Ares Tavolazzi was born in Ferrara in July 1948 and studied cello and double bass at the city's music school. He started professionally backing singer Carmen Villani in a beat group alongside drummer Ellade Bandini, and in 1969 the two co-founded The Pleasure Machine with Vince Tempera, cutting five singles and playing on Francesco Guccini's L'isola non trovata.

In 1973 he joined Area, the avant-garde Italian band built around singer Demetrio Stratos, replacing bassist Patrick Djivas. He stayed until 1983, a decade at the center of one of Italian progressive music's most respected acts, playing bass and trombone alongside Stratos, Giulio Capiozzo, Patrizio Fariselli, and Paolo Tofani.

His jazz career has run at least as long. He has recorded with Paolo Fresu, Stefano Bollani, and Enrico Rava together on 2002's Flashback, with Roberto Gatto on A Day in Florence: Lee Konitz Meets Gatto (2003), with Rita Marcotulli in the trio TrioKàla, and with Daniele di Bonaventura, all already profiled on jazzprofiles.com. He frequented the New York jazz scene directly. Guitar Club magazine ranked him Italy's best bass guitarist from 1984 to 1986, and in 1987 he won the A. Willaert Award as Musician of the Year.

Tavolazzi's playing bridges avant-progressive rock, shaped by his decade in Area, and straight-ahead jazz, developed across an extensive session career alongside major figures in Italian jazz. That dual background gives his bass work a rhythmic flexibility uncommon among players who came up through jazz alone.