MY "CONTAMINATED" MUSIC4/22/2019 My musical projects reflect the my artistic, cultural, and religious identity: a contamination of Neapolitan and Cuban culture, from tradition to innovation. Sunlightsquare are a multi genre 'dance' combo, their unique mixture of Latin Jazz and Dance has earned the band the reputation as one of the most innovative and exciting acts to spring up from the London scene, The band features a diverse group of world-class vocalists from the UK and the caribbean such as Vanessa Freeman (Bugz In The Attic, 4 Hero, Kyoto Jazz Massive), Tasita D'Mour (Roy Ayers, Copyright, DJ Kawasaky), Joy Malcolm (Moby, Incognito), Sharlene Hector (Gorillaz) Brendan Reilly (Basement Jaxx). With its large line-up of up of musicians Sunlightsquare also features iconic Cuban drummer Ernesto Simpson (Arturo Sandoval, Quincy Jones, Dizzy Gillespie, Richard Bona) and american drum legend Steve Gadd amongst the rhythm section, as well as top British jazz horn duo Quentin Collins & Brandon Allen (Amy Winehouse, Basement Jaxx, Eric Clapton, Mica Paris). In 2010 Sunlightsquare's salsa version of I Believe In Miracles (from the CD Havana Central) went on to sell over 10,000 copies and became a cult success in the Latin circles worldwide, with the support of top DJs in the likes of Gilles Peterson, Louie Vega, Jazzie B, Tony Humphries, Joey Negro. Claudio's long affair with Afro-Cuban music got him to produce several recordings in Havana often in collaboration with Bata' master Giovanni Imparato (Isaac Delgado, Paco De Lucia, Ray Charles). Through the homonymous independent record label, since 2005 Sunlightsquare has released 5 albums and 13 singles several of which on vinyl and it is today considered one of the most prolific and influential acts in the contemporary Latin genre . The 2011 album Britannia Shing-A-Ling - a 25-piece band live studio recording - has been defined by BBC as 'A triumph'. In April 2012, Brownswood Recordings released a Sunlightsquare remix of Gilles Peterson's Havana Cultura Band's Agita, feat. El Micha & Osdalgia. Today Claudio is also a recognised DJ, with his regular performances at Ronnie Scotts, Jazz Cafe, WMC (Miami) and major venues across the world, as well as contributing as a presenter on Jazz FM with his "Sunlightsquare Takeover". NEA'CO - NEAPOLITAN CONTAMINATION Do you ever imagined a Surdato 'nnamurato singing "Oje vita, oje vita mia" in blues? Or that the fascinating Brigida of the song "A' Tazza 'e cafè" could be from Jamaica, where grow the best coffee plant of the world) and not from Naples (where you can taste the best coffee in the world)? Or, furthermore, that in "Guagliune e' malavita" of Guapparia ar similar to that of Fred Buscaglione? Do you ever think that the Dave Brubeck's Take Five - with his modern five/quarter rythm - could be the base of the most ancient napolitan song, "Te voglio bene assaje"? All this and more happen as an effect og the Neapolitan Contamination. Why the Contamination and Naples?
The Contamination involves a fruitful contact and is an engine of civilization, because people learn more from the "other" than from their our kind. Naples is a place-symbol where the Contamination could work with special vivacity, having ancient and secular roots and various matrices of origins. This City absorbes these contaminations as a sponge, metabolizes and then diffondes them, exporting 'napoletanity' all over the world, in some way giving back, once enriched, the civilization message of which everyone has contribute in creation. NeaCo' project (abbreviation for NEApolitan COntamination, but also of νέα κοινὴ, Nèa Koinè, new language in common among different cultures) reproduces this dynamic with the Neapolitan Song, proposing its most famous songs in a new and special way. The listener are led in a journey through continents and musical styles, from Europe to Middle East, from central Africa to North-American gospel, blues, jazz and funky, to Central-American calypso, reggae, rumba, Argentine tango. The public is invited - from the musical execution and the following stories - to exploring 'deep into' each song, in order to find a 'seed of contamination', an element of globalization, universality, able to transpose the song in an anthropological, geographical, cultural, ideal context completely different. The song evolves and is genetically transformed, despite the rispect of the originary lyric (and so of the message). Is a way to onour a glorious past with an evolutive poin of view, looking to the future. The history of the NeaCo' (Neapolitan Contamination) band has seen three different phases and is in continuous evolution. The original idea of the Neapolitan Contamination is of Luigi Carbone, in 2010, immediately grasped and shared by Giovanni Imparato. The first part of the project, in collaboration with other musicians, take the name of Arthèteca Project. Last from 2010 to 2013 and comrehends, among other things, an important session at the Teatro delle Muse in Rome, and various exibition during the television broadcast Unomattina. In the same 2013 is reliesed the first album: Neapolitan Contamination. The second phase develops, with different musicians, but always with Imparato and Carbone, between 2014 and 2016. Characterized by more sophisticated and complex arrengements, has seen four solds out at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, and the whole concert broadcasted live on Radio Rai, and partecipations at Blue Note in Milano. During these years started also the collaboration with the Big Mama Live in Rome. The thirt phase is the actual phase and is radically different from the two before. Started in 2017 with a lot of new ideas. Except Giovanni Imparato (percussion, voice and artistic director) and Luigi Carbone (direction, piano and narrator), the execution include a group of intense musicians, combining ethnical contaminating musical instuments: Aldo Perris to bass, Mats Hedberg and Antonio Carluccio to guitars, Davide Grottelli to the horns, Lavinia Mancusi to violin and voice. This new composition arrives at Istanbul with two concerts at the Italian Culture Institute and Italian Consulate), continuing the exibitions in Milan, Rome and Naples. In Naples in particular they've returned to their natural dimension of the theatre. A new album is in progress.
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AuthorA journey into the world of rhythm through the drum and the "contaminated" music of a Neapolitan percussionist who became "Babalawo". History, knowledge, information and personal experience from Cuba to Partenope (Naples): from the ritual Batà drums, traditional music, santeria and Yoruba religion of the afrocuban culture to the "Napoletanity" and the Neapolitan traditional song. Archives
May 2019
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