Gianni Basso R.I.P.

I was away for the weekend and found this in my mailbox :

Gianni Basso
Died,August 17,2009
Born in Asti, but spends part of his childhood in Belgium, moved with his family because of the work of his father, first began studying the clarinet and the tenor sax, entering age (in 1946) in the big band of the Belgian Raoul Falsan and distinguished by suffered for his obvious musical talent.
In 1950 is back in Italy, where, gathering the sounds of cool jazz of recent U.S. imports (this is the jazz of Baker and Mulligan), gives rise along with the trumpeter Oscar Valdambrino to "Low-Valdambrino Quintet" With this training (extended to become an octet, depending on needs) has performed throughout Italy and abroad, working with many major jazz as Italian Dino Piana and Mario Pezzotta (trombone), Glauco Masetti and Attilio Donadio (sax), Gianni Cazzola (drums) and Renato Sellani (piano).

Over the same period'50 then founded, with Valdambrino, the "Italian Sextet" adding to the brass section sax contralto of Attilio Donadio.

This wonderful decade for Basso sees the illustrious collaborations with major international artists (Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, etc..) That led him to be discovered even in the United States.

A Starting in the'60s began playing at par with the great jazz (Lee Konitz, Phil Woods, Art Farmer, Johnny Griffin, Zoot Sims, Buddy Colette) and remains one of the largest and most in demand session man in the world: is part of the famous big bands such as "Kenny Clarke / Francis Boland Big Band", the "Maynard Ferguson Big Band" and the "Thad Jones Big Band."