New Jazz Generation is a project organized and promoted by I-Jazz Association, the Italian Jazz Festival Association. This project was born in 2018 with the main objective of communicating, sharing and promoting the new Italian jazz scene in Italy and in the rest of the world.
I-Jazz organizes the project with the support of the Ministry of Culture and in collaboration with the Association of Italian Jazz Musicians (MIdJ) and the one of the Independent Italian Jazz Labels (ADEIDJ). This project tries to align the young Italian scene with the high European promotional and qualitative standards, carefully following the complex dynamics of the music market, and it tries also to support the promotion of emerging talent through a program of concerts in the major festivals and jazz clubs in Italy and in Europe and through the creation of new network, relationship, links and collaborations for them.
New Jazz Generation has collected a lot of success in 2018 and 2019 editions, in which some of the bands and musicians selected played in Toronto, London, Reykjavik, Prague, Oslo, Budapest, Stockholm, Zurich, Cerkno, Porto and in many prestigious Italian festivals (all members of I-Jazz).
I-Jazz has renewed the planning commitment also for 2020 by launching an open call to all members of the I-Jazz Association and MIdJ members to select six new bands for 2020 promotion. A specific evaluation committee worked to select the winners on over 100 proposals arrived; this commission was composed by the I-Jazz President (Corrado Beldì), the curator of the project (Enrico Bettinello), an Italian journalist (Enrico Romero), two international musicians (Diana Torto and Alexander Hawkins) representatives of Italian jazz musicians assocation and two European artistic directors (Emily Jones and Karolina Juzwa).
The winning bands are:
Francesco Fiorenzani “Silent Water” | Francesco Fiorenzani (chitarra/guitar), Luca Sguera (piano – rhodes - synth), Francesco Ponticelli (contrabbasso/bass), Bernardo Guerra (batteria/drums)
The guitarist and composer Francesco Fiorenzani leads a quartet composed by Luca Sguera (piano - rhodes - synth), Francesco Ponticelli (double bass) and Bernardo Guerra (drums). The choice of group members is motivated by their experience and musical affinity with the leader himself. The project was born in 2016 and the victory of the competition for young composers sponsored by the U.N.C.L.A. and by the Ministry of Culture contributed to record its first release. In 2018 "Silent Water" is released for Auand Records.
The repertoire is composed exclusively of original pieces composed by Fiorenzani, where the influences that have marked his personality emerge in these first years of formation of his own personal artistic direction. Jazz is certainly a precise reference in this context, especially in the large space dedicated to improvisation and the harmonic texture of the compositions. The influences brought by listening to the jazz music production of the New York scene from the 1990s. Francesco was inspired also by the works of artists such as Kurt Rosenwinkel, David Binney and Ambrose Akinmusire.
Francesco Orio Trio | Francesco Orio (piano); Simone Di Benedetto (contrabbasso/bass); Davide Bussoleni (batteria/drums)
Francesco Orio is a young pianist of strong personality and one of the most innovative of the Italian jazz scene. He’s considered the artistic heir of the master Gaslini and he stands out for his artistic eclecticism, technique and originality of the compositions. The leitmotiv is the extemporaneous composition and recomposition of structures based on short fragments, a sequence of intervals, a melodic line, a rhythmic idea, which are developed extemporaneously each time exploiting different parameters and without semantic or historiographical restrictions, through collective improvisation of the trio. The trio is active since 2015 and has perfomed in numerous festivals in Italy; it researches and develops a synthetic language that spans multiple musical traditions, a language that manages to reshape and create connections between different shapes and structures, even very distant from each other, without losing sight of the totality and integrity of the narrative.
Matteo Bortone ClarOscuro | Matteo Bortone (contrabbasso/bass); Enrico Zanisi (piano); Stefano Tamborrino (batteria/drums)
Bortone “ClarOscuro” (his third album as a leader with CAM Jazz records) marks a crucial change of direction in lineup and sound compared to his two previous albums, which were recorded with his French-Italian quartet, the ‘Travelers’. Here Bortone is frontman of an all-Italian trio featuring Enrico Zanisi on piano and Stefano Tamborrino on drums. ClarOscuro is a summary of Bortone’s musical vision: an alternation of sounds aimed at creating diverse moods through contrasts, airy grooves and spaces, edgy songs and themes, long, complex tracks and short compositions. All these merges into a common denominator that enhances ambiguity, the most inward-looking, mysterious side of music, emphasizing timbres and collective blend rather than the solo inspirations of each musician. In compliance with this line, the music on ClarOscuro focuses on conjuring rather than telling a story and discloses its sonic plots little by little, according to a specific pattern that allows the musicians to take a proactive role and alternate as leaders without diminishing the group sound.
Michelangelo Scandroglio Group | Michelangelo Scandroglio (contrabbasso/bass); Michele Tino (alto sax); Hermon Mehari (tromba/trumpet); Alessandro Lanzoni (piano); Bernardo Guerra (batteria/drums)
"the feeling of freedom, of taking risks; wild creative soloing by altoist wearing hat “ (Marcela Breton, member of the Jazz Journalists Association).
"A high enegry performance of an interesting original. Great soloing throughout. Good to see the presentation of a live recording" (Greg Stott, Australian guitarist and teacher at the Australian National University).
Winner of the Conad Contest of Umbria Jazz 2019, Michelangelo Scandroglio leads a quintet of absolute talents that will debut with the record "In the Eyes of the Whale", coming out for "Auand Records "in January 2020
A work deeply inspired by the new contemporary jazz current, where music is characterized by various levels of melodies that follow one another, intertwine and merge, thus offering the listener a continually evolving discourse. Alessandro Lanzoni piano (Top Jazz 2013 as best new talent) blends perfectly with Bernardo Guerra's aggressive drumming; the trumpet of the American Hermon Mehari, essential and reflective, contrasts with the virtuosity of Michele Tino sax.
Scandroglio is very young but he had the opportunity to play and collaborate with giants of Italian jazz including Enrico Rava, Stefano "Cocco" Cantini, Nico Gori, Carlo Atti , Flavio Boltro, Fabrizio Bosso and some of the most internationally recognized musicians including Logan Richardson, Glenn Ferris, Ben van Gelder, Marvin "Bugalu" Smith, Alex Sipiagin, Gregory Hutchinson, Seamus Blake.
Vocione | Marta Raviglia (voce/voice); Tony Cattano (trombone)
VOCIONE was born in 2006 in Rome and in 2008 debuting with the first live concert. In 2010 the duo released the first self-titled album for Monk Records and since then it has never stopped, playing all over Italy. The second VOCIONE album (LE ARMI DI ARES, Aut Records), a concept album on the Odyssey, was released in the summer of 2016 and celebrated the duo's first ten years of activity. In the spring of 2020, the third album will be released, composed of original music, recorded live and co-produced by the Jazz Club Ferrara which sees VOCIONE grappling with exceptional guests such as Giacomo Ancillotto, Manuel Attanasio, Costanza Paterno and Fabrizio Puglisi.
Young Shouts | Emanuele Marsico (tromba, voce/trumpet, voice); Attilio Sepe (alto sax); Silvia Bolognesi (contrabbasso/bass); Sergio Bolognesi (batteria/drums)
The repertoire is inspired by African American "traditional folk songs".
The "Suite for Bessie Jones", written specifically for this group, comes from the lyrics of some of the songs made famous by the singer recorded by Alan Lomax.
The instrumentation as well as the frequent moments of collective improvisation, display characteristics of a classic modern jazz quartet
