Stefano Maltese

Since the 1970s, Sicilian composer and multi-instrumentalist Stefano Maltese has pursued projects that span intimate solo settings and expansive groups incorporating strings alongside uncommon instruments such as harmonica and glockenspiel. Throughout this period he has examined the interplay of composition and improvisation while charting an independent course shaped by music, literature, and additional artistic fields; in doing so he reached outcomes comparable to those achieved in other post-jazz circles, notably Chicago’s AACM and Amsterdam’s ICP Orchestra. Like John Tchicai or Roscoe Mitchell, Maltese remains distinctly individual, his artistic outlook drawing equally from jazz and from the deep artistic and philosophical traditions of his cherished Sicily.

Maltese assembled the first orchestra uniting avant-garde players from across Italy in 1987, an initiative that preceded the Italian Instabile Orchestra. Three years later he founded the Open Sound Ensemble, drawing participants from multiple continents (Living Alive, Leo 2000); in 1993 he formed the As Sikilli Ensemble (the Sicilian in Arabic) to interpret his own complex suites (Seven Tracks for Tomorrow, Dischi della Quercia 1997). His notable duo recordings with Marilyn Crispell for Black Saint (Red and Blue) center on free improvisation, an approach mirrored in the spontaneous quartet featuring Evan Parker, Keith Tippett, and Antonio Moncada (Double Mirror, Splasc(h) 1996). He maintains an ongoing partnership with the distinguished vocalist Gioconda Cilio, a leading interpreter and improviser (Sounds of My Soul, Dischi della Quercia 1995), while also appearing unaccompanied (Good Morning Midnight, Splasc(h) 1998). In Syracuse he curates the Labirinti Sonori Jazz Festival. ~ Francesco Martinelli