ALESSANDRO BERTOZZI is an Italian soul, jazz and funk sax man who studied at the prestigious music school in Cremona (famous for its Stradivarius violins). He majored in making stringed instruments but the call of the jazz sax soon beckoned and by the mid 90s he was fronting his own band and in 1998 he debuted with ‘Big City Dreamer’.
By the 2000s Alessandro was in New York working with people like Bob James and Hiram Bullock; then, back in his native Italy, he established himself as one of that country’s premier saxophonists.
You can sample the sound of Alessandro BertozzI via his latest EP – a four tracker with the title ‘Funky Party’. Key cut is the 80’s flavoured, soul dancer ‘Party Tonight’ which features American rapper Joshua West aka Dr.West who offers his simple, organic rhymes over Bertozzi’s sax riffing that in places has the flavour of prime time David Sanborn. The other three cuts ‘Dirty Windshield’, ‘Go, Go…’ and ‘Periphery’ offer more conventional smooth jazz/jazz funk flavours and whether it’s intentional or not you can’t help but hear again the influence of that man Sanborn maybe even AWB.
A download portal near you will allow investigation. The EP’s released on Bertozzi’s own Level 49 label.
