The
presence of Italian avant-garde
percussion legend Andrea
Centazzo at the 2010
the improvisor
festival
represents the sense of
community that brings veteran
collaborators back together
after 30 years.
Centazzo, improvising
drummer/percussionist, then the
official USA representative of
Ufip cymbals in 1978, discovered
Alabama’s pioneering Transmuseq
artists, Davey Williams &
LaDonna Smith, invited &
hosted them on their first tour
to Europe,
which in effect was
instrumental in launching their
international musical success.
In an artistic career that spans
over thirty years, Andrea
Centazzo has given more than
1000 concerts and live
performances in Europe and the
United States, as well as having
appeared and performed on
numerous radio and
television broadcasts. He has
recorded over 60 LP's and CD's,
and has authored 350
compositions and eight
musicology books. His musical
endeavors and creative
expression range from the
sublime to the passionate, from
lyric opera to orchestral
symphony and solo percussion.
He has performed in momentous
festivals as soloist of his own
compositions or as conductor of
symphonic orchestras.
Centazzo is a pioneer of contemporary percussion. In the early years, he performed with some of the greatest avant-garde soloists and composers, including J. Zorn, S. Bussotti, S. Lacy, D. Cherry, A. Mangellsdorf, E. Parker, etc. Deservedly, Centazzo has received a number of prestigious music and video Awards (Premio Speciale della Critica Discografica Italiana, USA Downbeat Poll, International Video Festival Tokyo, Prix Arcanal of French Culture, etc.) A doctoral graduate in musicology, he has taught seminars and workshops in Europe and the USA. Since 1983,
Centazzo has been dedicated to creating multi-media experiences. This expansion began with an exhibition of his scores rendered as painted ideograms, and evolved into video performances combining both live performance with video images. These efforts culminated in his directing award-winning videos and films. As a soundtrack composer, he unites traditional instrumentation with current technological advances in musical expression through sampling machines and computers. These efforts give a new perspective to the fusion of sound and image through his theatre, television, video, CD rom, and feature film scores. The music of Centazzo captures and expresses the rhythm and pulse of life by synthesizing the mystery of Oriental percussive vibrations with the timbral harmonic understanding of contemporary music and the soul of jazz and rock post-culture. Andrea Centazzo continues to contribute his unique artistic vision to the evolution of contemporary culture.
Don't miss his multi-media solo performance on Sunday, August 15 at 4:00 p.m. TNT THEATER.