Stephanie Trick (from St. Louis), a leading exponent of stride piano, and Paolo Alderighi (from Milan), one of Italy’s foremost jazz pianists, met at a piano festival in Switzerland in 2008. Three years later, they started to collaborate on a four-hands piano project dedicated to classic jazz, preparing arrangements of songs from the swing era, as well as drawing from the ragtime and blues repertoire. Following the release of their first album, "Two for One" (2012), they have been invited to perform widely in the United States, Europe, and Japan. A second CD, "Sentimental Journey" (2014), shows Stephanie and Paolo’s commitment to the formula of four-hands duets on one piano, rarely used in jazz. Their partnership continued with "Double Trio Live 2015" and "Double Trio Always" (2016), recorded in the piano trio setting, but with two pianists instead of one. In 2018, they released this album, which is their first on two pianos.
The husband-and-wife duo have performed in a variety of venues, including Jazz at Filoli, the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, the Sacramento Music Festival, the West Coast Ragtime Festival in Sacramento, the Monterey Dixieland Jazz Festival, the San Diego Jazz Festival, the Kobe Jazz Street Festival in Japan, the London Jazz Festival, the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival, the Ascona Jazz Festival in Switzerland, the Silkeborg Riverboat Jazz Festival in Denmark, the Bohém Ragtime & Jazz Festival in Hungary, Teatro Dal Verme Milano, Jazzland in Vienna, Jazz Bistro in Toronto, and other jazz clubs.
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“I love to hear Stephanie and Paolo together. They are an inspiration. Such sympatico! Such back-and-forth! Individually they are marvelous musicians—we’ve known that, but together they play 4-handed stride as it’s never been done. Brava, bravo!”
– Dick Hyman
"It is unusual to hear a piano duet that is played by four hands on just one piano. Somehow Stephanie Trick and Paolo Alderighi manage this near-impossible feat without getting in each other’s way. Their playing is very complementary and mutually inspiring with plenty of fireworks being felt along the way. In their individual careers and together in this collaboration, Paolo and Stephanie keep the rich legacies of ragtime, stride piano, and swing alive, fresh and creative. Their CD is a joy from start to finish.”
– Scott Yanow
“Stephanie and Paolo, revel in a gorgeous lightness of being on a beautiful assortment of songs, tempos, and approaches”
– Michael Steinman
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