Saltacello writes musical stories between classical and jazz, between East and West, between serious and cheerful, between composition and improvisation, between lightness and heaviness.

A cello, a saxophone and a rhythm group – that is what’s needed to create the sound of Saltacello. The name is a made up word, combining the Italian word “saltare” – which means to “leap” or “jump” – with the instrument, the cello. And that’s exactly what happens with this ensemble, the cello “leaps” out of its trusted and familiar world of classical music.

Alongside the sound of jazz at its heart, Saltacello’s works bear influences of chamber music as well as of Latin American and Asian sounds. The counterintuitive rhythms, worked with great care into motifs, are stirring. A mixture of lyric and expressive passages is imbedded in an energetic exchange between the instruments, creating a melodic but tension-filled dialogue between cello and saxophone. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.