I Compani

The Dutch jazz group I Compani first attracted attention in 1985 through a program titled Fellini/Rota. Early members comprised bandleader Bo van de Graaf on soprano and tenor saxophone, Frank Nielander on alto sax, Wouter van Bemmel on trumpet and tuba, Jeroen Doomernik on trumpet, Jeroen Goldsteen on piano, Carel van Rijn on bass, and Fred van Duynhoven on drums. The project paired live performances of Nino Rota’s scores with scenes from Fellini films including La Strada, La Dolce Vita, 8 1/2, Amarcord, and Roma. That same year van de Graaf personally delivered the ensemble’s debut album, Music to the Films of Fellini, to Fellini at his Rome studio.

Although I Compani have remained centered on Rota’s work, they have regularly incorporated original pieces, most of them composed by van de Graaf, that blend jazz, film music, and classical elements. During their formative period the core lineup was frequently expanded for concerts by trombonists Joost Buis, Bernard Hunnekink, and Chris Abelen, trumpeter Felicity Provan, guitarist Corrie van Binsbergen, and saxophonists Maarten van Norden, Fred Leeflang, and Frans Vermeerssen, while actors, clowns, acrobats, and dancers joined the performances.

Following the 1985 debut, the group maintained a steady recording schedule that produced Ecco: More Music by Nino Rota in 1988, Luna Triste in 1990, Sogni d’Oro in 1994, I Compani Plays Rota in 1995, Gluteus Maximus in 1997, Het Circus Komt (The Circus Is Coming) in 2000, Aida in 2001, Circusism in 2008, and Last Tango in Paris: The Music of Gato Barbieri in 2010.

In February 2011 the ensemble marked its 25th anniversary with the album Mangiare!, which surveyed a broad cross-section of its repertoire and styles. The recording featured van de Graaf and Doomernik together with trombonist Hans Sparla, violinist Tessa Zoutendijk, cellist Jacqueline Hamelink, bandoneonist Michel Mulder, keyboardist Christoph Mac-Carty, and the Willem Breuker Kollektief rhythm section of bassist Arjen Gorter and drummer Rob Verdurmen. The following September the group released Garbo, drawn from the live project Diva’s that paid tribute to iconic screen actresses across a century of cinema; the package also contained a bonus disc, Tango and Impro, captured at a 2011 memorial concert for Maria Schneider.

Extended 2013 appeared the next year as a live document of an expanded 23-piece configuration that emphasized improvisation and audience interaction. In 2014 the ensemble returned with Verdi 2.00, another concert recording that revisited its 2001 treatment of Aida alongside additional works by Giuseppe Verdi to mark the composer’s bicentennial. Live performance remains the ensemble’s strongest setting, as evidenced by hundreds of concerts at the North Sea Jazz Festival, Winterparade Amsterdam, festivals in Le Mans and Mulhouse, Leicester, Frankfurt, Vilshoven, Hamburg, Cologne, and Bielefeld, plus film festivals in Ghent and Rotterdam.