Maria Monti / IL BESTIARIO

There was never anyone like Maria Monti. Knew for her renderings of Italian popular songs, she is an Italian singer and actress with a noteworthy career: cabaret singer in the ‘60s, ambitious avant-garde folk artist in the ‘70s, and starring in films by directors as such as Sergio Leone (Fistful of Dynamite) and Bernardo Bertolucci (1900).

IL BESTIARIO – a prime example of the avant-garde art-song of the 1970s – is a near perfect emblem of the fascinating territory gained through collaboration. It enlisted the radical poet Aldo Braibanti as its lyricist, features arrangements and synthesizer from Alvin Curran (Musica Elettronica Viva), the baritone saxophone of Roberto Laneri (Prima Materia), as well as the soprano saxophone of jazz legend Steve Lacy. The result is absolutely stunning, musically unique within the respective outputs of its participants’ long and noted careers.