Jazz Articles about Simone Guiducci

Simone Guiducci Gramelot Ensemble: Dancin' Roots

by John Kelman
February 23, 2005

With consistently compelling releases from labels like EGEA and CAM Jazz, the vibrancy of the Italian jazz scene is becoming more and more recognized by a larger international audience. Increasingly self-evident is that the Italian jazz community encompasses both the broader improvising tradition of American jazz and the intrinsic ethnicity of its own rich musical history. But while much of EGEA's music has a distinctive coastal Mediterranean flavour, and CAM Jazz, by focusing to some extent on the vivid legacy ...

Simone Guiducci Gramelot Ensemble: Dancin' Roots

by Paul Olson
February 19, 2005

Musicians have been combining various musical genres with jazz for decades and the results are often pretty messy. Jazz doesn't mix as well with its musical brethren as one might hope: often its improvisational side is diluted and all that survives the graft is an empty virtuosity. That's why the achievement of Italian acoustic guitarist Simone Guiducci and his Gramelot Ensemble is so stunning; as evidenced by Dancin' Roots , their fusion of jazz with various European and Middle-Eastern folk ...

Simone Guidicci: Chorale

by Elliott Simon
April 16, 2003

Acoustic guitarist Simone Guiducci and his Gramelot Ensemble have defined a new musical language that combines indigenous Northern Italian folk music with modern jazz. Inspired by the invented “gramelot" language of 15th century troubadours, 16th century Monteverdian fundamental discords and the modern gramelot of playwright Dario Fo, the Ensemble's latest release, Chorale, exposes a quintet that is in search of a broader musical patois but at the same time is comfortable with its roots. Like the previous ...

Simone Guiducci Gramelot Ensemble: Chorale

by Glenn Astarita
March 2, 2003

Not only is Italian acoustic guitarist Simone Guiducci a strong soloist, but he's very adept when infusing jazz talents such as Chris Speed (clarinet), Erik Friedlander (cello), and Ralph Alessi (trumpet) into his master game plan. And of course, Guiducci leads a fine sextet consisting of a clarinet/accordion based attack atop a powerful rhythm section.

Guiducci's radiant compositional fortitude features a potpourri of regally pronounced statements and Mediterranean themes, garnished with the soloists? feisty improvisations. The band incorporates ...

Simone Guiducci (Splasc: Django's Jungle

by C. Michael Bailey
December 1, 2001

Not your typical tribute disc. Not a tribute disc at all.

The beauty of Jazz is its honest universality. Jazz may be the only “art" where postmodernism, as a theory, can exist in a pure and unharmful form. If, as postmodern though dictates, the “text" in itself is meaningless and only the “group" consuming the text can give it relevance based on that group's unique experience, then music, Jazz in particular, serves as the only perfect vehicle. It is with ...

Simone Guiducci Gramelot Ensemble: Cantador

by Glenn Astarita
May 1, 2000

The “Simone Guiducci Gramelot Ensemble” intermingle Italian folk-ish themes with generous doses of improvisation, modern jazz structures and well-orchestrated small group arrangements on this charming and thoroughly enjoyable effort titled, Cantador.

Led by guitarist/composer Simone Guiducci, the musicians pursue catchy melodies and gleefully romantic Italian style themes to coincide with harmonious interplay and sharp soloing. Guiducci is an ex-student of the legendary Mick Goodrick, which must have paid huge dividends given his fleet-fingered, sonorous lines and extraordinary capabilities as an ...