ALBERTO POPOLLA
Clarinettist, saxophonist, bassist, arranger and composer, he has played in New York, Chicago, London, Berlin, Brussels, Algiers, Lisboa and in many Italian festivals. On electric bass he was a protagonist of the Italian and international neo-psychedelic scene of the 1980s with the band Magic Potion, who relesead two albums produced by the music critic Federico Guglielmi and recently reprinted in a box set. He then has explored the different sounds and the infinite resources of timbre of his clarinets, crossing experimentation and improvisation, writing and conductions, situations more strictly jazz and Balkan music and klezmer. He has promoted several Italian and European ensembles and collaborated with musicians from all around the world. He graduated Conservatory of Frosinone with a Bachelor’s degree in jazz clarinet and La Sapienza University in Rome with a Bachelor’s degree in Literature, with a plan of historical political studies of modern and contemporary age. He writes regularly for the magazines Prog Italia and Quaderni D’altri Tempi. In recent years he has dedicated himself passionately to the arrangement and composition to the great blues legacy with the band Roots Magic, voted several times among the ten best Italian groups in the Top Jazz referendum of the monthly magazine Musica Jazz, and to the fascinating sounds of the so-called Canterbury scene and progressive music. In 2025 he released his first solo album, Really The Blues, on the German label Aut Records. With just the ebony of his clarinet, the tapping of his foot, and an array of objects turned into instruments, Popolla reinterprets and rewrites African-American history and its quintessential musical expression: the Blues. The result is an organic and coherent universe, evoking a spiritual intimacy and narrating, through a unique language, the essence of a music still alive and vibrant. He teaches improvisation and jazz history in several music schools.
He has played and recorded with:
John Tchichai, Don Byron, Steve Beresford, Lol Coxhill, David Ryan, Ian Mitchell, Michel Godard, Simon Allen, Chris Cutler, London Improvisers Orchestra, Mamadou Diabate, Bob Moses, Greg Burk, Elliott Sharp, Jamal Ouassini, Noel Taylor, Veryan Weston, Michael Thieke, Ab Baars, Ig Henneman, Lisa Mezzacappa, Mike Cooper, Christian Munthe, Marco Cappelli, Mauro Pagani, Eugenio Colombo, Giancarlo Schiaffini, Gianni Trovalusci, Emanuele Parrini, Ferdinando Faraò, Cristina Zavalloni, Francesco Lo Cascio, Francesco Cusa, Marilena Paradisi, Ettore Fioravanti, Pasquale Innarella…
Festivals
Jazz im Goethe Garten (Lisboa), Konfrontationen (Nickelsdorf, Austria), Cernko Jazz Festival (Cerkno, Slovenia), Ljubljana Jazz Festival (Slovenia) Sonic Illuminations, Britsh Film Institute (London), Juke Joint Festival (Clarksdale, USA), Festival Culturel Europeen en Algerie, Jazztopad Festival (Wroclaw, PL), Crossroads (Imola-Bo), Firenze Jazz Festival, Angelica (Bologna), Atina Jazz (Atina-Fr), Villa Celimontana Jazz Festival (Roma), Pietre che Cantano (Cisternino-Br), Il Moro Jazz (Lentini-Sr), Festival di Nuova Consonanza (Roma), Emmas (Olbia), Klezmer Musica Festival (Ancona), Artisti in Piazza (Pennabilli-Rn), Vincoli Sonori (Pinerolo-To), Meeting delle Arti e della Musica (Catania), Along Came Jazz (Tivoli-Rm), Atlante Sonoro XXI (Roma), Alterazioni (Lainate-Mi), Jazz/Not Jazz (Palermo), Pinocchio Live Jazz (Firenze), Ai Confini tra Sardegna e Jazz. Sant’Anna Arresi (Cagliari), Jazz & Wine of Peace Festival (Cormons), Seixal Jazz Festival (Seixal, PT) …
Clubs and other venues BFlat (Berlin), Cafè Oto (London), Iklectik (London), Kettle’s Yard (Cambridge), DownTown Music Gallery (New York), Elastic Arts (Chicago), Ray’s Jazz at Foyle’s (London), Issue Project Room (New York), Italian Academy, Columbia University (New York), Brecht Forum (New York), Old Fire Station (Oxford), Oude Kerk (Brussels), Casa del Jazz (Roma), La Palma (Roma), La Citè (Firenze), Area Sismica (Forlì), Masada (Milano), Centro Stabile di Cultura (Vicenza), Druso (Bergamo), Monk Club (Roma)…