by Scott Yanow
Franco Ambrosetti has had dual careers as a very successful businessman, and as a fine trumpeter and flügelhornist inspired by Freddie Hubbard and Miles Davis. His father Flavio Ambrosetti was an excellent saxophonist. Franco had piano lessons for eight years but is self-taught on trumpet, which he did not take up until he was 17. In 1972, he was one of the founders of the George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band, and through the years he has recorded quite a few worthy hard bop-ish albums for Enja in addition to leading his own groups.