Riccardo Del Fra is an eclectic musician, and he makes no apologies for it. Blending jazz and contemporary music in his compositions, he admires Charlie Parker as much as Gustav Mahler, John Coltrane as Ligeti. A Roman, he studied at the Frosinone Conservatory with Franco Petracchi and Franco Noto. The RAI orchestra called upon him for jazz concerts and film score recordings. He accompanied American jazz musicians visiting Italy, including Art Farmer, Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey, James Moody, Lee Konitz, Tommy Flanagan, and Paul Motian. In 1979, he played in Rome with Chet Baker. This was a pivotal encounter. He would accompany the trumpeter for nine years, touring extensively in Europe and Japan. This partnership resulted in twelve albums.
In the early 1980s, he settled in Paris where he joined a very active rhythm section with pianist Alain Jean-Marie and drummer Al Levitt, while continuing to play with Chet Baker and Michel Graillier (piano). He was also the regular bassist for Johnny Griffin, Barney Wilen, and Bob Brookmeyer.
After Chet Baker’s death in 1988, Riccardo dedicated his album *A Sip of Your Touch* to him. The album features a series of duets with Art Farmer on flugelhorn, pianists Michel Graillier (a longtime collaborator of the trumpeter), Enrico Pieranunzi (for the early concerts with Chet in Italy), singer-musician Rachel Gould (whose musical world resonated with Chet), and saxophonist Dave Liebman, exploring a path toward a modernity implicitly present in Chet Baker’s music.
He also devoted himself to the study of composition. Paul Mefano’s Ensemble 2e2m called upon him for concerts and the recording of an album of music by Tôru Takemitsu, a Japanese composer he particularly cherishes (CD Tree Line, Rain Coming; Assai-222182).
In 1996, he began exploring traditional music through his strings. The encounter with Breton singer Annie Ebrel gave rise to a very special duo and a performance at the Théâtre de Quimper, Douar Glizh, followed by the recording of Voulouz Loar — Velluto di Luna, which won the Choc du Monde de la Musique award and the Diapason d’or in 1999. In 2001, the duo was joined by guests: trumpeter Paolo Fresu, saxophonist Laurent Dehors (clarinet), Kuljit Bhamra on tabla, and drummer Jean-Luc Landsweerdt (drums) to create Flouradenn in Paris, at the Théâtre de la Ville (Abbesses).
From 2004 to 2024, Riccardo Del Fra directed the jazz and improvised music department of the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris, where he had taught since 1998, succeeding double bassist Jean-François Jenny-Clark.
In 2005, he formed the Jazoo Project, a sextet composed mostly of young musicians from the Conservatory, with whom he recorded Roses & Roots. This album is a journey, a souvenir of the places and people who have marked his musical path. Roses & Roots has received numerous awards: 4 Jazzman stars, Jazzmag’s “Disque d’émoi” (Disc of Emotion), R10 Classica-Repertoire, 4 stars Télérama, and 4 stars Le Monde de la Musique.
In 2006, he received a Django d’Or, and in 2008, the award for Best European Musician. He also composes for film, notably for Lucas Belvaux, for whom he has written several scores, including the Trilogy (Un couple épatant, Après la vie, and Cavale), Pour Rire, La Raison du Plus Faible, and Rapt.
Riccardo Del Fra has composed several works where jazz and improvisation meet demanding compositional techniques, including Silent Call, for jazz quartet and string orchestra, premiered at the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris in 1993; Inner Galaxy, for solo tenor saxophone, double bass, and cello quartet, premiered in Antwerp in 1995 for the Flanders Festival; and Sky Changes and Tree Thrills in 2009 for the Ensemble Intercontemporain and saxophonist Dave Liebman.
These two pieces were premiered at the Cité de la Musique in Paris by the Ensemble under the direction of Susanna Mälkki on March 12, 2009, and performed in October 2010 at the Manhattan School of Music in New York by the Chamber Jazz Ensemble, Tactus, and Dave Liebman. In 2012, the Manhattan School concert was followed by a CD, Sky Changes (Jazzheads).
In 2014, a quarter of a century after A Sip Of Your Touch, he recorded My Chet My Song, a renewed tribute to Chet, but viewed through the lens of who Riccardo Del Fra, the composer, had become. Far from a mere stylistic exercise, he blends beloved standards with original compositions featuring his quintet (Airelle Besson, Pierrick Pédron, Bruno Ruder, Billy Hart) and the orchestra of the legendary Babelsberg Studios, for which he wrote and designed a sonic universe where the standards take on a new depth and richness thanks to an orchestration that intertwines jazz and classical voices in a silky, fluid, and luminous interplay.
In October 2018, Riccardo returned with Moving People, a lyrical, profound, and powerful album, meticulously crafted yet leaving ample room for improvisation. It recounts journeys toward a better life, exploring hopes and the strength of life. He surrounded himself with deeply expressive and boundary-pushing improvisers: American guitarist and drummer Kurt Rosenwinkel and Jason Brown; German saxophonist Jan Prax and French saxophonist Rémi Fox; Polish trumpeter Tomasz Dabrowski; and French pianist Carl-Henri Morisset. The CD, released by Cristal Records and Parco della Musica Records, received a Choc award from Jazz Magazine, the France Musique Choice award, and the Coup de Cœur award from the Académie Charles Cros. The group “Moving People” toured seven European countries over seven years.
A box set containing the CDs *A Sip of Your Touch* and *My Chet My Song* was released in 2019 on Cristal Records: *Chet Visions*.
In February 2022, his symphonic poem, *Mystery Galaxy*, for jazz quintet and symphony orchestra, straddling the line between jazz and contemporary music, premiered at the Toulon Opera House with the Opera’s symphony orchestra, conducted by Léo Margue, and a jazz quintet comprised of virtuoso musicians, sensitive and deeply expressive: Matthieu Michel on trumpet, Rémi Fox on saxophones, Paul Lay on piano, Ariel Tessier on drums, and, of course, Riccardo on bass. It will be performed again in 2023 as part of a tour with orchestras from Picardy and Savoy.
His latest composition, Une Folle Allure, a suite for three soloists and a string ensemble, was created in September 2024 at the Les Émouvantes festival in Marseille.
