Gewoelbe Vegesack - Das Geheimnis des alten Gewoelbes (Folge 10)

Mario Castronari
Double bass, composer, teacher b. Berlin 31 May 1954
A virtuoso bassist, equally adept in improvised and composed music, Mario Castronari began his career in Europe, studying bass and theory in Graz ,Austria , playing with trombonist Albert Mangelsdorff , saxophonist Heinz Sauer, pianist Bob Degen and many other European and American artists ( Marvin Peterson,Charlie Antolini,Pony Pointdexter etc) before establishing himself permanently in the U.K. 1980.

He has contributed his big booming sound to the Duncan Lamont , Charlie Watts and Gail Thompson-Big Bands , Singers like Elaine Delmar ,Carol Grimes, Marion Montgomery , Ian Shaw and to the improvised music produced by the Feathers Trio-pianist Howard Riley and drummer Tony Marsh along with Castronari- but he is most celebrated in his capacity as composer for and leader of the UK fusion group

Roadside Picnic. In its first manifestation as a quartet featuring

saxophonist Dave O’Higgins, the band made two highly acclaimed ,brightly accessible albums for BMG; in it’s subsequent quintet form, propelled by drummer Winston Clifford, cemented by keyboard player Graham Harvey, and with a frontline featuring saxophonist Matt Wates and guitarist Ivor Goldberg, it has made a debut album for the B&W label.

In the 90’ in addition to session and TV work (Morcheeba/Parkinson show/Ronnie Corbett/ Marion Montgomery) Castronari worked with Mark Latimer and Asaf Sirkis playing many concerts and recording an album ‘Unhinged’ for the Spotlight label, where he is also featured on many albums by Don Rendell, Brian Dee and others.

In recent times ,Castronari has been working with pianist Dorian Ford on various projects (including playing the music of Bill Evans) and collaborating with acoustic guitarist Dominic Grant , Nicolas Meier and Kevin Keaton with whom he performs regularly as a duo or trio.

Castronari also holds a long running residency at ‘The Café Du Marche’ in Smithfield Market , London where he performs Tuesday – Thursday acoustic Jazz with pianist Mark Latimer.

New band project in 2019 :

MR.MARIO Featuring : Mario Castronari bass ,Stefanos Tsourelis guitar, Ben Croft piano & Eric Ford drums