Description
With this new collection the “Funky Juice” explores the world of the “jazz-manouche” guitar style by presenting some of the greatest representatives of the Roman scene. All the compositions are original very suitable for cinematographic and theatrical scenes but also for themed parties and listening in company, given the animated, joyful and festive character of the songs. The deep knowledge of the genre by the artists and the careful look at the culture of origin of the populations who invented this enthralling and popular sound, are the essential prerequisites for achieving a high quality artistic result. The love for boundless travels, for the magical nights spent dancing around the fires and the joy of belonging to a festive, wandering and free community, together with the cult and admiration for the great father inventor of the “Django” genre, unites and unites all the musicians chosen for this compilation.
Jazz manouche (also known as gipsy jazz, gipsy swing or hot club jazz) is one of the styles of jazz developed by guitarist Jean “Django” Reinhardt, of the Sinti Manouche clan, in Paris in the 1930s. rhythmic melodic music in which string instruments (guitars, basses, violins …) find their maximum expression, typical of gypsy bands. This musical genre draws its origin from the unrepeatable artistic experience of the guitarist Django Reinhardt, who is considered the creator and its greatest exponent: he made possible the union between the ancient gitans musical tradition of the Manouches lineage and the American jazz.The fruit of this union is a genre that combines the sonority and expressive creativity of the swing of the thirties with the musical vein of the French valse musette and the eclectic gypsy virtuosity.Gypsy jazz or jazz manouche continued throughout the course of the last century and still today. Among the contemporaries of the typically Gypsy sphere are: Bireli Lagrene, Angelo Debarre, Stochelo Rosenberg, Jimmy Rosenberg, Joscho Stephan and Frank Vignola.
Guitar and violin are still the main solo instruments, although clarinet, saxophone, mandolin and accordion are sometimes used. The rhythm guitar is played using a percussive technique, which essentially replaces the drums. During the 1930s, swing also arrived in Europe, a music that sounded very strong compared to the canons of the time and in this context the guitar could not hear itself. The question was dear to Mario Maccaferri, an excellent musician and luthier from Cento (Ferrara) who in 1930 developed the idea of a guitar with a powerful and ringing sound with substantial differences from the one everyone knew; in fact it had an internal resonance box, the soundboard folded on the bridge, the bridge not glued but resting on the top and many other improvements that would have made this instrument able to compete with the volume of the swing formations. The history of jazz guitar, which began in New York around the twenties with the great Eddie Lang, continues in the thirties with two guitarists who will have a great influence on subsequent generations: Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt.
Proud and alternative in every manifestation of life, Django could not read or write, neither music nor words. He was rarely punctual at his concerts, he loved to have rolls of banknotes in his pockets, but the money came out as quickly as it came in, to pay for pleasure. The conventions of the “villagers”, as the Sinti called the permanent citizens, did not interest Django. He was interested in living. And play.
Moreno Viglione guitarist, composer, arranger and guitar teacher, boasts almost thirty years of experience. He has played on tour and in the studio with many nationally and internationally renowned artists. In the jazz field with some of the greatest exponents of gypsy jazz, such as Angelo Debarre, Samson Schmitt, Noe Reinhardt, Dorado Schmitt and Tim Kliphuis. On tour and on TV with Patty Pravo, Mimmo Locasciulli, Giorgio Tirabassi, Mark Hanna just to name a few. He was the guitarist of the resident band of the Webnotte (la Repubblica) broadcast conducted by journalists and music critics Ernesto Assante and Gino Castaldo where he played with many artists such as Ron, Enrico Ruggeri, Raf, Paola Turci, Massimo Ranieri, Nek, J- Ax, Malika Ayane, Francesco Renga, Nina Zilli, Fausto Leali, Carmen Consoli, Fiorello, Noemi, Luca Carboni, Syria, Mario Venuti, Francesco Gabbani, Manuel Agnelli, Fedez, Chiara Galiazzo, Max Paiella, Claudio Santamaria, Irene Grandi, Rocco Hunt, Alex Britti, Toto Cutugno, Nino D’Angelo, The Rich and the Poor, Federico Zampaglione, Max Giusti, Patty Pravo, Paola Cortellesi, Edoardo Vianello, Raiz, Peppino Di Capri, Rossana Casale, The Gang, I Nomadi, Lorenzo Fragola , Francesca Michielin, Alberto Fortis, and many others. With Piji and Bateaumanouche he participated in Fiorello’s show “Edicola Fiore” for the month of February 2016 as the guitarist of the resident band. From a recording point of view he has collaborated with many artists, including Patty Pravo, Giorgio Tirabassi and carries out some original projects including the Hot Club Roma. He has three albums under his own name, Moreno Viglione Gyspy jazz quintet, M.V. Wood and strings and M.V. Maybe Blues Trio. As a composer for cinema and TV he wrote the soundtrack for the film “The secret guest”, the music of the Rai Tre show “Circo Massimo”, original music for Ballarò and Di Martedì and original songs for the first season “when Patrick met Kylie ”for National Geographic.
Thundermeek A.K.A.: :Stefano Micarelli – composer and arranger who works in jazz and musical production. Founder of the nujazz-electro band Barrio Jazz Gang since 2001,together with his partner and producer, Rob Colella. In addition to collaborating with prominent names in the Italian jazz scene, he has had frequent experiences with overseas musicians, with Mike Mainieri, George Garzone, Benny Maupin, Harvie Swartz and Eddie Henderson. He also played with some of the best Italian jazz musicians like: Massimo Urbani, Valter Martino, Massimo Manzi, Marcello Rosa. For several years he joined the guitarist as the producer of the “Funky Juice” label with an international user base (England, Hong Kong, United States, Australia, Japan, etc.). In this double-sided appearance appears in his Dynamic 4 project,( together with Daniele Tittarelli, Pietro Lussu and Armando Sciommeri) which saw the CD “My Favorite Beats” also come out in Japan for the historic Columbia-Jazz label (Sony). He signed the production and composition of the song “Reflejo de luna” by Alacran, a famous electro-tango: featuring in a John Turturro’s movie:”Fading Gigolo” soundtrack with Woody Allen, Sharon Stone and Mira Sorvino. He also produced and played on all Pauline London albums
Nicola Puglielli was born in Rome in 1962. As a guitarist and composer, he is constantly in search of new frontiers for guitar and jazz music.Puglielli presented his first solo track in 1999 on the album “In the Middle”, for the rest recorded with his Trio and initially produced by the German label Jardis. At that time, the German magazine Akustik Gitarre defined him as “a new star of jazz guitar”, and remarked on his ability to re-evaluate the guitar in jazz, playing with different techniques and moving lightly between sounds and genres. Nicola Puglielli has played with Massimo Urbani, Giovanni Tommaso, Kirk Lightsey, Steve Grossman, Tony Scott, Philip Catherine and Walter Abt. He has worked with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Louis Bacalov, Nicola Piovani, and was the artistic director of the jazz festival “Jazz in Forte”, in Rome.
Alessandro Russo – Born in Rome to a Greek mother and a Sicilian father, he began playing the guitar around the age of fifteen, his first musical experiences are in the field of rock and blues music, especially in the name of Jimi Hendrix. Around 1980 he approaches jazz after discovering Django Reinhardt’s music which will be fundamental for his artistic evolution. In 1985 he moved to France where he plays swing and bal musette. In 1987 he returned to Italy and founded the group “Le Quintette” with Jacopo Benci, which in 1988 became Les Hot Swing, a quartet inspired by Reinhardt’s Quintette du Hot Club de France. At the beginning of the nineties, Alessandro Russo and Jacopo Benci alongside Les Hot Swing a rock group: Electric Pudding, in which they mainly play original songs by the two leaders with the participation of various instrumentalists. In 1994 he moved to Germany and after collaborating with several German musicians he joined the English group Olé together with Paul Morocco. He toured Europe and Asia for three years in the role of guitarist and actor. While continuing his activity with Les Hot Swing, in 2000 Alessandro Russo founded the Alessandro Russo Band, from 2012 ARB Trio, a group with which he began experimenting with new languages, evocative of both his musical past and his origins. called to collaborate with the Boop Sisters for live performances and for the realization of their first album. In 2008 he returns to pay homage to Django Reinhardt with the acoustic quartet Scaramanouche by releasing an album of original songs.
Gabriele Giovannini – He approaches the guitar at 13, the Blues at 18. He enrolls in Saint Louis where he specializes in Rock-Blues guitar with Lello Panico, who will transcribe the teaching method “Full Optional Blues” (ed. Carish – 2005). He will then graduate in 2005. He attends seminars by Robben Ford, Scott Henderson, Frank Gambale, etc. He carries out an intense concert activity with various bands of Blues, Rock-Blues, Southern Rock in Festival and Italian Rassegne including Anguillara Blues Festival 2007, Organ Jazz Marathon 2008, Paliano Jazz Festival 2010, Villa Celimontana Blues Festival 2005 or in historic Blues Clubs such as the Big Mama in Rome. At the Licinio Refice Conservatory in Frosinone, where he graduated in Jazz guitar in 2009, he studied with Stefano Micarelli, Roberto Spadoni, Aldo Bassi and Nicola Puglielli, thanks to whom he approaches Gipsy Jazz. And it is precisely from the newborn passion for Gipsy Jazz that various collaborations and records are born (“Gipsy Italien” – 2012 / “Spaghetti alla gitana” – 2014). He plays in many Italian clubs including Rome Jazz Festival, Atina Jazz Festival 2018, Anagni Jazz Festival 2017 , the traditional Jazz Festival of Lanciano 2015, JazzIt Fest 2015, Time in Jazz 2013 and many others. There are also various broadcasts on radio (Radio Rai, Radio Rock, Vatican Radio, etc.), television / streaming (Jazz Channel, Repubblica Tv, Sky TV, Netflix / Fandango etc.). He has played with important musicians on the Italian scene such as Carlos Albelo Zamora, Emanuele Urso, Florin Niculescu and Ludovic Beier.
