Rita Marcotulli - Nguyên Lê
The Lady of Italian Jazz: Rita Marcotulli, composer,
pianist, a sophisticated and incredibly creative
artist, made her international debut when she
was not yet twenty years old… and achieved
instant success. From the very beginning she started
to work with the very best jazz musicians and
played with, among others, Chet Baker, Enrico
Rava, Pat Metheny, Michel Portal, Billy Cobham,
Steve Grossman, Peter Erskine, Pino Daniele, Paolo
Fresu, Roberto Gatto, and Kenny Wheeler. In 1987
the Musica Jazz referendum classified her as the
best new talent of the year. Then while her discography
increased amazingly, new artistic partnerships
arose, the film ‘score’ for OMay a
Truffaut, as well as experimental projects, the
last of which with the Parisian guitarist of Vietnamese
origin Ngyên Lê. «My music has
obviously been influenced by many great nusicians:
Thelonius Monk, Elis Regina, Bill Evans, John
Coltrane, to mention only a few» says Rita
Marcotulli, and then adds: «In jazz, every
musical cell is absorbed by the musician who has
it, genially moulds it and then gives it to audiences,
in an eternal associative exchange that we are
unable to explain, since what we are experiencing
is a way of reawakening to life».
