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Andrea Centazzo

During his artistic career that spans over 30 years, composer, conductor, percussionist and video artist Andrea Centazzo has given more than 1500 concerts and live performances in Europe and the United States, as well as appeared and performed on numerous radio and television broadcasts worldwide. In 1976 he founded ICTUS records one of the first independent labels for jazz and avant-garde. The label closed down in 1984 due to financial problems and it was resuscitated in 2004 in Long Beach California. Now all the ICTUS catalogue is on sale on the ICTUS site and bandacamp page.

In 2011, his alma mater, the University of Bologna (Italy) honored him by establishing the “Fondo Centazzo” section of the University Library, where all his musical works are housed and made available to students, scholars and musicians.

He has recorded over 170 LP's and CD's, and has authored 550 compositions mostly published by Warner Chappell (ranging from opera and symphony to solo works) and eight musicology books. He has performed at festivals, concert seasons and theaters as soloist and conductor of his compositions conducting the American Youth Symphonic Orchestra, the LA Contemporary Orchestra, the Mittleuropa Orchestra, the ER Youth Symphonic Orchestra and many Ensembles. He also directed and staged his operas as well theatrical plays of other US authors. His opera TINA was highly acclaimed in Italy as well in California. Holding a PHD in Ancient Music from the prestigious University of Bologna, he did teach in Europe as well in USA from Universities to jazz schools.

In the early '70s he introduced a new concept of percussion playing on the jazz scene and immediately migrating from the Free Jazz to a new form of improvised music, defining itself.

Centazzo was one of the founders in the late 70s of the NY Downtown Music Scene with his seminal collaboration with John Zorn, Tom Corra, Eugene Chadbourne, Toshinori Kondo and others.

He has performed and recorded, co-leading, with some of the greatest avant-garde soloists and composers, including John Zorn, Sylvano Bussotti, Steve Lacy, Don Cherry, Evan Parker, Fred Frith, Tom Cora, Alvin Curran, Henry Kaiser, Teo Jöergesmann, Albert Mangelsdorf, Gianluigi Trovesi, Anthony Coleman, Toshinori Kondo, just to name few.

Deservedly, Centazzo has received a number of prestigious music and video Awards (Italian Critic’s Choice Award, Italy, Downbeat Magazine Poll, USA, International Video Festival Tokyo, Japan, Prix Arcanal of French Culture, France, Jazz Forum Critic’s Poll, USA, Bruce Chatwin Award, Italy, Dramalogue Award, USA and many more).

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Live Review

Andrea Centazzo: Animae Mundi a Budrio

Read "Andrea Centazzo: Animae Mundi a Budrio" reviewed by Libero Farnè


Andrea Centazzo: Animae Mundi Torri dell'acqua Budrio (BO) 08.11. 2023 Periodicamente, anche se meno spesso di quanto sarebbe auspicabile, Andrea Centazzo riappare sui palcoscenici italiani. Dopo averlo ascoltato l'ultima volta nel 2018 ad AngelicA Festival, mi è sembrato quindi imperdibile questo appuntamento in provincia di Bologna, curato da Area Zerouno, che ha presentato in prima assoluta Animae Mundi, concerto per percussioni, sampling, tastiere e video. A cominciare dalla metà degli anni Ottanta, più ...

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In Pictures

Ictus Festival 2022

Read "Ictus Festival 2022" reviewed by Luciano Rossetti


A collection of photos from the Ictus Festival in Out-Off Theater in Milan from July 4 to July 7, 2022 featuring Andrea Centazzo, Sergio Armaroli, Roberto Ottaviano, Giancarlo Schiaffini, Steve Swell, Guido Mazzon, Elliott Sharp, Francesca Gemmo, Elisabeth Harnik, Steve Piccolo, Elbio Barilari, Julia Miller, Ellen Burr Steve Hubback, Jeff Schwartz, and Franco Feruglio. ...

Live Review

Ictus Festival

Read "Ictus Festival" reviewed by Paolo Peviani


Ictus Festival Teatro Out Off Milano 4-7.7.2022 Per festeggiare degnamente i cinquant'anni di attività professionale di Andrea Centazzo ed i quarantacinque anni dell'etichetta Ictus Records da lui fondata, nella prima settimana di luglio si è tenuto al Teatro Out Off di Milano un festival (dedicato alla memoria del fotografo Roberto Masotti) a cui hanno preso parte numerosi musicisti che, nel corso dei decenni, hanno collaborato con l'artista friulano e la sua casa discografica. Nomi ...

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Album Review

Centazzo, Schiaffini, Armaroli: Trigonos

Read "Trigonos" reviewed by Neri Pollastri


Disco d'improvvisazione dal procedere quieto, quasi emotivamente metafisico, e dalle sonorità nitidamente scintillanti, questo lavoro vede all'opera tre grandi interpreti del genere quali il percussionista Andrea Centazzo, il vibrafonista Sergio Armaroli e il trombonista Giancarlo Schiaffini. Le prime quattro tracce vedono duettare percussioni e vibrafono: il suono complessivo che ne scaturisce oscilla tra il cristallino e il fragoroso, come il clima della musica che vi viene sviluppata senza fretta, facendo interagire suono con suono: i gong, i tamburi, ...

Album Review

West Coast Chamber Jazz Trio: L.A. Strictly Confidential

Read "L.A. Strictly Confidential" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro


Quarant'anni di Ictus, ventiquattro di States, diciassette come cittadino americano: con alle spalle questi numeri, se vogliamo persino pedissequi (ma significativi), Andrea Centazzo approda a un nuovo album, di rimpatriata jazzistica. Lo certifica lui stesso, affermando: “Il West Coast Chamber Jazz Trio riprende stilemi di quel genere, trasformando composizioni del mio repertorio (dall'opera lirica all'orchestra e dal solo alle formazioni cameristiche) in brani con una spiccata impronta jazz." Il lavoro, uscito a fine settembre, inciso (a Los ...

Live Review

Andrea Centazzo: West Coast Chamber Jazz Trio

Read "Andrea Centazzo: West Coast Chamber Jazz Trio" reviewed by Libero Farnè


Andrea Centazzo West Coast Chamber Jazz Trio Paradiso Jazz 2016 Sala Paradiso San Lazzaro di Savena (BO) 18.04.2016 Occasione rara poter riascoltare in Italia Andrea Centazzo, per di più con un progetto d'impronta jazzistica. Il compositore e percussionista friulano infatti, residente da decenni a Los Angeles, nel tempo si è espresso negli ambiti più diversi, dalla musica per il cinema e il teatro alla video art, dalla composizione puntigliosa ...

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Album Review

Andrea Centazzo: Guitars

Read "Guitars" reviewed by Elliott Simon


Live improvisation is ephemeral yet creative, a fleeting sonic moment in time that is lost as quickly as sound dissipates through space. Paradoxically, a recording of that same performance is eternally uninspired, each playing being identical to the one before it. For three decades, percussionist/electronicist Andrea Centazzo has been among the most successful at blurring that dialectic. Centazzo blurs lots of things though and in the process he has amassed a daunting archive of releases, many on ...

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Performance / Tour

ICTUS Records Nights @ The Stone (NYC) April 1-14

ICTUS Records Nights @ The Stone (NYC) April 1-14

Source: centazzo

The Italian Invasion & Other Stories Created in 1976, ICTUS Records has been one of the first and most celebrated labels completely dedicated to Improvised Music, New Jazz and Contemporary Classic Music. Founded by Andrea Centazzo and Carla Lugli, it became known as “The creative label for creative music." Closed down in 1984, ICTUS was reborn in 2005 in Long Beach, CA and immediately got again the attention from audiences and critics for its catalog featuring new productions and re-releases ...

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Performance / Tour

Andrea Centazzo: Mandala Friday at Rubin Museum of Art, February 3rd at 7 p.m.

Andrea Centazzo: Mandala Friday at Rubin Museum of Art, February 3rd at 7 p.m.

Source: All About Jazz

Andrea Centazzo: Mandala Friday, February 3 7 p.m. Tickets $15. Call 212.620.5000 ext. 344 Rubin Museum of Art, 150 West 17th Street NY NY 10011

This performance is inspired by the great Buddhist temple of Borobodur. The European jazz percussion master will also perform a new work based on the mandalas in the Rubin Museum of Art collection.

Regarded as “one of the most influential performers/percussionists of the last 30 ...

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Performance / Tour

Andrea Centazzo multi-media project for solo performer and video images Lang Recital Hall 10/26 7:30 PM

Andrea Centazzo multi-media project for solo performer and video images Lang Recital Hall 10/26 7:30 PM

Source: All About Jazz

MANDALA a multi-media project for solo performer and video images by Andrea Centazzo Tuesday, October 26, 2004 7:30 p.m. Lang Recital Hall Hunter College 69th Street (Lex/Park) Considered one of the most influential percussionists of the last 25 years, Italian-American composer Andrea Centazzo has performed, as a soloist and as a conductor, in many prestigious festivals and concert halls both in Europe and the United States. After a decade of focusing on composing, conducting and directing videos, Centazzo has returned ...

Andrea Centazzo ICTUS BOX SET has been nominated Best Box Set of 2006 by journalists of the American Jazz Critics Association “... As a whole, the ICTUS Records’ 30th Anniversary Collection is a fascinating compilation with hours of special moments.

It is an important, if not essential collection, featuring an incredible array of talent, and priced as an extraordinary value. Reflecting the tastes and performances of Italian composer and percussionist Andrea Centazzo, the 12- CD boxed set gloriously presents an eclectic and highly individual selection of free improvisation.” Steven Loewy (CADENCE, January 2007)

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

The Journey

Ictus Records
2021

buy

ELEKTRIKTUS

Ictus Records
2021

buy

INDIAN TAPES

Ictus Records
2021

buy

DUETS 71977

Ictus Records
2021

buy

Clangs

Ictus Records
2021

buy

SACRED GONG DIVE

Ictus Records
2021

buy

Videos

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