Charly Antolini


Charly Antolini is a Swiss jazz drummer.

Career

Born in Zürich, Antolini started playing the traditional Swiss Basler drum. In 1956 he went to Paris, where he played with Sidney Bechet, Bill Coleman. He joined the Tremble Kids with trumpeter Oscar Klein and clarinettist Werner Keller. In 1962 he lived in Stuttgart, Germany, where he spent five years playing with bassist Peter Witte and pianist Horst Jankowski in the SWR Big Band led by Erwin Lehn. With Witte, between 1965 and 1967, he recorded five albums for the Romanian pianist Eugen Cicero, who combined classical music with jazz. He also played in big bands with Kurt Edelhagen, Peter Herbolzheimer, and Max Greger in the NDR Bigband.
In 1976 he formed Charly Antolini's Jazz Power with Steve Hooks, Andrei Lobanov, David Gazarov. and Rocky Knauer. Later members were Len Skeat and Brian Lemon. In the 1980s he toured Germany, Italy, and Denmark with Benny Goodman, as well as with Lionel Hampton, Barbara Dennerlein, Albert Mangelsdorff, Earl Hines, Roy Eldridge, Jimmy Giuffre, Art Farmer, Oliver Nelson, Art Van Damme, Stuff Smith, and Baden Powell. In the late 1980s-early 1990s he recorded four albums with British tenor saxophonist Dick Morrissey, three of which were live, and in 1994 he started the Super Trio with pianist Dirk Raufeisen and bassist Jimmy Woode.

Discography

As leader

With Eugen Cicero
With Horst Jankowski
With Art Van Damme
With others