MICHAEL OCCHIPINTI - GUITAR/COMPOSER/ARRANGER
An eight-time Juno Award nominee for Best Contemporary Jazz Album, guitarist/composer Michael Occhipinti’s modern and eclectic approach to jazz and creative music of all kinds has earned him a broad array of listeners and the respect of critics and musicians alike. As a leader of the acclaimed jazz orchestra NOJO, his own quintet, and The Sicilian Jazz Project, Michael has established himself as an inventive composer and arranger, and his JUNO nominated recording Creation Dream – The Songs of Bruce Cockburn remains a favourite instrumental jazz recording among critics and fans.
Chasing After Light, Michael’s follow-up to Creation Dream was a 2008 JUNO Award nominee, and is out on True North/Universal. Featuring the same stellar quintet of musicians heard on Creation Dream, this recording departs from the songs of Bruce Cockburn by showcasing Michael’s original compositions and by showing off a broad palette of guitar sounds, including a particularly impassioned solo that one critic praised as “face melting.” Blending a variety of folk sounds (Cuban music, African blues, and a beautiful Bruce Cockburn inspired acoustic guitar composition).
ROBERTO OCCHIPINTI -BASS********************************************************
Rare is the bassist who steps forward to lead his own ensemble. Rarer still is the bandleader who successfully bridges the worlds of jazz and classical music. Roberto Occhipinti clearly belongs to that rare breed. On his first album, 2001’s Trinacria, Occhipinti explored the range of Latin jazz. His followup album, 2003’s The Cusp, expanded on the concept, adding violin, flutes, reeds and horns while tackling composers as diverse as Wayne Shorter, Jimi Hendrix and Giacomo Puccini. On his most recent release Yemaya, Occhipinti has given full flight to his musical vision, employing horns and a full string symphony orchestra on classical arrangements of Cuban, Brazilian and original jazz pieces.
Born in Toronto of Sicilian ancestry, Occhipinti has long straddled the worlds of jazz and classical music. He has been a member of the Winnipeg Symphony, Hamilton Philharmonic and Canadian Opera Company orchestras. Meanwhile, Occhipinti has toured and recorded with Jane Bunnett, including the Juno Award winning Ritmo and Soul and the Grammy nominated Alma de Santiago. At the same time, he has recorded a number of albums with pianist Hilario Durán, including the Juno Award winning New Danzon, which the bassist also produced. Occhipinti has skillfully married his classical training with his abiding passion for jazz and world music. In doing so, he has set himself apart as an innovator, as well as one of Canada’s most versatile and adventurous musicians.
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*******************************DOMINIC MANCUSO
- VOCALS, GUITAR, PERCUSSION
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Canadian born vocalist Dominic Mancuso has been exploring his Sicilian roots for many years, and has performed at music festivals throughout Italy, while at the same time building a successful career for himself in his native Toronto as an English language performer and composer. Comfortable singing in the older dialects that make up much of Sicily’s folk music, Dominic has also delved deeply into the work of Italy’s contemporary songwriters, and hi s mastery of this music will be showcased on a new CD he has just finished recording. Dominic Mancuso is also involved in creating innovative multi-media concerts featuring the real-time projected visual work of his painter brother Vincent Mancuso, and the Mancuso brothers’ unique presetation of music and visual art will be featured at the 2007 Nuit Blanche in Toronto.***********************************************************
BARRY ROMBERG _ DRUMS**********************************************************************
Barry Romberg is a most compelling and singular musical voice in Canadian jazz. His unique drumming has propelled the likes of Gil Evans, Hank Jones, Joe Henderson, Ritchie Bierach, NOJO with Don Byron & Sam Rivers, George Garzone, Joanne Brackeen, Rick Margitza and Mark Turner to mention but a few.
As a leader Barry’s projects have continually striven to push the boundaries of improvised music. Whether it be the ultra modern sounds of the MRC Trio, the rhythmic complexity of Inside Out (with Lorne Lofsky and Kieran Overs), the acoustic beauty of the Geoff Young Trio, the impressionistic Three Sisters, or the eclectic sounds of Random Access, a four volume studio set exposing Romberg’s personal journey into the world of spontaneous composition, his drumming has an energy and personality that is unique. Barry Romberg has been featured on over fifty recordings, including those by Al Henderson, Nancy Walker, Michael Occhipinti and Creation Dream, NOJO, Chris Tarry, and many others.
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LOUIS SIMAO - ACCORDION*****************************************************************
Louis Simão has been performing and recording as a multi-instrumentalist for over a decade. Performing on bass, piano, accordion, and percussion allows him to move freely through genres. Louis studied jazz piano and acoustic bass at Toronto’s York University, and abroad with bossa nova guitarist Alfredo Machado at Escola de Música Vila Lobos in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He has also been studied in Cuba, Morocco, and Lisbon, Portugal - his parent's home country.
Simão's diverse and highly sought after skills have afforded him the opportunity to perform and record with talented artists such as, Nelly Furtado, Mary Margaret O'Hara, Eliana Cuevas, Michael Occhipinti, The Clayton/Scott Group, and Fritz McIntyre of Simply Red. He also leads, writes and arranges for his own world-music ensemble, Pedras da Rua, which has opened for Cesaria Evora and Celso Machado, and has shared a night with Brazilian reggae stars Chico Cesar and Rita Ribeiro at The Blueprints Arts Festival 2000, the performance of which became the subject of a documentary for Bravo's Centre Stage Chronicles. A remix of Pedras da Rua's "Terra do Bravo" is also featured on Required Listening Vol. 1, voted best Toronto disc of 2003 by NOW Magazine.
Louis Simão's original music ranges from Portuguese folk songs and fado, to samba, bossa nova and other Brazilian genres; from African and Cuban music, to funk and jazz. With som livre (free sound) at the heart of his musical philosophy, Simão's compositions combine these various sounds along with an improvisational sensibility. His most recent CD with saxophonist and composer David French is entitled Faia, and showcases Louis Simao’s talents as a guitarist and as a vocalist singing in Portuguese. **********************************************************
ERNIE TOLLAR
- FLUTE AND SAXOPHONE**************************************************************************
Ernie Tollar has created music in many jazz, world, and contemporary settings. His work as a performer, composer, and producer has been heard across Canada and abroad at concerts, clubs, and festivals and on recordings. As an active member of the world music scene in Toronto, Ernie can be heard with such groups as Greek/Arabic ensemble Maza Maze, Table player Ravi Naimpally’s group Tasa, the Maryem Tollar group, Brenna MacCrimmon's Altin yildez Orkestar, The Toronto Tabla Ensemble, The Evergreen Club Gamelan, The Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band and Ron Allen's Ritual Party.
As a jazz and improvising musician, Ernie has appeared with such respected musicians as David Restivo, Rick Lazar, Hugh Marsh, Levon Ichkhanian, and the big band NOJO, with whom Ernie has performed since 1994. With Co-leader John Gzowski, Ernie leads the world jazz group Mecca. Ernie has toured Canada and the U.S. with kora/piano player Daniel Janke’s West African influenced jazz group. He has also worked with such luminaries as Bob Becker and John Wyre of Nexus fame. Ernie has studied South Indian classical drumming and singing with professor Trichy Sankaran and flute with Maestro N. Ramani in S. India.
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KEVIN TURCOTTE - TRUMPET*******************************************************************
A perennial winner of Canada’s National Jazz Award and its predecessor the Jazz Report Award, Kevin is a creative and versatile musician who performs in some of this country’s most acclaimed ensembles. His own group The Great Uncles of The Revolution (with Andrew Downing, Jesse Zubot and Steve Dawson) is a JUNO Award winner, and Kevin has also toured with his unique trio featuring Justin Haynes on guitar and Jean Martin on drums. A member of many groups, including Michael Occhipinti’s Creation Dream, NOJO, Time Warp, The Boss Brass, The Michelle Gregoire quintet, The Roberto Occhipinti quintet, The Dave McMurdo Big Band, and The Dave Young quintet, Kevin is one of the most in-demand trumpet players in Canada.
Influences
Alan Lomax's field recordings from Sicily, relatives and musicians in the city of Modica, Carlo Muratori, the Mancuso Brothers, the African music of Tinariwen, Ali Farka Toure, Salif Keita, the many jazz explorations of Bill Frisell, Wayne Shorter, Don Byron, Dave Douglas, and Marc Ribot, the Indian drumming of Zakir Hussain, American blues, the funk of the Meters, modern and baroque chamber music, Bob Marley, drum and bass grooves, Cuban music, and Italian Cinema, Sicilian cooking and wine!
Sounds Like
What happens when eclectic musicians creatively blend their love of jazz with their love of everything else and apply it to Sicilian folk music.
About Michael Occhipinti & The Sicilian Jazz Project
The Sicilian Jazz Project has been dazzling audiences with its intriguing mix of Sicilian folk material and the best elements of modern jazz, world music, funk, blues, and chamber music. Combining a unique repertoire with the energy and skills of great musicians, it is a group like no other.
The newest project put together by acclaimed Toronto guitarist/composer and 2008 JUNO Award nominee Michael Occhipinti, The Sicilian Jazz Project features some of Canada’s finest musicians, including Roberto Occhipinti on bass, Ernie Tollar on flute/saxophones, Dominic Mancuso on vocals and guitar, Kevin Turcotte on trumpet, Louis Simao on accordion, Barry Romberg on drums, and Michael Occhipinti on acoustic and electric guitars, with vocalist Maryem Tollar, violinist Hugh Marsh and a string quartet all featured on the group’s new CD as well. As with his Juno Award nominated CD Creation Dream, which explored the songs of Bruce Cockburn from a jazz musician’s point of view, The Sicilian Jazz Project has Michael reshaping the traditional folk music of Sicily.
In 1954 ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax toured Sicily, recording traditional folk music performed by diverse individuals including sulphur miners, tuna fishermen, and assorted peasants and folk entertainers. Many of these raw field recordings form the basis of The Sicilian Jazz Project, along with traditional dances and ballads gleaned from Michael and Roberto’s cousins in Sicily. As the band’s composer/arranger, Michael Occhipinti has reinvented the music in imaginative ways that nevertheless capture the original emotions behind the songs. The result is a passionate instrumental and vocal repertoire that makes reference to many genres and resonates with listeners.
The talented individuals who make up the group have experience in jazz, classical, Arabic, Cuban, Brazilian, and Italian popular music. In inventing new ways of experiencing the source music, Michael uses the eclecticism of the ensemble as a great asset and freely blends Sicilian music with global rhythms and a variety of modern approaches to the music. Michael also incorporates his own unabashed love of electric guitar sounds.
Michael Occhipinti released The Sicilian Jazz Project in Canada in June of 2008, and the group’s Canadian festival tour yielded many stellar reviews. The CD was released worldwide in February 2009, and Michael and the group have already been invited to perform in Italy, Australia, Mexico, and the United States.
Hey Michael! Thanks for writing me. You stuff sounds great as usual! Talked to roberto when he was here in par-i and he said you guys will be in sicily end of this summer maybe? I will do a concert in Syracusa aug 15 with Nguyen Le and Rita Marcotulli, that would be great it we cross paths! I am thinking of coming aug 13-17... Take care and keep in touch, Chris
