“Extra! Music Magazine” Review

New “Morning Grooves” Review comin’ up from italian magazine “Extra!”
Enjoy 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, in 2007 obtained the degree in music at the DAMS Bologna.
Sounds far, summer and tropical converge in a single melody with “Out of Sight” and endless frenetic pace, a stroke on the keys of the bass, dancing on the strings and then for a moment, the notes of a piano show an immense calm that once again welcomes the ecstatic frenzy, is “Mind, Passion & Instinct” the second track, a highway along which the various sounds are chasing interweaving.
The dances are not finished yet, not until the shock of “Quetzalcoatl” has slipped in the legs making you move your pelvis and shoulders around the clock, the sounds permeate the listening nullifying the effect of size simply by scrolling over anything that is about as a colorful stream. “Deaf Kids’ Disco” bounces with her hyperactive performance funk, putting well highlighted the harmony of different instruments as they rotate, but the real substance is known to pause in that Bottura introduces several songs calm down for a moment the tumultuous rage of the piece with a mirror of melodies. “Sweet Tears” is reflection, memories, known simply blown in the slow drip of rhythm, the low legal guardian of a trumpet ragged in a carousel of sounds just barely whispered.
“Stern Memories” tends his hand to jazz joking about sudden changes, a chamber piece, from taste to the end, recovering the wake of the funk that pierces the entire album, “Mayday Mayhem” flows directly from the seventies, low blows known as boils, cut the battery is alternate with furious attacks of the instruments, perhaps this is the track that encloses most of all the immense versatility and versatility of the artist, sin will end too soon.
“Black Lady”, a cocktail of funk and jazz very successful, especially the choice of sounds simple, minimal parts makes even more appreciable, the disc is perfect for a relaxing evening in the company of friends, but in the long term appears in some passages “static”, linked to a well-defined line. However Bottura can enter every trace elements in surprising and totally subversive shares than the main structure, such as time of Arab “Black Lady”.
“Tropical Night” starts winding up and promises to notice what the title means, get lost on this final track is almost like dreaming, and the closure is good, the beautiful and very hard to discover, we hope to see Bottura live soon.”
– Alessio Scicolone for “Extra! Music Magazine” –

Check the original version here !

“Mind, Passion & Instinct” On Outbound Radio

The 2nd track from “Morning Grooves” album has been chosen for on air passage on the “Jazz Channel” of “Outbound Radio”, the official radio of “Outbound Music” group. The “Request it!” button will soon be activated.
By now, stay tuned and check out my profile here.

“Mescalina.it” Review

This is the review appeared on 9th June 2009 on the italian webzine “Mescalina.it” for “Morning Grooves”:

“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 responsabilities assumed by the musician is a strong signal of his competences,  character and potentials.

On the other hand, the multi-disciplinary orientation of the single author determines the main limits of the work; it’s difficult to do everything at the top level and, above all, impossible to avoid the risk of a certain homogenity of the instrumental parts.

Compositions signal a rhythmic sensibility based on Jazz and Funk, with a fondness for syncopated and rubato merged fluidly with rolled passages.  The choice of duration is orientated to mid-tempo, to create that typical cadencial schemes in which beat and upbeat are really clear and sometimes too regular.

The melodies are mainly exposed by piano and guitar that introduce the themes leaving then to the bass a series of beats for the variations. In this phase we’ve got the best from the artist, that evaluates his main instrument with interventions that recalls Pastorius or Clarke (or many others, starting from Weather Report).

The tunes’ structure often recall the classical scheme AABA; the melodies evoke different influences, from Latin to Progressive, from New Age to Blues; anyway, these ingredients never predominate in a decisive way and after all it conserves an after-taste centred on  jazz rock (or rock jazz, it depends..).

The whole work result sometimes a little too much homogeneous and self-referenced, without the unpredictability that’s the main flavour of this genre.

Anyway, lights certainly prevails on shadows; the work must be considered as a really important expression of potentials  that will transform into effective performance when the artist will be able to exploit his knowledges synergically united with others”

– Vittorio Formenti  for “Mescalina.it” –

To see the original version,  click here


“Mind,Passion & Instinct” On Air!

The track “Mind, Passion & Instict” has been chosen for airplay on Radio Indie104-iRadio LA.  Belonging to the 1.fm group, Indie104 has more than 25,000 listeners per day and the track has already obtained 5/5 stars of appreciation!
Thanks to everyone for the appreciation!

To request “Mind, Passion & Instinct” on iRadio and continue to support my music click here

New Press Release!

Here’s the brand new press release for “Morning Grooves” album appeared on 1888pressrelease.com:

April 14, 2009 – The multi-talented Italian Bass Player Alessandro Bottura has released his brand new CD entitled Morning Grooves, which features his RadioIndy chart-topping single MayDay Mayhem. The album contains nine smooth fusion songs of rock, jazz, and pop instrumentals, including another radio favorite Stern Memories that has listeners mesmerized when they hear the hard hitting bass playing reminiscent of the Jaco Pastorius masterpieces of the early 70s.

Morning Grooves was recorded in Modena, Italy and co-produced via the internet through collaboration with Mark A. Forrest, Artist Manager in the entertainment mecca that is Las Vegas where Mark, owner of Maftrust Inter Vivos Studio, has continued to earn praise for his previously discovered artist’s to top the charts in the United States.

Throughout the recording process fans around the world have awaited Alessandros debut album as he has earned significant interest on an international level by being a very popular and listened to artist on the Last.fm music website. As of today, the song MayDay Mayhem stands at #1 on the RadioIndy charts in the U.S. while simultaneously also being #1 on the ReverbNation charts for Italy. Alessandro Bottura’s new CD Morning Grooves is currently available through iTunes, CD Baby, Rhapsody, Amazon.com, 7Digital, and Napster.

To see the original page

“MayDay Mayhem” reaches 1st place on RadioIndy!

“MayDay Mayhem”, 7th track of the album “Morning Grooves”, has reached the first place in the absolute chart of Hi-Fi Internet Radio “RadioIndy.com”!
Thanks to everyone for the support! Keep on listen!
To see the chart click the following link:

RadioIndy.com Review

“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

My RadioIndy Page

Not bad, huh?!

CD Baby Review

Check out the CDBaby presentation for the CD:

“Funk, Rock, Pop and Jazz all mixed up in this first album by Italian bass player Alessandro Bottura; a 9-track instrumental journey in a Fusion experience that learns from masters such as Weather Report, Yellowjackets, Rippingtons, Spyro Gyra and MM&W.”

“Morning Grooves” CD presentation

The Final Layout Made by Federica Castellani Tarabini

Born from the abundance of ideas (some good, some other less, I must admit), from the need of listen as realized what I’ve got in my head and from the almost total absence of external collaborators, the project “Morning Grooves” contains everything that influenced me in my musical career, from Hard Rock to Funk, passing through Pop and Jazz: so, it mustn’t be surprising finding here recalls and quotations more or less explicit to well-known artists and not. The title itself comes from the situation in which these song are written, that is during my daily morning training sessions, from which I take some permissions to develop any possible ideas. The project has finally taken the definitive form of LP at the beginning of 2009, thanks to the support and the collaboration given by Mark A. Forrest.

Check the direct links to my LastFm Page to hear the tracks and to CDBaby for buyin’ it!

My Musical History

I was born on 3rd June 1984 and I started to get interested in music since I was a child,  studying piano for 5 years,  then guitar and drums until 2000, when I finally landed to the electric bass as self-taught.

With the rock band NoLogo, we’ve performed in many live shows throughout Modena, winning also the regional contest Suonatecele 2 that was announced by La Tenda. It was great fun in that period, always giggin’ upside down,  no matter how far or what time, only thinkin’ about playin’ loud and makin’ mess!

From 2002, I started the Accademia di Musica in Modena, following both the theory class taken by Giuseppe La Monica and the instrument course with Enrico Lazzarini (2002-2006) and Glauco Zuppiroli (2006-2007).

From 2004 to 2006, I was playing with the band Landslide Ladies, getting gigs all across Italy: Milano, Torino, Roma, Venezia, Padova, Vicenza, Bologna, Bari, etc. . Just a taste of the real life on-the-road, but an exceptional experience that teached me a lot on how to live (professionally) in a band.

In 2007, I’d finally earned my Degree in Music at the D.A.M.S. of Bologna;  in the same year, I’ve also attended the “One Week Intensive” program at the Jeff Berlin’s Players School Of Music in Clearwater, Tampa, FL. auditing to Master Classes by Larry Coryell, Gumbi Ortiz and Richard Dreixler. Men, what an experience being taught by Mr. Jeff Berlin himself!

I’m currently studying at PercentoMusica in Roma, being taught on music and life by some of the best italian musicians, such like Massimo Moriconi, Pierpaolo Ranieri, Mario Guarini and Luca Pirozzi (electric bass), Fabio Zeppetella and Michael Rosen (Jazz Improvisation), Massimo Fedeli (playing ensembles and improvisation), Aldo Fedele, Franco Ventura and Davide Aru (playing ensembles), Andrea Avena and Stefano Scatozza (music theory), Fabrizio Aiello (rythmical awareness).

I also continue the studies at the Accademia Di Musica in Modena, following the improvement classes held by M Giuseppe La Monica.

At the end of 2008,  I’ve known Mr. Mark A. Forrest, artist manager and chief of the Maftrust Inter Vivos of Las Vegas, NV, who made possible the pubblication of my first solo CD, “Morning Grooves”, published in 2009 and already available on CDBaby.com