Sicilian Opening by Salvatore Bonafede

Hailing originally from Sicily, pianist Salvatore Bonafede earned a scholarship to Boston’s Berklee School of Music in 1986. A 1989 move to New York saw him playing with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Dewey Redman, Joshua Redman, Lew Tabackin and Joe Lovano. Bonafede moved back to Sicily in 1994, where he has worked with many jazz luminaries, including Joe Lovano’s 12-Piece Orchestra. The résumé reveals a musician conversant in a variety of ensemble configurations, but Bonafede pares things down to a trio for Sicilian Opening.

More about Salvatore Bonafede
Salvatore Bonafede was born on August 4, 1962 in Palermo, Italy and began playing the piano at the age of four; at first he was self-taught, but later he received classical lessons and in 1973 entered the Conservatory of Music in Palermo. As a teenager he started gigging with local groups and big-bands, accompanied several visiting American Stars, worked in the orchestra for a number of theatrical performances as well as appearing on national Radio and Television programs. Bonafede’s early influences were McCoy Tyner and Chick Corea, and he also become steeped in the work of Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, and Charles Mingus.

Source: AllAboutJazz.com

Carmen Consoli is super-guest at the Sanremo Music Festival

The Sicilian-born Carmen Consoli is one of the most successful female singer-songwriters Italy has ever produced. The 35 year-old musician is known for her unflinching emotional live performances of songs that examine broad themes of love, illness, solitude and friendship from a feminine — and feminist — perspective. Her career took off at the 2000 Sanremo Music Festival, a popular Italian song contest running since 1951 and held annually from Teatro Ariston in the city of Sanremo (Wikipedia). NOw she is a super-guest at the Festival.

Watch the video of “Mandaci una cartolina”, plus interview (in Italian) at http://www.rai.tv

The Sicilian Jazz Project

Jazz has been popular in Italy since the 1920s, and the list of Italian American jazz musicians is lengthy, stretching from New Orleans trumpeter Nick La Rocca in the 1900s to saxophonist Joe Lovano, a leading figure in contemporary jazz. But Italian-descended jazz musicians rarely have used Italian musical forms as the basis for improvisation or original compositions. Lovano, on his acclaimed Viva Caruso album, is an exception. Another is the Sicilian-Canadian guitarist and composer Michael Occhipinti.

More at http://www.i-italy.org

Mandaci una cartolina – Carmen Consoli

People who know me also know that I like Carmen Consoli, a Sicilian pop singer. She was recently on a USA tour. Unfortunately, I could not attend her concert in New York since the same night was my friend’s birthday.

I just came across one of her latest songs “Mandaci una cartolina” dedicated to her father.

Listen to the song here:

Text @ http://squeezermag.wordpress.com/2010/01/13/mandaci-una-cartolina-carmen-consoli-video-e-testo-elettra-2009/

Carmen Consoli Interview with the Boston Herald

Carmen Consoli is not a household name here. But Boston is not Italy.

In Consoli’s native land, she’s a star. Her current album, “Elettra,” entered the Italian charts at No. 2. It’s her seventh album, but just the second released in the United States. The 35-year-old native of Sicily sings mostly in Italian, but also in Spanish, French or Greek, and occasionally English.

Consoli has toured the United States several times, including a sold-out Boston show at the Museum of Fine Arts in 2008. Now she’s back for a solo show at the Regattabar on Thursday. The Herald spoke with Consoli by phone from the Maldives last week.

More at BostonHerald.com

Carmen Consoli in New York on January 8, 2010

January 8, 2010
9:00 pm	to	11:59 pm

Carmen Consoli is scheduled to sing at City Winery in New York City on January 8, 2010.

The Sicilian-born Carmen Consoli is one of the most successful female singer-songwriters Italy has ever produced. The 35 year-old musician is known for her unflinching emotional live performances of songs that examine broad themes of love, illness, solitude and friendship from a feminine — and feminist — perspective. Her innovative mixture of Italian song with indie-rock influences, bossa nova rhythms and jazz and blues-inspired riffs have engendered a sound unique on the Italian music scene. Consoli has six studio albums and two live albums to her credit, all platinum albums in Italy that have sold cumulatively over 1 million copies.

Consoli‘s latest studio CD effort “Eva Contro Eva” (Eve Against Eve), debuted at Number One on the Italian charts in May 2006. The album was released in the US on Universal Music Latino marking the iconic singer-songwriter’s first US release. Recorded in her home town of Catania, Sicily, and featuring guest appearances by the Beninese singer-songwriter Angélique Kidjo and Balkan composer Goran Bregovic, “Eva Contro Eva” is a set of musical tales depicting Consoli’s reflections on the wide range of contradictions — the beauties and hardships — encountered in contemporary life on the Mediterranean island.

Consoli has been honored with numerous awards including the MTV Italian Music Award for Best Video (Parole di Burro) in 2001; Best Female Artist at the Italian Music Awards in both 2002 and 2003 and Best Song at the Taormina Film Festival for the soundtrack of the international hit film “L’Ultimo Bacio” (The Last Kiss). Zach Braff’s recent film The Last Kiss is an adaptation of the Italian film, whose title was inspired by Consoli’s song.

Consoli served as Artistic Director of the summer 2008 Etna Music World Festival in Sicily. In May 2006 Consoli was named a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF representing Italy then went on to headline the MTV Europe Foundation’s Exit concert in Vlore Albania, to benefit NGOs working against human trafficking in the European Union. In February 2005 Consoli was chosen to represent Italy at the Africa Unite concert in Ethiopia celebrating the 60th anniversary of Bob Marley’s birth. She participated in Quincy Jones’ “We Are The Future” project, a live concert held at the Circus Maximus in Rome in May 2004, which was a fund-raiser to support children in war-torn cities. The resulting benefit CD was sold in Starbucks in the US. Consoli’s debut New York City and Austin, TX appearances at Joe’s Pub and the SXSW Festival in March 2004 were aired in Italy as an MTV Rockumentary.