Kekko Fornarelli Trio @ Pizza Express Jazz Live in Soho
Kekko Fornarelli Trio
Live @Pizza Express Jazz Club, London
Monday 3rd September 2012, 830 pm, doors at 7
Following a successful European tour organized by Yuppi du Factory, young Italian pianist Kekko Fornarelli and his trio bring their forward-thinking jazz to London’s Pizza Express jazz club in Dean Street, Soho.
"A uniquely original innovative musician"
All About Jazz
"This is a trio with all of the component parts contributing at the highest level"
Bebop Spoken Here
Kekko Fornarelli (born Francesco Fornarelli - Bari, Italy 1978) is one of the most widely appreciated young pianists internationally. A precocious talent, he began learning piano at the age of three, first through private tuition and later at Conservatorio Piccinni, Bari. Fornarelli’s love for jazz music began aged 18 when he decided to drop out of music school and travel the world. It was during this period he developed his skills as a musician through working with an impressive array of artists including Michel Benita, Yuri Goloubev, Benjamin Henocq, Nicolas Folmer, Jerome Regard, Andy Gravish, Eric Prost, Marco Tamburini and Jean-Luc Rimey Meille.
“As long as there are musicians as open minded as Kekko Fornarelli, jazz will carry on being the World\'s music. Kekko’s intimacy is made of rich melodies and chord progressions which evoke some delicate forms of modern jazz, but are translated by that particular touch which makes him one of the most interesting young pianists of the moment” Paolo Fresu (trans.)
Following the release of his debut album Circular Thought in 2005 Kekko moved to Lyon, France for three years, meeting and working with artists such as Manhu Roche, Flavio Boltro and Rosario Giuliani. This experience led him to release a second album in 2008 entitled A French Man in New York, an innovative project that also took inspiration from French pianist Michel Petrucciani. A year later, just as his talent was becoming more widely recognized, Kekko decided to take a break from music altogether. Disillusioned with jazz and the direction the music he loved was taking, he spent time contemplating his personal vision of music, shaping the idea that jazz needed to turn into something different, to free itself from its sometimes outdated traditions. Room of Mirrors, released in 2011, represents Fornarelli’s revolution. Embodying the new ideologies from his explorations, it is an original and colourful harmony of electronic components, acoustic instruments, modern northern European ideas and neoclassical lyricism, filtered by his warm Mediterranean background. Room of Mirrors is the first record to feature Fornarelli’s trio – young talents of the Italian scene Dario Congedo (drums and percussion) and Luca Alemanno (double bass) – who will be playing with him at London’s Pizza Express Jazz Club on September 3rd. Info and booking http://www.pizzaexpresslive.com/jazzList.aspx. Tickets are £15.
Fornarelli’s compositions have been described as “accessible, melodic, very contemporary and highly enjoyable with a series of irresistible hooks and grooves” (The JazzMann), traits that can also be applied to one of Fornarelli’s influences, the late Esbjorn Svensson who famously once said “What we\'re doing, if you have to call it something... I guess it\'s jazz, but it\'s not what jazz was”. It is this sentiment that Kekko Fornarelli wants to build on, carrying the torch at the vanguard of the contemporary piano trio.
Official Website: http://www.kekkofornarelli.com/index.php?lang=en
Stream Room of Mirrors on Spotify here: http://open.spotify.com/album/4PCOmzIk6jw8jGwZK5xSp7
This concert is part of the tour project Kekko Fornarelli – Eur-Asia, supported by PUGLIA SOUNDS EXPORT - P.O. FESR Puglia 2007/2013 Asse IV – INVESTIAMO NEL VOSTRO FUTURO
Management : Yuppi du Factory
www.yuppidu.org
