Renowned Italian saxophonist Jossy Botte is performing in a jazz concert together with the Angela Vella Zarb Quartet at the Manoel Theatre, Valletta, on Tuesday. Titled Jazz Bridges, the event is being held as part of the A.I.R. – Artist in Residence programme, which seeks to promote Italian musicians abroad.
Botte’s residency, which kicked off on May 15, has already seen him performing and collaborating with various Maltese musicians such as Warren Galea, Ġużè Camilleri and Oliver Degabriele, among others. He also had the opportunity to improvise alongside Clark Tracey, a legendary drummer of the London jazz scene.
“All the people I met welcomed me in a very warm way and made me feel as if I were home,” Botte tells Times of Malta.
“It’s been inspiring. I feel fulfilled and enriched by new influences and different ways of looking at music.”
Botte describes Malta’s jazz scene as “alive” and is quick to praise the local talent. Yet he believes the absence of a conservatory or music-focused university leaves a gap in the industry.
“There are a lot of great players who studied abroad and came back, bringing what they learned to the island, and that’s exciting! But honestly, I find it strange that in Malta there is no school like a conservatory or a music-oriented university. I think that would make the sound of the island stronger, since it would create a place where musicians can grow and influence each other,” he says.
He draws comparisons with Italy, which he describes as similarly strong in terms of talent and growing audience, but struggling at an industry level.
“The economic crisis is destroying all those medium to small venues that represent the heart of musical and cultural experimentation,” he says, expressing concern.
Original music
Botte is widely regarded as one of the most original voices in contemporary Italian jazz, with a distinguished international education, including studies at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and degrees from leading Italian conservatories.
As a performer, he has appeared at international jazz festivals and venues including the Bergamo Jazz Festival, Jaffa Jazz Festival, the Berklee Performance Center in Boston and the Grolsch International Jazz Festival in the Netherlands. He has collaborated with acclaimed musicians and ensembles such as Paolino Dalla Porta, Antonio Zambrini, Manu Roche, the Verdi Jazz Orchestra and the Berklee Global Jazz Orchestra, as well as regularly performing with a wide range of leading contemporary jazz artists.
He is also a prolific composer. Botte has written an extensive catalogue of original works and serves as arranger for the Ornithology Big Band of the Ornithology Jazz Club in Brooklyn. He leads the Jossy Botte Quintet and Trio, and continues his musical exploration across Italy and abroad, while also performing with the Monique Chao Orchestra in Milan and co-founding the Barcelona-based Jossy Botte/Giuseppe Campisi Quartet, with whom he recorded the album The Gathering (2026) for the Spanish label The Changes.
“I released it in February. It’s an album of original compositions written by me and by Giuseppe Campisi, who is not only a great composer but also a great bass player,” Botte says.
“We studied together at Berklee, and since then, there has been a human and artistic symbiosis. He lives in Barcelona now, so he made the connection with Oriol Vallès and Juan Casares, who are two of the most important players of our generation in Spain. The idea was to write some original music without harmonic instruments and play it in the most spontaneous way.”
Among his greatest influences, Botte mentions Wayne Shorter, John Coltrane, Gerald Clayton and Ambrose Akinmusire. But he also loves classical music, like Debussy, Ravel and Stravinsky, besides electronic and Brazilian sounds.
However, he says that his greatest source of inspiration is “working”.
“As Pablo Picasso says, ‘inspiration exists, but it has to find you working’, and I believe so. I try to write every day. What comes out is just a small part of my work. Writing music is a way to explore myself and learn every day. I played a lot of my original tunes during the residency, and I also played compositions I wrote here in Malta!,” he shares.
Botte is now looking forward to playing some of his pieces at the Manoel Theatre on Tuesday.
‘Jazz is about contamination’
“I went to see the [Manoel] theatre the other day and I got goosebumps. You can feel the history of this stage and you can almost hear the echo of the great music that has been played there. So, of course, I’m excited!”
While the event’s title, Jazz Bridges, may suggest a cultural bridge between Malta and Italy, Botte says the intention goes further.
“It will act as a bridge between all the different cultures we will touch with our music,” he says enthusiastically.
“Jazz is about contamination. I believe it is Afro-European music born in the US, so it is going to be a bridge between us and the Afro-American culture, and Brazilian culture. And that contamination is the thread that connects all the songs I chose. We are going to play a song by Michael Jackson, The Beatles, jazz standards I arranged in a modern way, and some of my compositions.”
Botte is grateful to the “amazing musicians” who will share the stage with him.
“They [Angela Vella Zarb and her band] have been precious and they actively collaborated to bring the sounds I had in mind to life. I’m going to play tenor sax and electronic effects; maybe next time, I’ll bring my clarinet too,” he says, hinting at possible future performances in Malta.
Once the residency is over, Botte will, however, shift his focus to various other projects. His agenda is, in fact, as busy as it gets. He is currently working on his second album for a quintet, which he is going to record in autumn; at the end of June, he will record music for the Monique Chao Jazz Orchestra; in August, he will be touring in the Balkans with Mauro Patti’s project; in September, he is travelling to Poland to record an album for his quartet; and in October, he will be touring Spain to promote The Gathering.
“I feel quite blessed,” he says.
The A.I.R. – Artist in Residence programme is an initiative of the MIDJ – Associazione Musicisti Italiani di Jazz with the support of SIAE– Società Italiana degli Autori ed Editori held in collaboration with the Italian foreign ministry and the Europe Jazz Network. Tickets for Tuesday’s concert are available from teatrumanoel.mt. Follow Jossy Botte on www.jossybottemusic.com and on his social media channels.
