Alternating Currents Live presents Silvia Bolognesi Young Shouts, playing two sets. The first trio set will feature Silvia Bolognesi (double bass), Il Pavone (trumpet & vocals), and Ginger B. (drums & electronics); and for the second set they’ll be joined by Nick Mazzarella on alto saxophone.

On the new album, Young Shouts, the compositions, as well as frequent moments of collective improvisation, exhibit the defining characteristics of a classic modern jazz quartet. The quartet's first recording, aLive Shouts (Fonterossa, 2019), contains the “Suite for Bessie Jones,” inspired by the lyrics of some songs made famous by the singer and recorded by Alan Lomax. A second record followed in 2021: A Frame in the Crowd (Fonterossa, 2021). It is composed of all original compositions written and recorded during the pandemic - dedicated to a “missing” audience. The group will also present the Suite Storia di un femminiello (Fonterossa, 2023) written by Il Pavone.

Silvia Bolognesi is a double bass player, composer and arranger. She graduated in double bass from the R. Franci Institute of Siena with Maestro Andrea Granai, perfecting with Maestro Alberto Bocini. She approached jazz studying at the Siena Jazz Academy with Paolino Dalla Porta, Furio Di Castri and Ferruccio Spinetti. The most significant encounters in his musical training are those with William Parker, Muhal Richard Abrams, Lawrence Douglas "Butch" Morris, Roscoe Mitchell and Anthony Braxton.

She won the "Top Jazz 2010", a critics award conferred by “Musica Jazz” magazine, which proclaimed her as the best new talent of italian jazz and she also achieved the "InSound" trophy for double bass category in the same year. She leads several bands: Open Combo, Almond Tree, Xilo Ensemble, Ju-Ju Sounds, Fonterossa Open Orchestra, Young Shouts, Beast Friends trio. Among her most important american collaborations: the international string trio “Hear in Now” with Tomeka Reid and Mazz Swift (with which they completed “Roscoe Mitchell’s sextet” in his homage to John Coltrane in 2017) and the "Art Ensemble of Chicago 50th Anniversary" since 2017, a project that produced the CD “We are on the Edge” and the recent live album “The Sixth Decade: from Paris to Paris”, released for “Rogue Art”.

She’s a member of “Roscoe Mitchell Quintet” since 2022. In 2010 she founded her own label “Fonterossa Records", hence the minifestival “Fonterossa Day” (since 2015) hosted by PisaJazz, of which she is artistic director. She’s the curator and conductor of “Fonterossa Open Orchestra”, a creative orchestra based in Pisa since 2017, and she runs workshops on Improvisation and Conduction practice since 2008, collaborating with PisaJazz. She teaches double bass and combo class at the Siena Jazz Academy and she’s jazz double bass teacher at the State Conservatory of Palermo. Since 2016 she is part of the “European exchange - Erasmus+” program for the Conservatories of Maastricht (Holland), Tbilisi (Georgia), Riga (Latvia), Birmingham (UK).

Il Pavone was born in Scafati, a small town near Naples, on June 28, 1996. He began studying trumpet at the Salerno Conservatory at the age of 14, graduating in 2015. Two years later he began his studies at Siena Jazz and graduated in 2022. Since 2018 he has been a member of the Young Shouts, led by Silvia Bolognesi and winner in 2020 of the New Generation Jazz award established by I-Jazz and with two active records. The first of these (aLive Shouts, 2019) was recognized by Bandcamp as one of the best jazz recordings in August 2019. In 2023 he recorded his first solo album Storia di un femminiello for Silvia Bolognesi's Fonterossa Records. He has also collaborated with Dave Burrell, Sabir Mateen, Nico Gori, Alessandro Paternesi, Fabrizio Bosso, Piero Frassi. He is currently the trumpeter and singer of other formations such as Ossa di Cane and Alessandro Paternesi & MelodicoBitters.

Ginger B. was born in Pisa on June 27, 1994. A member of a large family of eleven, in his childhood he had no shortage of creative stimuli: he studied piano, guitar, violin, computer music and, of course, drums. Interested in studies of sound manipulation and acoustics, he specialized by attending a course for Sound Technicians, embarking on a career in the Piedmont and Tuscany area. Then he decided to deepen his studies of improvised music, this time acoustic, attending the Jazz Drumming course at Siena Jazz University, graduating with full marks. He is currently finishing his academic course at the Conservatorio B. Marcello in Venice. Among his most influential teachers we find Silvia Bolognesi, Jim Black, Ziv Ravitz, Alessandro Paternesi, Fabrizio Sferra, Joe Sanders, Stefano Battaglia. Since 2018 he has been a member of the Young Shouts, led by Silvia Bolognesi and winner in 2020 of the New Generation Jazz award established by I-Jazz and with two active records. The first of these (aLive Shouts, 2019) was recognized by Bandcamp as one of the best jazz recordings in August 2019. Other stable ensembles in which we find him on drums and/or electronics are: Fonterossa Open Orchestra, Mr. Noe, and Glauco LoFi.

Alto saxophonist and composer Nick Mazzarella’s work has been described as "continuing the approach taken by like-minded trailblazing altoists Eric Dolphy, Ornette Coleman, Henry Threadgill, Oliver Lake, and Gary Bartz [by] seeking to embody the history of [jazz] music while pushing it forward into new realms” (All About Jazz). He has been a consistent presence in Chicago's music scene since the early 2000s, and has made an aesthetically unique contribution to the city’s rich culture of jazz and improvised music as both a performer and a presenter. His numerous trio projects and eponymous quintet have served as the primary vehicles for his endeavors as an improviser, composer, and bandleader, while as a collaborator or sideman he has performed and recorded with such artists as Joshua Abrams, Geof Bradfield, Hamid Drake, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, Dana Hall, Rob Mazurek, Makaya McCraven, Avreeayl Ra, Mike Reed, Tomeka Reid, Clark Sommers, and Ken Vandermark. To date Mazzarella has appeared on over forty albums, including a dozen as a leader. Recordings of his original music have been released by Nessa, Astral Spirits, Clean Feed, International Anthem, and Out of Your Head, and he has performed throughout the United States and Europe, as well as in Africa and the Middle East.

In addition to his activities as a performing musician, Mazzarella has contributed to the vibrancy of the Chicago jazz community by working as a concert series presenter since 2008. He currently curates two ongoing concert series in Chicago—the Anagram Series, presented weekly at Elastic Arts in Avondale, and the Ratchet Series, presented quarterly at Cafe Mustache in Logan Square.

Made possible with support from the Italian Cultural Institute

Concert: Alternating Currents Live presents Silvia Bolognesi Young Shouts