WORLDWIDE ROSTER 2020/2021

JAZZAVETES: A Jazz Tribute to John Cassavetes by Roberto Ottaviano

Roberto Ottaviano (saxophon), Filippo Vignato (trombone), Alexander Hawkins (piano), Danilo Gallo (bass), Hamid Drake (drums)
The year 2019 will be a time for commemorating and celebrating the incomparable American filmmaker John Cassavetes, the man who gave birth to the Independent American Cinema, with 2019 marking the anniversaries of both his birth (1929) and death (1989). We wish to honour him with a musical tribute, in recognition of his close ties to jazz music, evident right from the start of his career, when he played the part of Johnny Staccato, a jazzman and detective with a heart of gold, as well as in his early films as a director, such as “Shadows”, whose sound track included music by Charlie Mingus and Shafi Hadi, and “Too Late Blues”. But Cassavetes' very style of filmmaking was heavily influenced by jazz, as shown by the extent to which his snap-shot, quick-cut approach to composition resembled the way in which a jazz tune creates itself while being performed, resulting in a masterful balance between improvisation and composition. His scenes appear to be improvised, but they were actually built on a rigorously written foundation, as were the pieces played by Charlie Parker or Miles Davis. Intensity, rhythm and enthralling beat marked the films of Cassavetes, as in the case of “Shadows”, in which the dialogue recorded live on the set mixes to admirable effect with the music of Mingus and the surrounding urban environment.

Today, 30 years after his death, we can think of Cassavetes’ 11 films as the 11 tracks of the album that was his life.
teaser > https://vimeo.com/325024168 > password: marsab.teaser1
Audio : Live in Teatro Forma, Bari:
https://soundcloud.com/marsab/jazzavetes-01
https://soundcloud.com/marsab/jazzavetes-02

https://soundcloud.com/marsab/jazzavetes-06

https://soundcloud.com/marsab/jazzavetes-07

ERNST REIJSEGER & GIOVANNI SOLLIMA

This unique duo of cellists draws its lifeblood from the dialogue between improvisation and composition. And while the musicians have different backgrounds of experience, they share a natural gift called curiosity, and a desire to grapple with musical contexts outside their usual areas of activity. Reijseger is a pure, imaginative improviser: ironic and biting when needed, and a volcano of ideas (in recent years, he actively collaborated with the mould-breaking director Werner Herzog). Sollima is no less a cellist, albeit coming from a different background: his expressive world embraces American minimal music, rock, the Mediterranean tradition, and more. This pairing is sure to bring delightful musical surprises.

video:
Santu Paulo > http://https://youtu.be/GtI93XqPg-A

“United” > https://youtu.be/dWV3LtuSR1M

“Limonaia > https://youtu.be/yFbgTKAT-l8

 
ROBERTO OTTAVIANO

During his active international career lasting almost three decades, Italian saxophonist, composer and pedagogue Roberto Ottaviano has been considered one of the leading and influential European voices. He got into music as self-taught drummer and flutist, studied clarinet at the Conservatory, and later on, mesmerized by the music of Lester Young and John Coltrane, started learning to play saxophone independently. Thanks to the accidental meeting with Steve Lacy, his model and adviser, Ottaviano honed his skills under Lacy’s tutelage during 1980–1986 partly in France partly in Italy. While in the USA he studied under Ran Blake, Bill Russo and George Russell, and in Europe received instructions in composition from Giacomo Manzoni and Luigi Nono, as well as attended master classes and workshops led by other music coryphées. Ottaviano collaborated and recorded with a number of European and American luminaries including Dizzy Gillespie, Art Farmer, Mal Waldron, Albert Mangelsdorff, Chet Baker, Enrico Rava, Franz Koglmann, Ray Anderson, Steve Swallow, Irene Schweizer, Kenny Wheeler, Paul Bley, Myra Melford, Misha Mengelberg, Nguyen Le, Han Bennink, Mark Dresser, John Taylor, Graham Haynes, Marc Ducret, Trilok Gurt and Pierre Favre.

Projects:

QUINTET “A ETERNAL LOVE” > Roberto Ottaviano (sax), Marco Colonna (clarinetto), Alexander Hawkins (piano), Giovanni Maier (bass), Zeno De Rossi (batteria)

DUO “MONUMENTAL DUO” > Roberto Ottaviano (Soprano & Tenor sax) Alexander Hawkins (Piano)

SOLO “LONTANO”

video : “A Eternal Love Quintet” > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiD0xoOfKFw  

 

BESTEMMIA D’AMORE By PIPPO DELBONO and ENZO AVITABILE

This concert is just one stop on an artistic journey. It is a journey long travelled by Enzo Avitabile, an artist unique in his ability to wed the heritage of blues, jazz, funk, and rock to classical and Baroque styles, while embracing age-old Neapolitan and popular traditions as well. But the music that results from this – original and unique – is all his.

Bestemmia d'amore is a chant – a concert in which words become music, to speak of these times, sacred and profane, light and dark, harsh and gentle. To speak again of love.

Of cursed love, which is what the title means. Of love that has been wounded, drowned, slain. Of love that is reborn, is slain again, and is still alive.

Pippo Delbono

 

Pippo Delbono, (born in Varazze in Liguria in 1959) is a director and actor of Italian theater. He is one of the most important figures of the contemporary theatrical scene. In the early 80s he founded the Compagnia Pippo Delbono, with which he made all his shows, from Il tempo degli assassini (1987) to Orchidee (2013). His theatrical works have won many awards and have been put on the stage in more than fifty countries. He also directed several films like Guerra (2003), La paura (2009), Amore carne (2011) and Sangue (2013) which premiered in prestigious film festivals such as Venice Film Festival and Locarno Film Festival. As an actor he worked in many films including I Am Love by Luca Guadagnino, Me and You by Bernardo Bertolucci, Goltzius and the Pelican Project by Peter Greenaway.

video:
clip > http://https://youtu.be/NvXuf3PUb-g
full concert >  https://vimeo.com/249306182

 
ERNST REISEGER - CELLO SOLO CONCERT 

Cellist and composer Ernst Reijseger is one of the world’s most inventive cello players, constantly shifting between classical, jazz and African music, and has been at the forefront of free improvisation and world music for over three decades. He plays the cello from the age of seven and began as a performing cellist and improviser in 1969. Many of Reijseger’s collaborations cannot be classified into genres. He writes for and improvises with musicians and ensembles of different musical disciplines and nationalities. He gives solo recitals, performing his own music.

clip > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl6_fZiwWOk

cello solo concert in Teatro Valle, Rome > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FJWpBCQN9I

Amsterdam Munich Wiesbaden > http://vimeo.com/110794845

Berchidda/Time in Jazz 2008 > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSc1Zuj07Os

 
THE FACE OF GOD

ERNST REIJSEGER (cello) & CUNCORDU E TENORE DE OROSEI (sardinian choir)

This special musical project brings together ancient Sardinian sacred chants and classical contemporary music to produce a mystical journey.  The concert repertoire includes traditional Sardinian religious songs: “Kyrie”, "Libera Me Domine","Santus", "Stabat Mater" and songs like "Homo Spiritualis", "The Face of God" and "Heaven on Earth", composed by Ernst Reijseger for Werner Herzog's movies. A wonderful concert particularly suitable to be performed in churches and concert halls.
video:
Liberame Domine: http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wla8SXTM35U

Lellere > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT2XZSl0cJg

 

CUNCORDU E TENORE DE OROSEI : SACRED AND SECULAR TRADITIONAL SONGS FROM SARDINIA

In the huge panorama of vocal music in Sardinia, this group occupies a top level place for the peculiarities of its repertoire, which embraces both forms of the vocal tradition of Orosei: the secular one “a tenore” and the sacred one “a cuncordu”. In the country of the Baronia, on the mid-oriental coast of the island, the two singing modes have never been abandoned: The song in “a Cuncordu” comes together with the Religious Confraternity. This chant is performed by four male voices, in the Sardinian language or Latin, which accompanies the various moments of the liturgical year, but finds its greatest expression during the rites of Holy Week. The song in “a Tenore” has unknown origins. His peculiarity has been declared intangible heritage of humanity by UNESCO. The origin of this ancestral chant suggests even a primordial system of polyphony based on the simple imitation of the way of animals, or the subtle whistle wind. This form of , secular, is used at different times of the day, mainly during the celebrations, as an accompanying to dance, but also in the serenades, and work in the countryside. 
album "Novaera" for Buda Musique > https://soundcloud.com/marsab/voche-notte-cuncordu-e-tenore-de-orosei-special-guest-paolo-fresu 
video: 
live in Chapelle de Lorette, Clervaux, Luxembourg > http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StdJTysUPUs
live in Lunz am See > https://youtu.be/_AjIXWMcKJA

 

NOMADIC VOICES  - TRADITIONAL SONGS OF SARDINIAN TENORES AND THE DIPHONIC MONGOLIAN CHANT

CUNCORDU E TENORE DE OROSEI MEETS MONGOLIAN KOOMI SINGERS 

In the heart of countryside still considered sacred, the harsh beauty of the Sardinian mountains meets the vast steppes through the polyphony of the Tenores and Khoomii overtone chants. Within the confines of the sacred and the profane, somewhere between liturgy and peasant celebrations, these voices resonate in the heights of Sardinian mountains. It is there that the beauty of a pastoral culture is still to be found. Beyond these towards other mountains equally sacred since prehistoric times, those of the Gobi-Altai steppes, where the Altai mountains meet the immense Gobi desert, legend has it that overtone chant was born. Overtone chant is a musical metaphor for this land: the hilltops and the valleys, the vastness of the steppes, the herds, the tumult of nature, its rumbles and its murmurs, the galloping horses and the rustling of its wind grasses. Surprisingly, in the heart of these two traditions, we find the instrument known as the guimbarde or Jew's harp, an instrument familiar to nomadic shepherds all over the world. This original work highlights the richness of these vocal techniques of people who belong to the same history of mankind and who are the last witnesses of ancient times when man knew how to be one with nature. 

audio > https://soundcloud.com/marsab/sets/voix-nomades-sardiniamongolia-live-in-fribourg

video

Live in Forde Folk Festival > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEbpOHL9Sro

Complete concert > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GX5DpRvVIE&t=49s

 

REQUIEM FOR A DYING PLANET 

MUSICS BY ERNST REIJSEGER FOR TWO WERNER HERZOG FILMS

Music has always played a central part in the art of film director Werner Herzog. In 2004 he came to Munich to see Stephan Winter because he wanted to find some very personal music for the documentaries “The Wild Blue Yonder" and "The White Diamond" In Winter & Winter's show room he listened music for hours and Ernst Reijseger's music fulfilled his extraordinary expectations to create a soundtrack.

Werner Herzog found what he was looking for: "I want to use imagery and sound in a way you have never before experienced."

This Musical vision led to extraordinary recording session. Herzog was joined by Dutch cellist ERNST REIJSEGER, Senegalese singer MOLA SYLLA, and the Voches de Sardinia called CUNCORDU E TENORE DE OROSEI.  Now this project became also a cine-concert that makes living the two films’ magic atmosphere. The encounter between author-musicians and images on the screen becomes a multi-media show of image and sound. The final effect is a trance out of space and time. "Requiem for a Dying Project" is a concert that brings to life the magic atmosphere of Werner Herzog's movies. 

video > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3h1r5w3OnM

 

CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS CONCERT - MUSICS FOR THE WERNER HERZOG MOVIE 

ERNST REIJSEGER (cello, composer), HARMEN FRAANJE (piano, organ), KETTWIGER BACH ENSEMBLE (choir)

Composer and cellist Ernst Reijseger has written and recorded an a original soundtrack for Werner Herzog's movie "Cave of Forgotten Dreams". Herzog made a documentary which is a wonderful portrait of the cave art discovered at Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc in France.

These paintings are achingly beautiful, and when Herzog's camera glides along the cave walls, accompanied by Reijseger's music, it's impossible not to be moved and awed. Reijseger creates enchanting music for choir, organ, piano, flute and cello. His music is refreshing for the soul and created a new cathedral of sounds. An impressive sound collage emerges of the human voice in connection with cello and the organ in an almost sacred form. Werner Herzog: "The music in this film is extremely important and adds a very strange beautiful different dimension to it. Ernst Reijseger is a great and genius avant-garde cello player and composer."

* possible as a special project with resident Choir

** possible as special version with images of the movie

video 

live in Budapest > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXQ3iv_iijA 

live in Krakow Film Music Festival > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33mIXgpKyTs

live in Ravenna > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBpZLGYcQS8

 

DUO BABA SISSOKO & ANTONELLO SALIS

BABA SISSOKO (tamani, n’goni, voice)  , ANTONELLO SALIS (piano, accordion, keyboard)

A new, telluric encounter between two musicians of the most effervescent of the international jazz scene, for a “scorning a net” concert 

where traditional African rhythms and jazz improvisation are mixed into a fireworks concert full of creative energy. No words. A bomb!

video > 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvRm1F9w7qs&feature=share

http://www.ursss.com/2016/08/baba-sissoko-antonello-salis/

TRIO REIJSEGER - FRAANJE - SYLLA

Ernst Reijseger is a master of the cello, conjuring Bach's variations, hard bop bass lines in the style of Mingus, and even African style hand drumming. The rest of the ensemble is equally unprejudiced and inimitable: pianist Harmen Fraanje creates imaginative melodies at the crossroads of classical music and jazz, and the Senegalese musician Mola Sylla interprets his own cultural traditions with strong vocals and a charming selection of African instruments. The resulting musical mix is powerfully original, and not only cresses genre categories, but completely transcends them. The Trio's music transforms from fierce dramatics to good-humored playfulness. The combination of these musicians and this instruments create a very authentic sound and a unique character; a humorous, generous world where an outpouring of improvisational brilliance is guided by a fearsomely dedicated technique. 

video

"Perhaps" live in Ravenna Festival > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEpBPsg5zmQ&feature=youtu.be

"Down Deep" live in Ravenna Festival > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvAFCde8T8g&feature=youtu.be

Raykwela > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ro5K93CkLO0

OFFICINA ZOE’  - PIZZICA TARANTATA FROM SALENTO 

Down in Salento - located approximately where the laces would be on italy’s 'boot' - they take great pride in protecting tradition. 

One of the region ’s most treasured cultural expressions is pizzica, the folk dance and musical style that come joined as one. 

Officina Zoé have been among pizzica’s chief custodians for many years now , a six-pieces whose live performances have been known to provoke trance-like experiences, the long, drawn-out passages of intense vocals suddenly exploding into a flash fire of furious percussion and dizzying accordion. But this is also a group not content to exist merely in splendid isolation. They have also sought collaborations with those from elsewhere, including the Turkish multi-instrumentalist Mercan Dede or the Malian singer Mamani Keita and musician Baba Sissoko. Since 1993 Officina Zoé has one of the groups to propose with most strength the musical traditions of the Salento area, and his ancestral rhythm: exciting and touching, therapeutic and hilarious. From immemorial time pizzica explodes in its absorbing hypnotic expression. A frenzy that induces dance and obsessive movement, so much so that it was used in the past as a trance vehicle or even as a therapeutical source. one of the stronger elements in the musical rebirth of the whole of Southern Italy. 

audio 

https://soundcloud.com/marsab/sets/officina-zoe-live-in-india

https://soundcloud.com/marsab/sets/officina-zoe-live-at-world-sacred-music-festival-in-fes

video

live at Womad Uk 2017 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZq9R6-t7Qk

“Mamma Sirena” > https://youtu.be/AWYLuex955M

"Filia" > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPvo6FqvUyk