Roberto Polillo (born in 1946 in Milano) was the son of Arrigo Polillo (1919-1985), a well known jazz italian critic and historycian, author of a very successful book on Jazz and director of the italian monthly magazine “Musica Jazz”
From 1962 (when Roberto was 16) to 1974, Roberto photographed the most important jazz musicians of the time, in more than 100 concerts in Italy and nearby locations, for the italian magazine Musica Jazz, then directed by his father. Since many of the concerts were organized by his father, Roberto had a unique opportunity to be close to the musicians during their transfers, concerts and rehearsals.
His images have been published since then on italian jazz magazines Musica Jazz and JazzIt, on jazz books and CD/LP covers and have been shown in many personal exhibitions in Italy. A large permanent exibition can be seen in the Fortezza Medicea in Siena, at the Fondazione Siena Jazz, where there is a Center of Jazz Studies dedicated to the memory of Arrigo Polillo.
Also, Roberto’s best jazz images have been collected in his big photographic book: Swing, Bop & Free, Marco Polillo Editore, Milano, 2006.
Roberto, who was never a professional photographer, is a professor of computer science at the University of Milano Bicocca. He came back to photography not many years ago, and went digital. No more jazz, but sophisticated color images inspired from the painters-travellers of the 19th century.
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