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 zu Salt Catchers

Nach einer von der Kritik hochgelobten Veröffentlichung mit seinem Trio Libero, erfolgreichen Quartettaufnahmen (Surrounded By Sea, 2015, und Romaria, 2018) sowie einer international gefeierten Albumtrilogie im Trio mit Carla Bley und Steve Swallow präsentiert der englische Saxophonist Andy Sheppard auf Salt Catchers ein neues Trio mit der italienischen Pianistin Rita Marcotulli und dem französischen Bassisten Michel Benita – zwei Musikern, „mit denen mich eine lange gemeinsame Geschichte verbindet, mit denen ich jedoch bislang nie gemeinsam aufgenommen habe.“

Geprägt von einnehmender melodischer Schönheit, feiner Harmonik und aufmerksamem Zusammenspiel, vereint das Album acht neue Kompositionen von Sheppard sowie ein Stück von Carla Bley zu einem kleinen Paradies musikalischer Gelassenheit. Sheppards unverwechselbarer Klang und seine elegant phrasierten Linien werden dabei von zwei kongenialen Mitmusikern ergänzt, die sich durch außerordentlichen Geschmack und tiefes gegenseitiges Verständnis auszeichnen.

Salt Catchers wurde im März 2025 im Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI in Lugano aufgenommen und von Manfred Eicher produziert.

Andy Sheppard, Tenorsaxophon, Sopransaxophon
Rita Marcotulli, Klavier
Michel Benita, Kontrabass

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 für Salt Catchers