Carla Marciano

Carla Marciano is an Italian saxophonist and composer from Salerno, considered by the critics as one of the most talented new Italian musicians. She plays alto and sopranino saxophones with great passion and instinctivity and is appreciated for the deep energy, the particularly articulated phrasing and the unusual interpretative vein and sense of composition. Moreover she is numbered among the most notable jazz musicians using the sopranino saxophone, one of the least common of the saxophones in regular use today.

She started studying music at the age of eleven, first playing the piano and then the alto saxophone and she graduated in clarinet at the Conservatory of Music in Salerno.

Then, for some years, she played in some Italian jazz festivals with the “Matera Concert Band” directed by Ettore Fioravanti.

“TRANE’S GROOVE” (with Alessandro La Corte-piano, Aldo Vigorito and Dario Deidda-bass, Donato Cimaglia-drums) is the title of her first CD, released in 2002 by DDQ (the Bonandrinis' third label, with Black Saint and Soul Note). Thanks to this project she wished to pay homage to the great John Coltrane, with original compositions and some standards, exploring and re-examining his instrumental language with a particular attention to his modal period.

Her second CD “A STRANGE DAY” was released in 2005 by BLACK SAINT, Giovanni and Flavio Bonandrini's prestigious as well as historical Italian label (the DOWN BEAT MAGAZINE critics poll's best label in the world, from 1984 to 1989), so much appreciated in USA. Few Italian musicians have recorded for this label and Carla Marciano is one of them. With this project and the precious collaboration of Alessandro La Corte on piano, Aldo Vigorito on bass and Gaetano Fasano on drums, she develops a personal discourse, mainly through her original compositions. With a precise sketch at the bottom, the quartet proposes a passionate and instinctive music, sometimes impetuous and vehement and sometimes interrupted by spiritual atmospheres and moments of meditation and reflection. You can pass from the modal pieces, which are the right ground to express a liberty of phrasing that often pushes on to extreme harmonic solutions, to the soft and seductive ballads.

In 2006 Carla Marciano introduced this CD in USA, performing, with her quartet, at three remarkable jazz festivals: the HARTFORD INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL, the FIREHOUSE 12 Fall Jazz Series in New Haven and the “ITALIAN WOMEN IN JAZZ FESTIVAL” (produced by Italian Cultural Institute of New York) at the SYMPHONY SPACE THEATRE on Broadway in New York. Moreover, she introduced the same project in Montenegro, performing at the “A TEMPO” INTERNATIONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL of MONTENEGRIN NATIONAL THEATRE in Podgorica.

“CHANGE OF MOOD” is the title of her third CD, released in 2008 once again by BLACK SAINT, before the Bonandrinis retired and their three labels were acquired by CAM JAZZ. This CD contains solely her original compositions and she leads the same quartet (A.La Corte - A.Vigorito - G.Fasano).

Carla Marciano has attracted attention from some of the major jazz magazines and websites, such as: JAZZ TIMES (USA), CADENCE MAGAZINE (USA), ALL ABOUT JAZZ (USA), MUSICA JAZZ (I), JAZZ IT (I), JAZZMAN (F), JAZZ MAGAZINE (I), JAZZ REVIEW (UK), JAZZ REVIEW MAGAZINE (USA), JAZZ MONTHLY (USA), SUONO (I), JAZZITALIA (I), MUSIC BOOM (I), KATAWEB/MUSICA (I), FIDELIO (H), CHITARRE (I), SLAGWERKKRANT (NL), just to name a few and her CDs have received extremely positive reviews.

She was a guest at the Italian TV programme “Sottovoce”, broadcasted on the national television's channel RAI 1 and at others TV programmes broadcasted nationwide, as “Al Top Musica” and “Alta Fedeltà” on SAT 2000. Moreover, her music was broadcasted on numerous national and international radio channels, among which: RADIO 1 RAI, RADIO 3 RAI (Italy) - RTSI (Switzerland) - WRTC, WWUH, WPKN, WNUA, KLCC, WICN (USA) - SMOTH FM (UK) - BAYERN 2 RADIO, RADIO X Frankfurt (D) - JAZZ RADIO ARDIA Yogyacarta (INDONESIA) - and others.

The CD “A STRANGE DAY” was included in the prestigious American CADENCE MAGAZINE’s TOP TEN CDs' list for 2006.

Already included in the TOP TEN list of the “Best Italian New Talent” category of the TOP JAZZ 2005, Carla Marciano ranked fourth in the same category of TOP JAZZ 2007, the critics' poll organized by the MUSICA JAZZ Italian famous magazine and she was the only female artist to make the list. Moreover she placed prominently in the “Reeds” category of TOP JAZZ 2009.

In June 2010 she was awarded with the PREMIO INTERNAZIONALE PRINCIPESSA SICHELGAITA and the medal by the PRESIDENCY of the SENATE of the ITALIAN REPUBLIC in the “Art” section.

Her fourth CD “STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS” has been just released by ALFA MUSIC, another highly esteemed Italian label. She is once again the leader of her usual quartet comprising of A.La Corte, A.Vigorito and G. Fasano. The CD contains solely her original compositions, except for an elaboration of the English traditional “God rest ye, merry gentlemen” by A.La Corte and was recorded live in the studio, with the musicians all playing in a single space, so as to create an emotional and filter-free music, which is as direct and uncompromising as possible.

Carla Marciano has performed her music projects, with her quartet, in the most important Italian jazz festivals and clubs and in numerous remarkable international jazz festivals.

She has occasionally played with:
Victor Bailey, Hiram Bullock, Bill Evans (sax), Franco Cerri, Enrico Intra, Tullio De Piscopo, Ernst Reijseger, Wolfgang Haffner, Ettore Fioravanti, John B.Arnold, Carl Anderson, Enzo Avitabile and many others...