Stefano Battaglia
Biography Stefano Battaglia
Stefano Battaglia
Born in Milan in 1965, Stefano Battaglia originally trained as a classical pianist. He first attracted attention on the European festival scene, playing mainly baroque and 20th century music, before making the transition to music that incorporated improvisation, inspired initially by Paul Bley and Keith Jarrett. He cites Bley’s Open, To Love and Jarrett’s Facing You as critical encounters in his musical development. By the late 1980s he was winning jazz awards. Subsequently he has played with Lee Konitz, Dewey Redman, Marc Johnson, Barre Phillips, Steve Swallow and Kenny Wheeler, among many others.
Battaglia has been an ECM artist since 2003, when the double album Raccolto (Harvest) was recorded. Subsequent releases have included Re: Pasolini, a tribute to the Italian filmmaker and polymath, which includes contributions from Salvatore Maiore and Roberto Dani, and Pastorale, an album of duets with percussionist Michele Rabbia. Battaglia’s fourth ECM release, an organic-sounding piano trio recording entitled The River of Anyder (2011), was hailed as a “career-defining album of unsettling and unpredictable beauty” by John Kelman. On In the Morning Battaglia’s trio reflect on the work of American composer Alec Wilder (1907–80), best-known for his popular songs (recorded by Peggy Lee, the Mills Brothers, Frank Sinatra and others). The pianist says: “after working on Wilder’s chamber music I wanted to develop a deeper connection with his intriguing musical universe, and I've discovered an immense hidden treasure.”
Battaglia has given master-classes at the Siena Jazz each summer since 1988, and since 1996 he has led Siena’s Laboratorio Permanente di Ricerca Musicale, a musical research workshop, where he has been able to explore his interests in improvisation, composition and experimentation, in particular the diverse improvisational practices of different musical languages.
