Tramontana ( Sebastiano )

Sebastiano Tramontana was born 12 December 1960 in Rosolini, Sicily. Sebi Tramontana started playing guitar as a child and then moved to the soprano saxophone in the late 1970s. He switched to trombone in 1982 and during a radio production with Bruno Tommaso met Giancarlo Schiaffini, who convinced him to move to Rome and study with him at A. Casella Conservatorio in L’Aquila. In Rome he collaborated with Martin Joseph, Eugenio Colombio and Mario Schiano and in 1986 was a member of the New Talents Orchestra, performing at the Rocella Jonica Festival. He guested with Gruppo Romano Free Jazz for their 30th anniversary in 1996.

In 1987 he started a trio with Daniel Studer and Roberto Altamura which played at the Contraindicazione Festival in Rome and subsequently performed with Paul Rutherford, Barry Guy, Gerard Siracusa, Eugenio Colombo, Co Streiff and Martin Mayes. Tramontana was invited by Mario Schiano in 1988 to take part in the recording of Red and blue with Vladimir Tarasov and Vladimir Chekasin. In 1990 he completed his studies at A. Casella Conservatorio and joined the Italian Instabile Orchestra. His first solo performance was in Rome in 1992 and this has been followed by performances in Zürich, Mulhouse, Clusone, Köln, Ruvo Di Puglia, Roccella, Jonica and Göttingen. In 1994 he was invited by Georg Gräwe to “Two Nights Of Random Acoustics” in Köln, subsequently joining the Georg Graewe Quintet and touring Europe. In 1998, he recorded a duo with Graewe for the Italian Splasc(h) label and in July 2003 became a member of the Georg Graewe new quintet, with Tobias Delius, Kent Kessler and Michael Vatcher.

In 1996 Tramontana performed at the festival di Roccella Jonica with Barre Phillips, Michel Doneda and two dancers and then at the Victoriaville festival with Mario Schiano, Evan Parker, Paul Lovens and Barry Guy. He also appeared at the Empty Bottle in Chiacgo with Hamid Drake, Kent Kessler, Ken Vandermark and Mars Williams. In 1997 he performed the ‘Art Of Dialogue’ in Munich with Joëlle Léandre.

In 1999 he received a scholarship from the City of Munich for 6 week residence in the US and as a result visited Chicago (playing at the Empty Bottle festival and recording with Jim Baker, Fred Lonberg Holm, Michael Zerang, Lou Mallozi, Jeb Bishop, Ken Vandermark and Kent Kessler), San Francisco and New York. From 1999 to 2002 he was Artistic Director (with Ch.Hofig department of Culture of the City of Munich) of the festival “Come Sunday” and during this period he also founded the group XAXA with Phil Wachsmann, Mats Gustafsson and Paul Lovens.

In 2001 Tramontana undertook concerts and recordings in Chicago with the “Night People” project (a homage to Dickie Wells), a string quartet with Guiellermo Gregorio on clarinet and in duo with Jeb Bishop (Chicago defenders). He also began to play in duo with Paul Lovens (with the Buster Keaton The General project), performing in Munich, Ljubljana, Graz, Cologne, Regensburg, Rome, Maribor, Kassel and Göttingen. In 2002-03 he was a member of the Mats Gustafsson’s Nu Ensemble.

In 2003 he appeared at the Banlieues Bleu Festival in Paris and Ghent (Belgium) with Joëlle Léandre’s European Quartett featuring Carlos Zingaro, Paul Lovens and special guest Irène Schweizer. He played a duo with Léandre at the Ulrichsberg Kaleidophon and also performed in the Trombone Trio – in Ljubljana and Maribor – with Vinko Globokar and Johannes Bauer.

Since 1999 Sebi Tramontana has toured Germany and Austria with TV and movie actor Udo Wachtveitl and, since 2001, been a musician and actor with the Dance Company En Knap of Iztok Kovac from Ljubljana. He appeared in the film of Under my skin, directed by Saso Podgorsek, in 2004. 2004 also saw a collaboration with the electronic 48 nord group in Munich.

In November 2004 he will exhibit his paintings in an exhibition in Chicago entitled Stop, Look & Listen: Artwork by Musicians alongside works by Pee Wee Russel, Hal Rammel, Han Bennink, Peter Brötzmann and others. In April 2005 he will tour with Joëlle Léandre and Paul Lovens and will be in Chicago to perform with a new project of Lou Mallozzi.

AVAILABLE RELEASES featuring Sebastiano Tramontana