The father of trumpeter Franco Ambrosetti, multi-instrumentalist Flavio Ambrosetti, was a top saxophonist on the European scene in the '50s and '60s, and is one of the great legends of the Swiss jazz scene, specifically the Italian part of this tri-cultural nation. The elder Ambrosetti began his studies in his hometown of Lugano, working both privately and at a local music studio, and beginning with piano. (He passed this regime along to his son, who began his music studies exactly the same way some three decades later.) Flavio Ambrosetti soon added vibraphone and the saxophone family to his instrumental skills. In the late '30s, Ambrosetti heard tenor saxophone giant Coleman Hawkins performing in Switzerland, a concert that was a huge influence on his musical development.

He began gigging with many Swiss jazz groups, and in the late '40s played in Paris for the first time in the group of Hazy Osterwald. Ambrosetti's number one influence was Charlie Parker, an opinion that he stuck to the way the contents of a Swiss "rosti" dish adhere to the bottom of the cooking pan. Tom Lord's Jazz Discography lists him as participating in some 45 recording sessions between the '40s and the late '70s. By the early '60s, his son had joined a combo that also included pianist George Gruntz and drummer Daniel Humair. In 1967, this group was invited to perform at the prestigious Monterey Jazz Festival. The four players formed an all-star big band in 1972, starting out with the name the Band which evolved into the George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band, possibly because too many audience members were shouting out requests for The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down. The Enja album Anniversary, released in 1996, would be the obvious place to start with this artist, as it features him working in the inspired company of such top jazz artists as tenor saxophonists Gato Barbieri and Sal Nistico, drummer Louis Hayes, and bassist Sam Jones. Several vinyl releases by the Gruntz bands on the MPS include the Ambrosettis, both father and son, in action alongside trumpeters Woody Shaw and expatriate Benny Bailey, multi-instrumentalist reedman Charlie Mariano, and many others. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, Rovi