots Enrico Rava (1996), Rita Marcotulli (1998), Daniele Scannapieco (2003) and Dario Rosciglione ( 2004).

His third album on Blue Note, Round About Roma (2002), is therefore recorded with a transalpin quartet (Eric Legnini, André Ceccarelli, Rosario Bonaccorso), featuring a symphonic orchestra arranged and conducted by Vince Mendoza. Stefano then releases two more albums on Blue Note, a tribute to Charlie Parker, and the virtuosic Trouble Shootin’ (2007), featuring Fabrizio Bosso on trumpet and Baptiste Trotignon on the Hammond. A couple of years later, he records his album Woman’s Land (2011) on the Italian label Alice Records, taking as an inspiration several female historic figures of the 20th century. At the same time, he starts a long-lasting collaboration with Italian singer Nicky Nicolai, accompanying her on her own projects.

A much requested sideman, Stefano di Battista is often invited to play with his French and Italian colleagues, on stage and in the studio. His ability to engage a musical conversation with other artists can be found on his later albums. Giù la Testa (2014) is recorded with French guitarist Sylvain Luc, who is as proficient as Stefano in mastering the melody. He then features again Nicky Nicolai on an original project with writer Erri De Luca, La Musica Insieme, at the boundary between Neapolitan literature and musical performance.

For 2021, Stefano Di Battista is working on a new album : a tribute to the late composer Ennio Morricone, with whom he had the chance to work. This new project features André Ceccarelli on drums, Fred Nardin on the piano and Daniele Sorrentino on bass.

Booklet for Morricone Stories