- Birth name: Charly Antolini
- Born: May 24, 1937 Zurich, Switzerland
- Genres: Jazz
- Occupation: Musician
- Instruments: Drums
- Labels: BASF, EMI, MPS, Jeton, Bell, Verve, BMG ARIOLA, Skinfire Records
- Associated Acts: Numerous acts – Refer to the text below
- On the Web: Charly-Antolini.com
Charly started playing the traditional Swiss Basler drum and in 1956 went to Paris where he played with Sidney Bechet, Bill Coleman and others, playing in the Oldtime Jazz Band “The Tremble Kids” with trumpeter Oscar Klein and clarinettist Werner Keller.
In 1962 he went to live in Stuttgart, Germany, and played with bassist Peter Witte and pianist Horst Jankowski in the SWR Bigband led by Erwin Lehn for 5 years.
Between 1965 and 1967, with bassist Peter Witte, Charly recorded five albums for the Romanian pianist Eugen Cicero, who was then a new talent translating classical music into jazz (Chopin, Lizt, Tschaikowsky). He also played in big bands with Kurt Edelhagen, Peter Herbolzheimer and Max Greger in the NDR Bigband.
In 1976 he led his own band, “Charly Antolini’s Jazz Power,” originally featuring Steve Hooks (tenor sax); Andrei Lobanov (trumpet); David Gazarov (keyboards) and Rocky Knauer (bass), and later, Len Skeat and Brian Lemon.
In the 1980s he toured Germany, Italy and Denmark with Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Barbara Dennerlein, Albert Mangelsdorff, Earl Hines, Roy Eldridge, Jimmy Giuffre, Art Farmer, Oliver Nelson, Art Van Damme, Stuff Smith, Baden Powell and others.
In the late 1980s through early 1990s Charly recorded four albums with British tenor saxophonist Dick Morrissey. In 1994 he set up the band Super Trio with pianist Dirk Raufeisen and bassist Jimmy Woode.
At the end of 2004, with Herman Rarebell and Pete York, Charly formed a three-drummer project called Drum Legends, and released a live CD and DVD. Check out this sample from the project in the video clip below.
