Carla Marciano

Carla Marciano is an internationally renowned Italian saxophonist and composer, considered by specialized critics among the most interesting talents on the contemporary jazz scene. She is an alto saxophone specialist, appreciated for her great passion and energy, her strong expressiveness, her advanced technique as well as her distinctive performing and compositional streak. She is also one of the leading experts in the world of the rarely-used and hard-to-master sopranino saxophone.
She is graduated in clarinet from the Conservatory of Music in her hometown, Salerno.
Marciano has performed with her quartet in major national and international jazz festivals and clubs around the world. She also has a few tours in America and Russia under her belt.
“TRANE’S GROOVE” (with Alessandro La Corte – piano, Aldo Vigorito and Dario Deidda – bass, Donato Cimaglia – drums) is the title of her first CD, released in 2003 by DDQ – DISCHI DELLA QUERCIA (one of the three famous Bonandrini-owned labels, along with with Black Saint and Soul Note). Through this project, she paid homage to the great John Coltrane, with original compositions and a few standard ones, exploring and re-examining his instrumental language with particular attention to his modal period.
Her second CD, “A STRANGE DAY”, was released in 2005 by BLACK SAINT, the prestigious and legendary label run by Bonandrini (the best label in the world from 1984 to 1989, according to the DownBeat critics poll), highly appreciated in USA. Few Italian musicians have recorded for this label and Carla Marciano is one of them, along with giants of the caliber of Max Roach, Archie Sheep, Steve Lacy, Charlie Haden, Cecil Taylor, Don Cherry, Lester Bowie, Art Farmer, Dewey Redman, just to name a few.
With this project and the collaboration of Alessandro La Corte on piano, Aldo Vigorito on bass and Gaetano Fasano on drums, she has developed a personal proposal, mainly through her original compositions. With a precise underlying concept, the quartet proposes a passionate and instinctive music, at times impetuous and vehement, and at different times characterized by spiritual atmospheres and moments of meditation and reflection. You pass from modal pieces, which are the ideal ground to express a liberty of phrasing that often pushes on to extreme harmonic solutions, to soft and seductive ballads.
“CHANGE OF MOOD” is the title of her third CD, released in 2008 once again by BLACK SAINT, before the Bonandrinis retired and their three labels were acquired by the Italian label CAM JAZZ. This CD solely contains her original compositions, with Marciano leading her usual quartet (featuring La Corte, Vigorito and Fasano). The project confirms her aim to carry on with a coherent musical project having a clear identity, shifting from passionate moments to more pensive ones.
Her fourth CD “STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS” was recorded live in the studio with the musicians all playing in a single space, so as to create an emotional and filter-free music, which is as direct and uncompromising as possible. The abum was released by the Italian label ALFA MUSIC; once again, she is the leader of her usual quartet. The CD only features her original compositions, except for an elaboration of the traditional English song “God rest ye merry, gentlemen” by La Corte.
Her new album “PSYCHOSIS – Homage to Bernard Herrmann” was recently released by the prestigious Dutch label CHALLENGE RECORDS. It is a homage to one of the greatest geniuses of film score, the composer and conductor Bernard Herrmann. Marciano arranges, re-elaborates and adapts, for her stable jazz quartet, some of Herrmann’s best known themes from outstanding soundtracks he wrote for equally outstanding films, all psychological thrillers – hence the title Psychosis – by brilliant directors, including “Marnie”, “Psycho” and “Vertigo” by Alfred Hitchcock, “Taxi Driver” by Martin Scorsese and “Twisted Nerve” by Roy Boulting. Originally conceived for orchestras, the tracks in this album are arranged in respect of the original melodies, while also creating new improvisational spaces that allow the quartet to maintain its own identity. The album also contains an additional track dedicated to another great genius of film score, John Williams, who wrote the soundtrack for the famous movie saga “Harry Potter”, whose main theme is arranged by Alessandro La Corte. “Psychosis” is gaining a great success with the critics and is already recognized among the best records of the year by very important national and international specialized magazines.
Carla Marciano has attracted attention from the most important international jazz magazines (DownBeat, Jazz Times ,Jazziz, Cadence Magazine, All About Jazz ,Musica Jazz, Jazzman , Los Angeles Jazz Scene, Jazz Review, Jazz Ru, JazzIt, just to name a few). Her CDs have received extremely positive reviews. Furthermore, she has been a guest on numerous national and international radio and TV programs (USA, Russia, England, Germany, Switzerland, India, Indonesia, Canada, Colombia, etc.) Many an award for her album “Psychosis”: it was included in the Top Ten of the”Best Instrumental CDs”of 2020 on Jazz History Online: it was placed among the best European CDs of 2019 by Jazziz Magazine, mentioned among the best Italian CDs from All About Jazz and received five-stars from Musica Jazz, just to name a few.
Marciano’s composition “Trane’s Groove” was included in the compilation “SPIRITUAL JAZZ: NOW! 13”, released in February 2021 and produced by the British label JAZZMAN RECORDS, the thirteenth volume of a series dedicated to the protagonists of modal and avant-garde jazz, from all over the world. It was the only one track by an Italian artist ever to be included.
Her CD “A strange day” was included in the Cadence Magazine’s Top Ten CDs’ list for 2006 and in the same year she was invited by the Italian Cultural Institute of New York to represent Italian women in jazz, with a concert, always with her quartet, at the Symphony Space Theater on Broadway in New York.
In 2013, her CD “Stream of consciousness” obtained a five-star review in the Russian magazine Jazz Ru followed by two long tours in the most prestigious Russian theaters and clubs, from the Esse Jazz Club in Moscow to the Philharmonic Hall in Krasnoyarsk, in Siberia. This album was also given the JazzIt Award 2012 by the Italian magazine JazzIt.
For a few years, Carla Marciano has been included in the Top Ten list of the “Best Italian Talent” category of Top Jazz, the critics’ poll conducted by the Italian magazine Musica Jazz. Furthermore, she has often been mentioned among the best Italian saxophonists (“Reeds” category). For some years, she has also been included among the best Italian saxophonists in the readers’ poll of the aforementioned magazine JazzIt.
In 2013, Marciano was among the winners of the “Best Alto Saxophonist” category (along with great musicians of the caliber of Phil Woods, Kenny Garrett, David Sanborn, Steve Coleman, Anthony Braxton) of the 35th Annual Jazz Station Awards, conducted by the jazz historian, record producer and jazz educator & journalist Arnaldo DeSouteiro, member of JJA (Jazz Journalists Association), LAJS (Los Angeles Jazz Society) and voting member of Naras-Grammy.
In April 2024 she was awarded with the “Premio Salerno Jazz”, intended for the most influential jazz artists who have distinguished themselves in the Italian and international scene.
In June 2010 she was awarded with the “Premio Internazionale Principessa Sichelgaita” and the medal by the Presidency of the Senate of the Italian Republic in the “Art” section.
In 2023 she was awarded with the “Premio Baronissi Summer Jazz “, for being an “Expression of Salerno in the World”, in the jazz music section.
In 2023 she was awarded with the “Premio Mulieres Salernitanae”, aimed at promoting the excellence of Salerno in various fields.
Several times she has been a soloist guest of the Orchestra Civica at the Piccolo Teatro Strehler in Milano.
She has occasionally played with: Victor Bailey, Paco Sery, Hiram Bullock, Franco Cerri, Enrico Intra, Tullio De Piscopo, Ernst Reijseger, Gerald Cannon and many others.