Carlo Actis Dato

Multi-reedist Carlo Actis Dato has performed and recorded modern creative jazz since the 1970s. Over the next 30 years, he played on 50 recordings, serving as co-leader or leader on about 20 of these. An integral member of the Italian creative music scene, Dato was a co-founder of Art Studio, one of the first groups to play new jazz in Italy. He is also a member of the Italian Instabile Orchestra, a project that occasionally groups together the finest in the Italian new jazz scene -- including composer and clarinetist Gianluigi Trovesi and trombonist Sebi Tramontana -- which released several recordings during the 1990s, including a live double disc on Leo Records. Dato also leads his own quartet, formed in 1984, which was voted Top Italian Group by the Musica Jazz magazine in 1988, 1990, 1992, and 1996, and has performed at festivals and for radio broadcasts in several European countries. The other members of Dato's quartet are bassist Enrico Fazio, drummer Fiorenzo Sordini, and reedsman Piero Ponzo. Dato also leads the reeds-only Atipico Trio and co-leads the Brasserie Trio, who also have a release on the Leo Records label. He has performed in many groups including Mama Quartet and Mitteleuropa Orchestra, and has collaborated with Georgio Gaslini, Roberto Ottaviano, Oliver Lake, Leroy Jenkins, Franz Koglmann, Pino Minafra, Mark Dresser, various members of the Italian Instabile Orchestra, and more. Dato also took part in many theater and dance performances, and taught jazz and saxophone in the Civic School of Torino and the Percstudio Music Information. At the end of the 1999, a duo recording with Kazutoki Umezu came out on Leo, entitled Wake Up With the Birds. ~ Joslyn Layne, All Music Guide