Paolo Innarella
Transverse flute, bass flute and saxophone · Rome, Italy
An Italian jazz flautist and saxophonist. He plays the transverse flute and the bass flute on SLOW — Ballads by the Lake.
The instrument stays stuck to your skin
As well as a flautist I am also a saxophonist. How can I put it — when you grow up playing an instrument it stays stuck to your skin, it becomes part of you. I started playing the flute at the age of nine, in the municipal band of Lacedonia, a town in the south of Italy.
Flute and saxophone
When I recorded my first album Lutte was there on guitar, and most of the pieces were on tenor and soprano saxophone. Only two I played on the flute, and I always loved the sonority that came out of the blend between Lutte’s sound and the flute. That sound had stayed inside me as a beautiful memory. The lake, and Lutte’s invitation, did the rest.
The lake, and this record
Recording usually means a windowless room lit only by electric light. This time it was the opposite — and after nearly forty years in Rome, I heard the difference in my own playing straight away.
Read Paolo’s full answerElsewhere
Paolo began as a classical flautist and graduated with top marks in transverse flute, before moving to the saxophone and to jazz. He has performed at Italian and international festivals with Mike Mainieri, George Garzone, Eddie Henderson, Mick Goodrick and Ares Tavolazzi. He has released albums of his own compositions — “Melodic Art”, “Le Jardin Perdu”, “Mouche Bulle” — and written film music, including the soundtrack for “Un paese ci vuole” by Vanni Vallino and, with others, “Oasi” by Michele Bortone, screened at the Venice Film Festival.