Winterjazz: Stefano Bollani

Although he was classically trained at the Conservatory of Florence, Italian musician and one of the highlights of Winterjazz Stefano Bollani is primarily a great improviser. “The pianist Stefano Bollani actually hates Stefano Bollani the composer, because he always wants to play something else.”

Though he has a new solo programme in store for the new year, live Stefano Bollani (41) likes nothing better than to engage in dialogue with other free spirits. Winterjazz is reuniting him with his teacher, trumpet player Enrico Rava (74), with whom he has a long history of mutual influence. Influenced by both Rava and by Canadian jazz pianist Oscar Peterson, Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev, and American musical jack-of-all-trades Frank Zappa, the Italian virtuoso faces any challenge head-on. “I’m not the Taliban of jazz music. The basic point is that you shouldn’t imitate yourself and keep learning. Look at Chick (Corea), who at 72 years old is still trying new things.”

At Winterjazz you will be sharing the stage with Enrico Rava again. Why is that always such a party?
Stefano Bollani: Enrico is the most important musician I have ever met. I was already a fan of his as a child. When I first played with him in 1996 it was a dream come true. The primary reason I’ve continued to perform with him is that he is free. Jazz musicians generally want you to play the way they imagined you would play, but not Enrico. We never bore each other precisely because he is such a free spirit. I even feel as though I am more free when I’m on stage with him than when I’m performing a solo concert.

As your teacher, he advised you to quit the pop scene you were a part of in the 1990s – as a band member of Jovanotti, for example, and to dedicate yourself completely to jazz.
Bollani: Yes, and he was right to do so. I had actually always wanted to be a jazz musician, to improvise, and to be creative… But I needed someone to tell me I could actually do it.

It seems like the openness you felt with him formed a blueprint for the rest of your career, in which you continued to seek out musicians who let you improvise.
Bollani: That is true. Last year, I recorded an album with one of my great heroes, American guitarist Bill Frisell. And even though we had never met before, we – Bill, saxophonist Mark Turner, and my trio – only needed one day to do all the recordings. It was a gamble, but it worked.
You know, when I listen to Bill’s music, I think he has everything under control, but in the studio I discovered the complete opposite is true, because he plays everything from the heart. I most enjoy playing with musicians who have both that heart and who feel strongly about having a free spirit. The problem I’m faced with nowadays is that all the musicians I’ve always wanted to work with are either dead or already feature in my CV: Enrico Rava, Caetano Veloso, Chick Corea, Martial Solal. So actually, I could already retire at 41. [Laughs]

But don’t you just try unexpected collaborations instead? At last year’s Leuven Jazz I saw you perform with Fred Hersch, a very different pianist, but it was great to hear your playful playing meander alongside his more academic piano playing.
Bollani: Opposites often fit together better than we would expect. It’s true that Fred’s playing is not the closest to mine, but that’s precisely why it was a challenge. I need an adventure like that sometimes.

In September you released an album with the Brazilian mandolin virtuoso Hamilton de Holanda. Do you also have a penchant for the mandolin?
Bollani: No, not particularly. It might sound strange, but I usually abstract the instruments. My primary interest is the musician. And though I’m no great mandolin fan, I am a fan of Hamilton. If he’d been a flutist, I still would have made an album with him.

That corresponds to something you’ve said often in the past: “It doesn’t matter what you play, but what you do with it.” It’s about how you develop your own style by playing with various musicians and yet making it clear to the listeners that it’s you playing.
Bollani: Let me explain using the best music of all time as an example. You can play Johann Sebastian Bach’s compositions on a harpsichord, on the piano, or even with two flutes and two oboes. The music is always interesting. That’s what it’s about. The instrument is only an aid to express something.

With you that something is often the result of improvisation.
Bollani: Yes, I do love that. Take Orvieto, my duo album with pianist Chick Corea. It doesn’t matter who plays the solo or whose sound is on the foreground. Imagine it as a flowing river, and you have the wonderful feeling of not being alone. The other musician can take over what you play, or explain it, or even give it a different meaning.

But surely it has to be a very good musician?
Bollani: Far more than a great musician, he/she has to be open. Being open implies possessing the gift of listening to you while also listening to him/herself, and then doing something with that. My duo albums are always conversations. Chick does that incredibly well. He always listens. Everything he plays is a response to what he has just heard.

You are known to be a big fan of the late Frank Zappa, whose music you have arranged and played.
Bollani: Yes, and I’m thinking about releasing past live recordings as a tribute. I love Frank Zappa because he was always able to combine every possible discipline in a surprising way in a period when it was still considered strange to combine things.
Nowadays, music is everywhere and everyone realises that you have to combine to survive. But to me it’s a necessity. I’m writing a theatre monologue at the moment. Anything to keep boredom at bay.”

Stefano Bollani & Enrico Rava, 14/1, 20.15, €18/20, Flagey

Winterjazz • 14 > 25/1, Marni, rue de Vergniesstraat 25, Elsene/Ixelles, 02-639.09.82, www.theatremarni.com & FLAGEY, Heilig Kruisplein/place Sainte-Croix, Elsene/Ixelles, 02-641.10.20, www.flagey.be