Description
Brother Groove takes birth from the idea of playing great Pop and Rock themes both mainstream and underground, orchestral and not, from the 60s to early 70s in an essential jazz quartet. The mentioned course and its evolution is determined once again by the choice of excellent musicians from Roman Jazz’s comunity, as well as by that of a new repertoire – though taking its origin in tradition, it is performed in a suprisingly original way. The stage here is all for Carlo Micheli who presents one theme at a time, now playing tenor sax and now a contralto, a baritone or soprano sax, or even a flute, all instruments he plays well. His undiscussed talent in touch, articulation and swing have made him one of the most demanded session-men of the Italian capital, able to pass from a ballad to the fastest jazz song. Arrangements have been made in the smallest detail by pianist Silvano Melgiovanni who has succeeded in giving a new unreleased shape to well known themes such as : Modesty, Groovin’ , Instant Karma, Soul Mission, In my life, More – Listen in order to believe, and particularly: John Lennon’s Instant Karma and Riz Ortolani’s More both in harmonic and rhythmic revolutionary versions, reconstructed with a touch of let’s say nu-vintage, and with a refined drive of lounge and chill-out. All this stuff is supported by a solid rhythmic pattern – drums and doublebass – respectively performed by Gigi Zito and Stefano Cesare. Gigi Zito is a virtuose and his hands interdependence allow him to accompagny a soloist with regularity and dynamism. It means much to him being considered a musician firstly and a drummer secondly and he acknowledges this prospective in Klenny Clarke and Max Roach. Such a prospective determines his grooves mantaining the colour range unaffected in every single bar. As well as the covers dressed in a fresh and original sound, there also are three new songs composed by Silvano Melgiovanni which are 2 beautiful jazz-tracks in a blues shape – blue note 60s style – and a piece sung by the warm and energic voice of Stefano Rapanelli (discovered by Gigi Zito) whose vocals are also on another standard which reached fame in the 50’s with Frank Sinatra.
The pianist, Silvano, a melodist of harmonic subtlety and refinement, develops admiringly fresh and spontaneous phrases which make each of his intervenings complete in an aestetical way and of great melodic clarity and fluidity. The 4 musicians’ interplay results indeed as fluid and sharp in all the pieces also thanks to the direct recording which made use of techniques of those days in order to “reenact” a flavour alas lost in modern recording. The acoustic piano miked with 2 classic Neumanns renders all the warmth and colour needed for a strictly vintage flavour. Carlo Micheli obtains his diploma in 1992 at the Conservatorio di Pesaro “G. Rossini”, but his passion for and his studies of jazz go back to before his classical studies. In the summer of ’95 he attends Berklee School’s clinics in the context of UMBRIA JAZZ festival, where different recognitions are confered to him, amongst which an award handed to the ten best musicians of the courses. In the same occasion he is appointed Leader of the Berklee Band- Clinics Award Group, which plays live on 31/12/1995 in Orvieto, during the winter edition of Umbria Jazz, and he is praised by both the public and the American artists. He works with many artists (B. Biriaco, F. Micalizzi, and others) as an arranger, a saxophonist and keyboarder, in Recording studios as well as in live performances. Among the Italian and foreign artists one’s attention falls upon his collaborations with Massimo Urbani, Paolo Fresu, Irio De Paula, Julio Alberto Segovia, Ice Cusumano, Joy Garrison.
From 2001 to 2003 he is saxophonist in the pop tournée of Tullio De Piscopo and becomes part of the “Tullio De Piscopo Mediterranean Jazz Band” with which he still works, also arranging the wind instruments section. In 2004 he works with composer and keyboarder Vittorio Nocenzi from il Banco del Mutuo Soccorso and such partnership produces a multimedia performance “Musicambiente” within the wider project “Officine dell’Arte” for young people.
