Jazz Country Italy

Italian-American sextet Ghost Horse's debut record Trojan will be released on October 18th, 2019 as a double LP by groundbreaking Chicago-based underground electronic label Mathematics Recordings and on CD by Auand, Italy's most important contemporary jazz label. Sprouting from a rich humus of Latin and African polyrhythms, Ghost Horse generates a dark and mysterious ecosystem, digesting, decomposing and recombining elements of free jazz, hip hop, blues and loop music. The result is something fascinating but quietly menacing, pulsing and breathing with the visceral force of nature reclaiming abandoned structures.

Sonata Islands is an ensemble founded by Italian instrumentalist and composer Emilio Galante in 1998. Filled out by a rotating cast of some of Italy’s most exciting and genre-bending musicians, the band hosts an annual festival in Trento, Italy featuring an acclaimed mix of jazz and new music. Their previous projects include a multimedia project with Markus Stockhausen, a jazz rewriting of Gustav Mahler’s music, and a tribute to Japanese avant-rock of the 80s and 90s.

Ventrella received a Grammy Awards Pre-Nomination for Contemporary Jazz Best Album for his 2007 CD "Give Me The Groove". "One can only smile and enjoy when hearing the music of Rocco Ventrella. The joy of his music that exudes from his soul is undeniable. His passion for smooth jazz is so obvious with every note he plays". (Everette Harp). After performing in over 20 different countries and playing for hundreds of others records artists for many years, Ventrella discovered the great saxophone player Grover Washington, Jr. in the mid-90s. Ventrella was captured by the sound and the groove of Grover!

All'origine vi è la figura ambigua, carica di sensualità e per certi versi misteriosa di Louise Brooks, icona del cinema muto, scomparsa alla soglia degli ottant'anni, sola e dimenticata nonostante una tardiva riabilitazione artistica. Dai pensieri e dalle suggestioni evocate da una personalità così carismatica prende spunto la musica di Brooks, quasi una sequenza organizzata di fermo-immagini attraverso i quali il sassofonista e compositore umbro Cristiano Arcelli dà forma compiuta alle personali, immaginifiche visioni musicali.

The project stems from the idea of making a tribute album to gipsy jazz, but it represents also a way to offer our own interpretation of the sounds and atmospheres so typical of this peculiar genre. For this reason we chose to record all the songs as a live session, just one single session without corrections, editing or overdubs.

A completely new quartet with a chamber dimension, which is located in an ill-defined place between classical music and jazz. The writing may recall authors such as Bartok, Ravel, and Debussy, finding within itself moments of free improvisation and compositional methods derived from the contemporary jazz dimension.

Ancora Puglia, ancora un talento che una terra fertile anche dal punto di vista jazzistico ci presenta con Upwards, album nel quale Luisiana Lorusso si circonda di un manipolo di valenti jazzisti e di un quartetto d'archi. Ossia gli amori artistici della sua vita, la musica classica, il jazz, la pittura (Upwards è il titolo di un quadro di Kandinsky, e la copertina ne mutua lo spirito), l'elettronica, senza dimenticare la voce.

Giorgio Li Calzi is an Italian trumpeter, composer and music producer. Born in Turin, Italy in 1965, Giorgio Li Calzi started overdubbing piano and synthesizer as a child, and in 1990 he began to play the trumpet. His interest in improvisation using electronic instruments and effects combined with the trumpet is a clear element in his music.

Giovanni Cigui is a saxophonist, EWI player and composer. Originally from Italy, he is living between Mexico and Europe. Musically trained in Amsterdam, Philadelphia and Graz he is been active all over Europe, the US and Mexico. In July 2020 he will release CHEEWI BEATS, the first album of the homonymous band, presenting a vibrant blend of jazz, electronics and groove based improvisation.

La sostenibile leggerezza dell’essere, verrebbe da dire, ascoltando Il sole di un attimo, il nuovo lavoro della cantante e compositrice Ada Montellanico, qui circondata da un gruppo di stelle di prima grandezza del jazz italiano e internazionale. Leggerezza dei testi, parole che flirtano con i sentimenti, parole mai invadenti o assolute ma discreti suggerimenti per liberare il pensiero all’onda delle emozioni. Come non lasciarsi cullare da frasi quali “… ti sognerò comunque, perché la pioggia che ci bagna non diventi neve..“ oppure “… colgo un istante perduto nel tempo, suoni che intrecciano parole nuove…“?