MINAFRA Pino
Minafric

SUD 014

8058333570167
Sud Music
Italia

 

Blending jazz and world music, the MinAfrìc Orchestra was founded in 2007 as a natural continuation of Pino Minafra’s Sud Ensemble. The orchestra, which also involves Livio Minafra as composer and arranger, is composed by the elite of Apulian jazz : Roberto Ottaviano, Gaetano Partipilo, Nicola Pisani, Giorgio Vendola ... There are also some important musicians who shared passions and projects with Minafra from a long time : Sebi Tramontana, Beppe Caruso, Carlo Actis Dato, to name a few. Guests of the album is the vocal quartet Faraualla with their ancestral sound and mystery.
A warm and generous sound, tormented and dramatic, where the cry, the melody, the rhythm, the irony and improvisation work together in a strange equilibrium. An all-Southern sound which draws from both a real and an imaginary South. A land in continuous metamorphosis which has geographically been a natural bridge and port throughout the centuries towards the East, the Mediterranean, Africa, the Balkans and today towards the New Europe.

The MinAfrìc Orchestra was founded in 2007 as a natural continuation of Pino Minafra’s Sud Ensemble. The orchestra, which also saw the presence of Livio Minafra as composer and arranger, is composed by the elite of Apulian jazz : Roberto Ottaviano, Gaetano Partipilo, Nicola Pisani, Giorgio Vendola ... There are also some important musicians who shared passions and projects with Minafra from a long time : Sebi Tramontana, Beppe Caruso, Carlo Actis Dato, to name a few. Guests of the album is the vocal quartet Faraualla with their ancestral sound and mystery.
A warm and generous sound, tormented and dramatic, where the cry, the melody, the rhythm, the irony and improvisation work together in a strange equilibrium. An all-Southern sound which draws from both a real and an imaginary South. A land in continuous metamorphosis which has geographically been a natural bridge and port throughout the centuries towards the East, the Mediterranean, Africa, the Balkans and today towards the New Europe.

“It is not just a CD we’re talking about, despite the frankness in which the tracks are presented. It’s a sort of journey, which mutates the traditional perception of space and time. As if we were looking out of the window of a train which departs from Ruvo di Puglia, and we see that the first stop is
Dakkar, the second New York, the third Belgrade, the fourth Buenos Aires, the fifth Istanbul and so on. A journey that only the imagination can make possible. And so, the carriage is departing… no, it’s playing!” Ugo Sbisà
“In the MinAfrìc music there’s an irrisistible vital energy that is intrinsic to jazz mixed with popular and ethnic music, both local and music from around the world; in fact it’s impossible not to think of the antique Greek civilization and its forgotten divinity, which, whether we are conscious of it or not, we have all come from. Among the Gods is Dionysus and his imagination, the God of uncontrolled impulses, unrestrained dancing, irrationality, folly and the creator of wine”. Giuseppe Murolo

Pino Minafra, trumpet player, composer, trumpet teacher at “Conservatorio di Bari”, has founded and directed the European “Europa Festival Jazz” of Noci” from 1989 to 1993; then the “ Talos Festival” of Ruvo di Puglia from 1993 to now. In 1990 founded and directed the Italian Instabile Orchestra, one of the biggest italian jazz reality, with whom he gains lots of national and international awards. He has million of concerts in worldwide jazz festivals to his credit and 65 Cds recorded with the most important international record labels such as: Ecm, Enja, Soul Note, Leo Records, Victo, Raitrade, Il Manifesto, Compagnia Nuove Indie. He has conceived some special projects too such as: “Italian Instabile Orchestra meets Cecil Taylor”; “Italian Instabile Orchestra meets Anthony Braxton”; Tradition and Innovation and La banda, a double cd made up of concerts in Paris, London, Brighton, Munchen, Münster and Graz…the “Meridiana Multijazz Orchestra”; “Sud Ensemble”; “MinAfrìc Orchestra”. In 2002 he wrote “Pinocchio” musics for the American Karole Armitage’s dance spectacle. He played with the most important international jazz artists.

Livio Minafra, composer, pianist and winner of the important Italian prize “Top Jazz” in 2005, 2008 and 2011, plays above all in piano solo and with his quartet and at the same time he has many prestigious collaborations as pianist, composer, arranger and accordeonist : MinAfrìc Orchestra, Municipale Balcanica, Canto General, Radiodervish…. In piano solo he published La dolcezza del Grido (Leo Records, Uk) and La fiamma e il cristallo (Enja Records – De); as leader of the Livio Minafra 4et “Surprise!!!” (Enja Records). He collaborated with Louis Moholo-Moholo, Marko Markovic, Paolo Fresu, Bobby McFerrin, Jerry Gonzalez, Frank London, Mario Schiano, Sergej Kuryokhin, Paul Rutherford, Lucilla Galeazzi, Michele Lomuto, Daniele Sepe, Fakhraddin Gafarov, Darko Rundek, Aldo Caputo etc. He recorded for Raitrade, Ed. Il Manifesto, Stradivarius, Incipit, Sud Music (Italy), Enja (Germany), Leo Records, Ogun (Uk). He’s only 33 years old but he played in all the continents. He teaches Jazz Piano at Bari Conservatory.