Charly Antolini

Who is Charly Antolini?

Charly Antolini is a Swiss jazz drummer.

Born in Zürich, Antolini started playing the traditional Swiss Basler drum and in 1956 went to Paris where he played with Sidney Bechet, Bill Coleman among others, and playing in the Oldtime Jazz Band "The Tremble Kids" with trumpeter Oscar Klein and clarinettist Werner Keller. In 1962 he went to live in Stuttgart, Germany, where he spent five years playing with bassist Peter Witte and pianist Horst Jankowski in the SWR Bigband led by Erwin Lehn. With bassist Peter Witte, between 1965 and 1967, he recorded five albums for the Romanian pianist Eugen Cicero, a new talent who translated classical music into jazz. He also played in big bands with Kurt Edelhagen, Peter Herbolzheimer and Max Greger in the NDR Bigband.

In 1976 he set up his own band, "Charly Antolini's Jazz Power", originally featuring Steve Hooks; Andrei Lobanov; David Gazarov and Rocky Knauer, although later members were Len Skeat and Brian Lemon. In the 80s 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, Baden Powell among others.