Happy new year 2011!

I just wanna wish you all the best for the brand new year! That you might see all your dreams come true!
Have a great 2011!!

New Review by MusicDish

This is the review of my version of “Spaccacuore” featured on US e-journal “MusicDish” and “Mi2N.com”. Enjoy it!!

Alessandro Bottura Is Back With A Brand New Release After Enjoying Great Success With His Debut Album, Morning Grooves, Which Was Released In March 2009 To Rave Reviews By Both Critics And Fans.

Alessandro Bottura is back with a brand new release after enjoying great success with his debut album, Morning Grooves, which was released in March 2009 to rave reviews by both critics and fans. Bottura’s latest track, “Spaccacuore” is a medium tempo groove that speaks of unrequited love and the pain that accompanies it. The constant “wah wah” on the guitar pedaling into a syncopated piano figure is a good backdrop for Bottura’s vocals which have a great smoky (and I might also add “sexy”) sound. In fact, this particular vocal performance reminds me of Phil Collins.

Bottura, a multi-talented multi-instrumentalist (piano, guitar, drums and bass) does a great job with this song, originally recorded by Samuele Bersani in 2004, and then again in 2009 by Laura Pausini, who took it to new heights. The four piece rhythm section features a nice electric bass solo on the breakdown between verses. Morning Grooves both introduced Bottura and solidified him as a bonifide rock/pop/jazz musician with talent to stand the test of time – not an easy feat in the music industry. Bottura has been compared to Jaco Pastorius, an American jazz musician and composer who was widely known for his skills as an electric bass guitarist, and his performance on “Spaccacuore” only reinforces that parallel. The tune is solid, enjoyable though melancholy, and while it may be classified as adult contemporary rock, it is infused with a hint of jazz flavor for spice. “Spaccacuore” builds to a layered background with vocal harmonies and power fuzz guitar chords before fading to a nice finish.
Michele Wilson-Morris, MusicDish

Check the original version here

New Single Release: “Spaccacuore”!

This week has been released the new single “Spaccacuore”, an english cover of the beatiful italian tune by Samuele Bersani.
The song has been re-arranged with a new jazz-funk twist and a groovy bass solo, plus it features my first vocal performance ever!
Check it out on iTunes or on CDBaby!

The cover

Alessandro Bottura: Bass, lead and backing vocals, lead and rhythm guitars, piano, synth and drum prodramming

Janaid Princess V Alessandro Bottura Signature “BUCEPHALUS”

Finally the bass realized from the amazing spanish luthier Javier Lopez of Janaid Guitars is ready!

An incredible instrument, both for aestethics, tone and feel!

The only thing I can say is “Thanks J!!”

Specs:

Neck Features:

• 5 strings with Hi-C

• Standard scale - 24 frets

• Hard Maple (4 laminates), Wenge (2 laminates) and Bubinga (1 laminate) with Mukali veneers

• Neck-Through-Body

• CocoBolo Fingerboard with Hard Maple insert

• Fretted (17 frets) and fretless (7 lined frets)

• Orange LightAid Resine Alessandro Bottura's Logo on fretless part

• Black Resine Block Inlays

• Olive Wood Peghead Top with "Bucephalus" Insert

• Wood Nut

Body Features:

• Standard JanAid Princess Singlecutaway body shape

• Buckeye Burl Top

• Iroko and Cedar Body

• Olive, Iroko and Tiger Walnut back

• White Binding (only in the back)

• High Gloss Laquer finishes

Hardware Features:

• Redwood Backplate

• Olive wood knobs

• Olive wood Pickup covers

• Three-Way golden bridge

• Wilkinson gold tuners

• Marvel golden straplocks

Electronic Features:

•  Two SounAid soap passive pickups

• Aguilar OBP-3 SoundAid modified onboard preamp (4 pots) with
  Active/Passive Blend control, Treble/Custom JanAid's Alessandro
  Bottura's sound and stacked Mid/Bass

Perfect for every kind of music, from Jazz to Funk, Pop, Rock, this bass isn’t only an instrument, but a 360° playin’ experience, made by one of the greatest living luthiers.

For more infos on these amazing instruments click here

New Review by MovimentiProg Magazine

Brand new “Morning Grooves” review appeared on italian magazine “MovimentiProg”

Enjoy it and stay tuned for more!

“Mind, Passion And Instinct: the triptych “Mind, Passion and Instinct”- the title of one of the songs that make up this disc – seems to be the compass that guides the work of Alessandro Bottura. The little genius of progressive fusion and funky colors, the young musician from Modena is more than a bassist: composer and instrumentalist, has created this intriguing debut album “Morning Grooves” in complete solitude.
After having the experience in groups such as NoLogo and Landslide Ladies, Bottura studied in the USA with Jeff Berlin and returned back to Italy where he received more endorsements. The meeting with the manager Mark A. Forrest back in the States and through Las Vegas they have launched their project to the world. The hard fact is that they are enjoying wide international radio shows and good music reviews.
The secret? The balance between the different components: the technical element is subordinate to the objectives clearly defined, the emotional balance of virtuosity, funk soul and warms the typical jazz-fusion solutions, often diverted into reggae and rock shores. “Out of sight,” the piece quoted at the beginning, the overwhelming “MayDay Mayhem” and “Tropical Night” mixing different influences (from jazz-rock as “flesh” of the ’70s nu-jazz to contemporary, from Weather Report ‘s Jaco goes to Medeski Martin & Wood), the calypso of “Quetzalcoatl” is buzzing as the eclectic funk “Stern Memories” from the vague references to Hendrix.
A fine debut album from a valuable Italian musician, who awaits a second trial, perhaps with a group that can enhance even more its project.”

Donato Zoppo
Movimenti Prog

To see the original post, click here

Updated Pro Bio

“Jaco Pastorius would be proud to hear the bass chops of jazz artist Alessandro Bottura. His latest record, “Morning Grooves” is a smooth fusion of rock, jazz, and pop instrumentals all rolled into one amazing sound. Bottura’s bass playing speaks for itself and is immediately evident right from the opening track, “Out of Sight.” His jazz fueled bass runs fly up and down the neck and are nicely driven by some outstanding guitar/drum work. Bottura changes gears a bit and slow things down on “Sweet Tears,” which also highlights his staccato playing skills. Any fan of Jaco Pastorius or of virtuoso bass playing will love this album, plus the band behind Bottura is just as exceptional as he.”

Shaun H. and the RadioIndy.com Reviewer Team

“Jaco Pastorius Meets Frank Zappa. Truly Fabulous Artistry.”

Author: Bababooey (Executive Producer of the Howard Stern Show)

“The artist from Modena proposes a hot and sophisticated work…The record is the synthesis of the bassist’s enterprising research. It comes out under the overview of Maftrust Inter Vivos of Las Vegas. A curriculum rich and full-bodied that comes out from the composition exposed on this Morning Grooves. Alessandro Bottura, between straight funk and fusion virtuosity, gives wonderful hyper-technical attacks attended by research and bright and expressive solutions.”

– Fabrizio Maululu for Supportoitaliano Webzine

“Bottura is a really young italian multi-instrumentalist (born 1984) with solid musical bases built with harmony, drums, guitar, piano and electric bass studies. This kaleidoscopic preparation allowed him to compose, product and realize all by himself this work that can be collocated into Fusion music area. The broad spectrum of responsibilities assumed by the musician is a strong signal of his competences, character and potentials.”

– Vittorio Formenti for “Mescalina.it”

“Multifaceted and colorful, Morning Grooves is a continual delight on the staff, a carefree sound that comes from the best influences fusion, funk and electro. The technique comes out perfect from the first listen but the rest Bottura after five years of piano, guitar joined, on drums and finally to the electric bass on the disc that is practically the prince”

– Alessio Scicolone for “Extra! Music Magazine”

Alessandro Bottura was born on 3rd June 1984 in Modena, Italy.
He started to get interested in music since he was a child, studying piano for 5 years, then guitar and drums until 2000, when he landed to the bass as self-taught.
In the same year he started his first own rock band, NoLogo, with which he performed in lots of live shows, winning also the contest “Suonatecele 2” announced by La Tenda.
In 2002, more and more attracted by jazz and funk music, he started the “Accademia di Musica” in Modena, following both the theory class taken by M° Giuseppe La Monica and the instrument course with M° Enrico Lazzarini (2002-2006) and M° Glauco Zuppiroli (2006-2007).

After a one-year experience with the rock band Landslide Ladies, who took him in tour all across the country, in 2007 he confered the degree on music at the D.A.M.S. of Bologna and decides to move to the U.S. to join the Jeff Berlin’s “Players School Of Music” in Clearwater, Tampa, FL.

Back to Italy, he started following the multi-stylistic course at “PercentoMusica” in Rome, with some of the best Italian (and European) musicians such as Massimo Moriconi, Luca Pirozzi, Fabio Zeppetella, John Arnold, Michael Rosen and Massimo Fedeli.

By all those experiences, Alessandro starts to put together all the musical ideas that would constitute the backbone of his first release, “Morning Grooves”. The hard project of a solo release took life when he met online the present manager Mark A. Forrest of Maftrust Inter Vivos, based in Las Vegas, NV.This new support gave new lifeblood to the artist, that completed all the tracks of the album, recording all the instruments by himself, and published it in 2009, produced by Bucephalus Productions, Alessandro and Mark’s own record company.

Then, together with the new manager, he starts a huge web promotion of the album, getting lots of good results, topping the independent online jazz charts in US and obtaining more and more listeners and great audience feedbacks on LastFm, Grooveshark, Jango and IMISound.

The unexpected success of the project, convinced the couple to continue the collaboration and re-publish the album in 2010, with the remixes and remasterings of all the previous tracks plus two brand new unedited songs, as “Morning Grooves – Special Digital Edition”. Alessandro is now scheduling his first US tour, with the help of Mark, planned for the season of 2011/12.

New Release – “Morning Grooves – Special Digital Edition”

Finally the new album is out! The new release of Morning Grooves contains the remixes and the remasterings of all the nine tracks included in the previous “Morning Grooves” plus two brand new releases, “Gotta pay!” and “Hope After All”.

Here’s the complete tracklist:
1. Out Of Sight RMX (Rough BX3 Solo Edit)
2. Mind, Passion & Instinct RMX (Ozone Fixed Edit)
3. Quetzalcoatl RMX (Less Rain Edit)
4. Deaf Kids’ Disco RMX (Mark Pad Edit)
5. Sweet Tears RMX (R’n’B Groove Edit)
6. Stern Memories RMX (Hard BX3 Edit)
7. MayDay Mayhem RMX (Tied Up Edit)
8. Black Lady RMX (Dark Mood Edit)
9. Tropical Night RMX (Reggae Feel Edit)
10. Gotta Pay! (Bonus Track)
11. Hope After All (Bonus Track)

To listen to previews and buy the album, click here

“Morning Grooves – Special Digital Editon” – Presentation Clip

Presentation clip for “Morning Grooves – Special Digital Editon”, soon available on all the major web stores.

The album consists of the remixes of all the previous album tracks and two brand new tunes, “Gotta Pay” and “Hope After All”.

Credits:
All tracks written, arranged and played by Alessandro Bottura
Logo, Artwork and Photoshoot by Federica Castellani Tarabini
Management by Mark A. Forrest
Produced by Bucephalus Productions and Maftrust Inter Vivos
© 2010 – All right reserved

New album Coming Soon

New “Morning Grooves Special Digital Edition” Remix Album with two brand new Bonus Tracks, “Gotta Pay” and “Hope After All”,  is sure to make for quite an exquisite listening experience! Available on web stores only!

New Photoshoot

This is my brand new photoshoot, realized by Federica Castellani Tarabini.
Hope you enjoy it!