The story

Among the various sitting rooms of the Lombard capital, Gabriella Niccolai's - very active and famous for its genuine hospitality - has given life to a project which has materialised into a CD and a live show that contain no less than 11 jazz bands from Milan.

These are the artists who play in clubs and pubs. No one particularly famous, all musicians from the Milanese jazz scene, but someone found in them that spark that often makes the difference between a job and a passion, between playing and making music. 37 musicians have, along with the producers, put their heart and talent into the making of this CD which has also become an event. All of this for a unique reason: passion!

The CD

UNITED JAZZ ARTISTS of Milan do not have bigger pretensions than being listened to and giving 72 minutes of pleasant entertainment and intense emotion.

An experiment that, in spite of the stylistic differences and the multicolour sounds of the eleven bands, has produced a homogeneous CD between cool jazz and bop, touching even free jazz as a result of a unique trial, perhaps due to the artistic direction of Mirko Fait, also present as a composer in the project.

As well as the successful arrangements of famous standards, a particular attention must be given to the original and unpublished pieces of a few artists present in the CD.

Recorded in analogical in the Milanese studios of Murec Studio, owned by Paolo Falascone, where Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, George Garzone, Joe Lovano, Enrico Rava and many other great jazz musicians have recorded, the CD has been registered with the record label Italian Way Music.

Behind the CD cover

“As a drop that randomly falls, jazz expands and takes unexpected forms that reflect the colours of the emotions that only musicians can give. Jazz, sometimes, just happens." Mirko Fait.

The event: a live show

This initiative has also become as live show never attempted before. The 37 musicians will take turns to perform on stage accompanied by the ballets of seven ballerinas of the Dance in Progress School with the choreographies of Lara Crivelli. In this show, the artist Ivn Fernandez Gonzales will also be painting a work on stage, drawing his inspiration from the music.

The first performance of this show will be On December 15th at 21h00
At Shanghai Cafe
Via Sammartini 124 in Milan.

CD tracks

1. Softly as a morning sunrise (Romberg)
2. Per Carla (Tognoli)
3. Sometime ago (Mihanovich)
4. Allippando (Daloiso/Cerra)
5. A night in Tunisia (Gillespie)
6. Song for Viky (Di Serio)
7. Never alone Melita (Fait)
8. No More (Crucitti-Cavenati-Dassi-Tosi)
9. Beautiful love (Young)
10. O sole mio (Di Capua)
11. Reflections (Monk)
12. Voyage (Barron)
13. Nothing else (Fait-Mena)
14. Blues criminal (Di Virgilio)
15. Inside (Crucitti-Cavenati-Dassi-Tosi)
16. Humpty dumpty (Corea)
17. Oleo (Rollins)
18. 2012 (Fait)

The performers
3pm Jazz Trio
(track 10)
Paolo Manasse - piano
Armando Nicosia - cbass
Marcello Cerra - drums

Celada Trio
(track 4)
Andrea Daloiso - guitar
Giuseppe Lapalorcia - cbass
Marcello Cerra - drums

Di Virgilio/Sala Quartet
(track 3, 14, 18)
Leonardo Di Virgilio - piano
Alexandre Sabina - tsax
Fabio Mazzola - cbass
Pietro Sala - drums
Guest on 18: Mirko Fait - tsax

DF meets DynamicQuartet
(track 9)
Daniela Ferrari - voice
Marco Ilari - guitar
Renzo Putzolu - piano
Marco Mondini - cbass
Livio Bacchetta - drums

DUO Quartet
(track 11)
Donatella Amalia Lorenzini - voice
Marco Ilari - guitar
Stefano Scopece - cbass
Lorenzo Lombardo - drums

Fait Club Quintet
(track 7, 13)
Mirko Fait - tsax
Mario Bodini - flugelhorn
Leonardo Di Virgilio - piano
Roberto Agostinelli - cbass
Marcello Cerra - drums
Guest: Stefano Sernagiotto - tsax

Gioel Severini Trio
(track 1, 17)
Gioel Severini - tsax
RobertoAgostinelli - cbass
Emilio Zilioli- drums

Jazz for You
(track 5)
Emanuela Villa - voice
Armando Nicosia - cbass
Paolo Manasse - piano
Marco Ilari - guitar
Marcello Cerra - drums

Just 'n time
(track 6, 12)
Alessandro Di Serio - piano
Mario Bodini - trumpet
Aurio Cabrini - tsax
Stefano Delfini - cbass
Max Onore - drums

Pos
(track 8, 15)
Sergio Crucitti - s/tsax
Alberto Cavenati - guitar
Paolo Dassi - cbass
Riccardo Tosi - drums

Progressive Jazz Quartet
(track 2, 16)
Alberto Minetti - piano
Luigi Tognoli - tsax
Carlo Panzalis - cbass
Luca Colombo - drums