Phillip Greenlief: Citta Di Vitti at JazzPOP Courtyard Concert Series at Hammer Museum

Phillip Greenlief, alto saxophone
Lisa Mezzacappa, bass
Jason Levis, drums

It’s hard to overstate the impact multi-reed player and composer Phillip Greenlief has had on the San Francisco Bay Area music community, where he has been a performer, ensemble leader, and collaborator with musicians, dancers, and writers for more than three decades. A master improviser, Greenlief has performed with creative music luminaries like Fred Frith, Wadada Leo Smith, and Joëlle Léandre, and guested with rock bands like They Might Be Giants and Thelonious Monster.

Greenlief is also a devout cinephile, and his Citta di Vitti project is a collection of evocative, jaunty, moody compositions for trio (alto saxophone, bass, drums) that he composed to accompany the films of Michelangelo Antonioni, whose muse, the luminous actor Monica Vitti, died in early 2022...

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Phillip Greenlief, alto saxophone
Lisa Mezzacappa, bass
Jason Levis, drums

It’s hard to overstate the impact multi-reed player and composer Phillip Greenlief has had on the San Francisco Bay Area music community, where he has been a performer, ensemble leader, and collaborator with musicians, dancers, and writers for more than three decades. A master improviser, Greenlief has performed with creative music luminaries like Fred Frith, Wadada Leo Smith, and Joëlle Léandre, and guested with rock bands like They Might Be Giants and Thelonious Monster.

Greenlief is also a devout cinephile, and his Citta di Vitti project is a collection of evocative, jaunty, moody compositions for trio (alto saxophone, bass, drums) that he composed to accompany the films of Michelangelo Antonioni, whose muse, the luminous actor Monica Vitti, died in early 2022. “A ravishing, spacious, and angst-ridden set of tunes” (San Francisco Classical Voice).

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