Lorenzo Feliciati

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Essentially self-taught, Feliciati was drawn to the music of Led Zeppelin early on. By age 14, he gravitated to fretless electric bass after seeing Jaco Pastorius in concert with Weather Report during their Night Passage tour in 1982. “It was the last tour Jaco did with the band and one of my first live concerts. I had heard his first solo album in 1980 but seeing him that night changed my life. I discovered that you could be a bass player and still be the coolest cat on stage. All the eyes of the people in the audience were on Jaco that night. His playing was so powerful and full of joy. As a kid playing a bass, seeing Jaco — in his top form and with the best band ever — was a shock! But in years later, I came to appreciate Jaco for more than just his chops. I still see him first and foremost as a musician and composer. He was a genius in music, not only on the bass.”
By age 20, he was playing blues-rock in clubs around Rome, but off stage he was discovering and analyzing the work of other influential fretless bass players like Mick Karn of Japan, Pino Palladino and Percy Jones along with the great fretted electric bassists Jeff Berlin and Victor Bailey. King Crimson also became a powerful influence on him in those formative years. Feliciati debuted as a leader in 2003 with Upon My Head on Schoots Records and followed up with 2006′s Live at European Bass Day, recorded in Viersen, Germany.
He has since appeared at Bass Day conventions in Verona, Italy and Manchester, England, sharing the stage with fellow bass monster Richard Bona, Linley Marthe and Dominique Di Piazza, among others. He has been spotlighted as “Bass Face of the Month” (February 2005) by the International Institute of Bassists and has conducted clinics at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Tilburg and the Academy of Contemporary Music of London. Now, with the release of his brilliant Frequent Flyer, Feliciati’s profile should make an incremental leap. As a player, composer and bandleader, he ranks among the heavyweights on the international bass scene.
Lorenzo Feliciati’s career is split between his role as one of Italy’sgreatest studio and live
professional musicians and his evolving career as one of the contemporary electric bass greats – but what sets him truly apart are his talents as composer, arranger and producer.
For his sixth recording for RareNoiseRecords, following his 2011 solo album Frequent
Flyer and subsequent collaborations with vocalist-multi-instrumentalist Lorenzo Esposito Fornasari (Berserk!) and Porcupine Tree bassist Colin Edwin (Twinscapes) as well as two albums with the adventurous jazz-rock band Naked Truth (Shizaru, Ouroboros), the restlessly creative bassist-composer- producer Lorenzo Feliciati followed up by realising his vision in the ambitious and deeply original KOI.

A concept album based on the life of the renowned fish, Koi features former Japan drummer Steve Jansen and current King Crimson drummer Pat Mastelotto along with pianist Alessandro Gwis, trumpeter Angelo Olivieri, saxophonist Nicola Alesini and a horn section consisting of tenor saxophonist Stan Adams, baritone saxophonist Duilio Ingrosso and bass trombonist Pierluigi Bastioli. A suite-like offering that intersperses mesmerizing ambient interludes with full-blown progrock type anthems, Koi brilliantly showcases Feliciati’s composerly vision while
highlighting his considerable chops on fretted and fretless electric basses.
At the end of 2017, Feliciati has upped the ante again on his latest project, ELEVATOR MAN. A powerhouse recording with echoes of King Crimson, Allan Holdsworth and other Prog Rock icons in its ten tracks, this latest outing by the prolific bassist-composer-arranger features a rotating cast of stellar musicians, including King Crimson drummer Pat Mastelotto, former Holdsworth drummer Chad Wackerman, Swedish guitar shredder Mattias IA Eklundh (of the Jonas Hellborg Trio and Art Metal), Italian progressive metal guitarist Marco Sfogli (currently of the legendary Italian Prog Rock band Premiata Forneria Marconi, aka PFM), trumpeter Cuong Vu and his Naked Truth and Mumpbeak bandmate Roy Powell on distortion-laced clavinet. As well as composing and arranging all the material, Feliciati plays fretted and fretless basses, electric guitar and keyboards on his seventh and most potent recording as a leader to date.

Photo Credits: Federica Costantino