Salvatore Bonafede (born August 4, 1962) is an Italian composer and pianist.
Early life
The son of jewellers, Salvatore Bonafede was born in Palermo on 4 August 1962.. His father, Antonino Bonafede, was a self-taught jazz pianist and a follower of Erroll Garner. Through his father's influence Salvatore became interested in jazz and began playing the piano at the age of four. His early experiences date back to the early 1970s at the Brass Group Jazz Club in Palermo, Italy playing in jam sessions with Dexter Gordon, Joe Albany, Woody Shaw, Irio De Paola and Giorgio Gaslini.
In 1973 he made his first engagement as a jazz pianist in the Italian National Television Rai 1 program Sapere: Jazz in Italy conducted by Franco Cerri, followed by his participation in the television programs Chitarra and Fagotto (Rai 2, 1975), in which he performed with the RAI television orchestra, and Di Jazz in Jazz (Rai 2, 1978).
He studied classical music at the Conservatory of Palermo from 1974 to 1981, where he currently holds the chair in jazz piano. From 1984 to 1986, while performing both as a leader and as a sideman with Bob Berg, Steve Grossman and Lew Tabackin, he was also the pianist of the Brass Group Big Band of Palermo, playing with Sam Rivers, Archie Shepp, Pete Rugolo, Paul Jeffrey, Ernie Wilkins, Lester Bowie and Toshiko Akiyoshi.
United States 1986-1994
In 1986 he won a scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston and moved to the U.S.
In Boston he started playing as a sideman in the bands of Bill Thompson, Hal Crook, George Garzone, Roy Okutani and Bruce Gertz, teachers of his at Berklee.
Between 1986 and 1989 he studied percussion with Alan Dawson and also studied privately with Charlie Banacos. He continued his classical piano studies with Emanuel Zambelli at Berklee College and saxophone with Jerry Bergonzi, with whom he started a professional musical partnership which resulted in two tours in Australia [in 1987 and in 1988] and one in Italy [in 1988] . He also made three albums as a sideman with Jerry Bergonzi.
He collaborated steadily with the Brandeis University Jazz Big Band conducted, in those years, by Ricky Ford.
In 1989 he graduated from Berklee College of Music and in the same year he moved to New York where he stayed until 1994.
Between 1989 and 1994 in New York he studied privately with Paul Bley, Dave Holland, Lee Konitz, Andy LaVerne, Hal Galper and Richie Beirach. He met saxophonist Joe Lovano who hired him as his sideman and with whom he formed a professional bond and friendship. He also, many times, played with musicians Bill Stewart, Joshua Redman, Mark Turner, Bob Mintzer, Charlie Mariano, Randy Brecker, Lew Tabackin, Dewey Redman, Tom Harrell and Judy Silvano. Also in this period he played with the Mel Lewis Orchestra (now called Vanguard Jazz Orchestra) in which he replaced the pianist Kenny Werner for a season at the Village Vanguard.
In addition to his musical activity he taught at Harvard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1988), the South Australian C.A.E School of Music (Adelaide, Australia, 1989), and the Concord Community Music School (Concord, New Hampshire, 1989).
In New York he also started his recording career as leader (both as a pianist and as a composer). In 1990 he recorded his first album for the Japanese label Ken Music, Actor-Actress, leading a quartet featuring Joe Lovano, Cameron Brown and Adam Nussbaum. In 1991, for the same label, he recorded Plays, a second album made up of his own compositions, leading a trio with Marc Johnson and Paul Motian with whom he toured Italy together with Joe Lovano in 1992.
Back in Italy 1994-present
In 1994 he came back to Italy and settled in Palermo. Since then he has been touring both as a sideman and as a leader with Tom Harrell (Italy, 1996), John Scofield (Europe, 1996), Joe Lovano (Europe, 1997; Italy, 2003; Joe Lovano Europe Quartet since 2010), Bobby Watson (Italy, 1997 and 1998), Sheila Jordan (Italy, 1999), Norma Winstone (Italy, 1999, 2000 and 2003), Eddie Gomez (Italy, 2010 to present), and has performed with Maria Pia De Vito, Roberto Ottaviano, Pierre Vaiana, Lee Konitz, Tony Scott, Eliot Zigmund, Peter Erskine, John Abercrombie, Adam Rogers, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Ralph Towner, Esperanza Spalding, Jeff Ballard.
He has taken part in multi-ethnic jazz projects, some of which were conceived by the saxophonist Pierre Vaiana with whom he has been collaborating since 1990 (in France, Belgium, Italy, Tunisia, Algeria, Congo and Haiti) and others by the saxophonist Luigi Cinque (in Italy, Portugal, Spain, Colombia, Brazil, Libya and Turkey).