Salt Catchers Andy Sheppard, Rita Marcotulli, Michel Benita

• 1 Elevation 04:06
• 2 Lawns 06:27
• 3 Salt Catchers 05:09
• 4 Encantos 03:48
• 5 Draw You in Stars 05:14
• 6 This Too – Three Hills 09:06
• 7 Salgado 05:31
• 8 Those That Left 08:30
• 9 Irene 04:11
• Total Runtime 52:02

Info for Salt Catchers

After an ECM debut recording with a quintet (Movements in Colour, 2009), a critically lauded release with his Trio Libero, successful quartet recordings (Surrounded By Sea, 2015, Romaria, 2018) and an internationally acclaimed trilogy of albums in a trio with Carla Bley and Steve Swallow, on Salt Catchers English saxophonist Andy Sheppard presents a new trio with Italian pianist Rita Marcotulli and French bass player Michel Benita – two musicians „with whom I go back quite a long time, but never recorded with collectively.“

Full of captivating melodic beauty, delicate harmony and thoughtful interplay, Salt Catchers features eight new Sheppard originals plus one tune by Carla Bley, taking shape as a haven of tranquillity. Sheppard’s distinctive sound and elegantly phrased lines are complemented here by two fellow travellers of impeccable taste and deep empathy.

Sheppard found himself with much time on his hands during the covid period – „I suddenly started to write quite prolifically and felt an inner urge to create something that was piano-based instead of guitar based, which my earlier projects often had been.“ It was the British saxophonist’s (based in Lisbon) aim to seek new paths and create music with a chamber-like character, „but at the same time still have a sound-world that is very me.“

The decision to work in a drummerless trio „stems only in part from the fact that I had lost my drummer Seb Rochford to Patti Smith“, Sheppard smiles. “Actually, the deeper reason is that in my years performing alongside Carla Bley and Steve Swallow I enjoyed the very special challenge of playing without the accompaniment of drums so much. And I also like the idea of creating something quite new for me that at the same time is in a certain way tied to those years full of fond memories with Carla and Steve“.

Rita Marcotulli, as Sheppard points out, shares this fondness for the unusual format: „We both feel that this kind of setting needs a very special kind of sensitivity. I knew that Manfred Eicher also likes Rita, though she has not been on an ECM album yet. She is a very lyrical player, but also totally fearless – she really takes chances. Michel is also lyrical, and I knew from earlier occasions that he really gets my music, especially its more folkloristic and melodic aspects.“

Sheppard attributes his leanings towards folk-inspired tunes in part to his early work with Scottish singer-songwriter John Martyn. „Even before that, when I still was a teenager, (Martyn‘s classic album) Solid Air has had a great influence on me. Back then there was such a lot of inspiring things going on in the UK’s singer songwriter scene. This may be one of the reasons why I love the notion of trying to write real songs also in my work a as jazz musician – though I find it quite demanding.“

But Sheppard also feels that his adopted home near Lisbon has left its mark on his new compositions: he mentions that very unique Portuguese phenomenon for which the world has coined the term „Saudade“ – a longing feeling and bitter-sweet melancholy that subtly permeates most tunes on Salt Catchers. „I have always been a romantic at heart.“

Explaining the album’s title Andy Sheppard remembers,” it came about because when thinking of a title for that tune I was working on a project with the university of Aveiro in Portugal and I went to visit the Salinas (salt works) there and saw some wonderful photos at a small museum of workers catching salt - which struck me as a very hard job. Given the respective tune is rather tricky and hard to play it seemed an appropriate title … which also ties into the track ‘Salgado’ - which means ‘salty’ and is also a nod to the incredible photos of Sebastião Salgado. And we all need salt … and music …”

Sheppard‘s eights originals were all written especially for this new recording and are completed by „Lawns“, a Carla-Bley-composition. „It is a tune that we played a lot in the trio with Carla and Steve but that we actually never recorded. Manfred, who is an unrivalled master when it comes to create the running order of the tracks, also liked the idea of including it – and I think now it is really an important part of the album‘s fabric.“

The record closes with „Irene“, a tender ballad showcasing Sheppard’s exquisite soprano playing and dedicated to his mother.

Caused i.a. by the restrictions of the pandemic it took a certain time until the actual sessions for the trio could take place. „In hindsight I think that was fortunate“, muses Sheppard. „It gave us time to play the music live before we entered the studio. Thus the tunes could take on a life of their own and develop organically.“ Salt Catchers was recorded in March 2025 at Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI in Lugano and produced by Manfred Eicher.

Andy Sheppard, tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone
Rita Marcotulli, piano
Michel Benita, double bass

Andy Sheppard
is one of Europe’s leading saxophonists, a rare British musician who has had a profound impact on the international jazz scene. Sheppard, who was born in Wiltshire in 1957, took up the sax at the age of 19 and was playing in public within three weeks. After a period in Paris where he played in bars seven nights a week and worked with groups including performance art band Urban Sax, he returned to the UK in the mid-1980s and began his recording career.

His first album as leader for ECM (after many collaborations with Carla Bley on sibling label, WATT) was Movements in Colour, released in 2009. Here Sheppard heads an outstandingly gifted international quintet featuring guitarists John Parricelli and Eivind Aarset, tabla player Kuljit Bhamra and Arild Andersen on bass. John Fordham in the Guardian called it “lyrical, playful, accessible – and pure Sheppard”.

Extending the range of his widely praised Trio Libero project (“an album of stately elegance and beauty”) in 2012 with Michel Benita and Seb Rochford, Sheppard added guitarist Eivind Aarset (who made significant contributions to Movements In Colour) to the band to form the Andy Sheppard Quartet, first heard on Surrounded by Sea. With Aarset’s ambient drones and electronic textures as a backdrop, the quartet have greater space than ever to explore. The album includes new compositions, open improvisations, an Elvis Costello tune, and the Gaelic traditional ballad “Aoidh, Na Dean Cadal Idir”. Sheppard also features on Ketil Bjørnstad’s album La Notte, a sort of “soundtrack to an inner film”.

Rita Marcotulli
Born in Rome, she began playing the piano at the age of five and graduated in classical music from the Santa Cecilia Conservatoire in Rome. Marcotulli began her professional career in the early 1980s and made her first recording in 1984. In 1987, Marcotulli was named ‘Best New Talent’ by Musica Jazz magazine. In 1989, she joined Billy Cobham’s band, with whom she performed all over the world, and in 1992 she joined Dewey Redman’s band, with whom she collaborated for 15 years, performing throughout Europe and South America. Marcotulli then moved to Sweden, where she collaborated with musicians from Northern Europe such as: Palle Danielsson, Marilyn Mazur, Jon Christensen, Nils Petter Molvaer, Anders Jormin, Tore Brumborg, Bobo Stenson and John Taylor. This influenced her compositional style. On her return to Italy, she took part in an extensive tour with Pino Daniele and Pat Metheny. She also contributed to the film *Basilicata coast to coast*, for which she worked on the soundtrack. Thanks to this work, Marcotulli received the Golden Ciak in 2010, the Nastro d’Argento for Best Soundtrack, the David di Donatello for Best Musician in 2011 (the first woman ever to receive this award) and the Top Jazz Award 2011 as Best Italian Jazz Artist according to Musica Jazz magazine. In February 2013, she was a member of the expert jury at the 63rd Sanremo Music Festival.

Michel Benita
An internationalist at the heart of the French scene since the early 1980s, Michel Benita honed his craft in the jazz clubs and concert halls of Paris playing with an extensive roll call of visiting players, expatriates and local musicians – the list includes Archie Shepp, Horace Parlan, Billy Hart, Joe Lovano, Bobo Stenson, Joe Diorio, Gordon Beck, Enrico Rava, Dino Saluzzi, Lee Konitz, Harold Danko, Jon Christensen, Nils-Petter Molvaer, Joshua Redman, Tom Harrell, Roy Haynes, Charlie Mariano, Peter Erskine, Kenny Wheeler, Steve Kuhn, Kenny Werner, Enrico Pieranunzi, François Jeanneau, Daniel Humair, Michel Portal, Toots Thielemans, Martial Solal, Michel Legrand, l'Orchestre de Lyon and many more.

His first recordings as leader featured the late, great Dewey Redman alongside Rita Marcotulli and Aldo Romano. Benita’s sense of improvising possibility has often looked beyond jazz, and his 2008 album Ramblin’ reflected a love of country music, bluegrass and folk.

Booklet for Salt Catchers