Cecilia PARODI Quintet

(Argentina / France/ Ecuador) – Free style.

 Cecilia Parody Scott, author, composer and  singer was born in Argentina and started singing at a very early age in children’s choirs where she travelled all over the world. She currently lives in France where she divides her career between Europe and the American continent. Cecilia’s indefinable style and tremendous finesse combine European rhythms of the Colonial era with the  more traditional and nostalgic rhythms of native Argentinians, but  without failing to add a touch of contemporary, rhythmic feel too.

This artistic duality is essential to her  creativity and enables her to delve into various origins of musical sources, from classical to jazz, folklore or popular.

The guitar and its typically Argentinian rhythms are still vital components of her music, played by Javier Suarez (Ecuadorian guitarist), Regis Altmayer- Henzien (French guitarist), Nicolas’ Moult’ le Moullec (French bass player), Loic Gerard (French percussionist) and Pablo Picq (French percussionist and clarinettist)

Website : www.ceciliaparodyscott.com

Discography :“ Camino a Casa’’

SOLORAZAF Madagascar-

(Madagascar) - Traditional Madagascan Music

Solorazaf spent his childhood in Madagascar, before  later settling in Paris.

As a self- taught musician, his background of two different cultures enabled him to build up his own personal style based on tempos from Madagascar and the Indian Ocean, enriched with jazzy and folk consonancy. His guitar is flooded with a stream of  rhythms and plush syncopation in keeping with the  Madagascan tradition.

He performs on the European and American scene as a “solo guitar artist’’( Italy, USA, Francophonies de Montréal, International Summer Festival of Quebec etc…)

Discography : DVD live“ Rendez-vous at Melting Point’’

                     Albums- ‘3 rayons de pluie’, ‘9 pièces of bizarre’,’guitare à balanciers’

 http://solorazaf.com/

Trio of guitars of MONTREAL
(Canada)

Classical music

This trio of guitarists (who qualified at the University of Montreal) soon became recognised as  a force of revival and interaction between different musical forms dedicated to the guitar. Combining exciting virtuosity with humour-tinged energy, the members of the Montreal Guitar Trio quickly managed to win over not only the critics’ attention, but also the publics’ hearts.

In 1998, they momentarily  put aside their classical repertoire for film scores or Latin music and decided to form an ensemble devoted to  playing pieces specially arranged for guitar trios. They adapted to their own  style a selection of numbers by composers as varied as Astor Piazolla, Ennio Morricone and Egberto Gismonti.

In 1999 the trio was proclaimed Revelation of the festival ‘Musique Multi- Montréal’.

From 2001  they blended their early musical influences with sounds of traditional music from India or Eastern Europe, of flamenco and of reggae  mixed with Scottish gigs. On stage this blend  of colours is combined with an impulsive quality which may be exploratory or simply playful, and which few instrumentalists would dare experiment with in public. Surely a great asset of creating music as a group.

www.qim.com

Duo Stochelo Rosenberg et Romane

Here are two great musicians of ‘Gypsy- style Jazz’ who cast off their past, habits and folklore to branch out into all tendencies and continue in the wonderful tradition of  ‘making music  their own’, which was  the very essence  of Django Reinhardt’s style when he used the variety of his era to create an erudite, convivial style of music.

Ingredients : melodious verve, well mastered virtuosity, a sense of drive…

Result : swing and even more swing…

‘ It is not enough to reunite two great musicians to obtain great music, a certain amount of emulation, friendship, challenge and personal chemistry must be present…

Stochelo Rosenberg and Romane devote themselves wholeheartedly,in a highly inspired dialogue in which each one succeeds in highlighting  the other’s playing style. The result is quite simply delicious.’ Gilles Tordjman.

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http://www.stochelorosenberg.com

Original creations.

Michel Gentils brought back from the USA  the 12- string guitar technique so dear to Leo Kottke of India, as well as a willingness to improvise. Constantly striving for perfection, Michel enriched his music with foreign influences and then spent time in India where he created the double-necked Veena guitar. He has  left his music to mature with all the patience of a great wine producer and  has sent us into a day dream,  sending  us flying over ethereal landscapes, the fruit of this excellent musician’s  fertile imagination. Lovers of solo acoustic guitar, keep all of your senses on standby ! Michel Gentils is undoubtedly one of the best examples in France of the guitar fingerpicking technique, one of the most faithful disciples of the great Marcel Dadi.

Website : www.michelgentils.com

Discography : “Trajectoires“, ’Live à l’ Ouest de la Grosne, Un brin de paille.

Michel Lelong, born in Tours in 1961, became  passionately in traditional American music and took up the guitar in earnest  at the age of 13.

He was spotted by the musician / musicologist and American publisher Stefan Grossman, pioneer of the teaching of the blues guitar in the world. On Stefan’s request, Michel published two educational  books on the style of Merle Travis, supplemented by 9 hours of recording. Other collections of scripts followed, notably  those of the giants of country music, like Jerry Reed and Chet Atkins.

At the same time he was mainly influenced by the great names like Scott Joplin, Doc Watson, Django Reinhardt or Baden Powell and experimented with various types of traditional North American music so as to perfect his knowledge of acoustic blues, ragtime, folk, bluegrass, oldtime, rockabilly, boogie, jazz- swing and even classical music.

Since 2002 Michel Lelong has also been an established  teacher in England as part of  “The European Blues Association’’ together with John Miller, Louisiana Red, Michael Messe, Phil Wiggins, Diz Wiggins, Dana Gillespie, Cepahs and Wiggins..

In Vendôme, he will be accompanied by Thierry Guignard and Anicet Debien ( guitar and  double bass).

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/guitare.acoustique/

The musical harmony and brotherly complicity of Ronaldo and Rogerio gave rise to the duo of Os Irmaos Souza.

They both grew up in Rio in the 50’s and 60’s in the midst of the leading choro and samba musicians of the day. From an early age they were able to watch, listen and learn the trade thanks to choro and samba ‘rodas’( improvised late-night jam sessions at musicians’ houses or in cafés) where they met distinguished artists such as Dino 7 Cordas, Césarfaria or Carlinhos Leite.

Their first school was thus the choro school, which is intuitive and based solely on playing music by ear. The choro and samba therefore became the roots of their musical universe, later widening out to other more modern influences.

The duo of Ronaldo and Rogerio play regularly on the Brazilian scene and are frequently invited to take part in cultural  performances related to the choro and the samba. Recently they did tours  in South America and in Japan, taking part  in the ‘Projeto Pixinguinha’ which unites leading Brazilian musicians, and  also performed with the group Epoco de Ouro.

Five musicians from Venezuela and Colombia present a wide instrumental repertoire of traditional, ever- changing music : waltzes, joropos, bambucos, pasillos and danzas from these two countries, and also Brazilian choros in order to highlight their characteristic syncopation and phrasing.

This combination of  different, personal backgrounds enables them to blend academic virtuosity to improvisation and spontaneity, which is  peculiar to popular music, in a wide range of  Latin American musical styles, and  also to highlight  special features of the many stringed instruments of these regions.

Their performance delighted audiences at the 6th  guitar festival in Vendôme in 2002, and it is our great pleasure to see once more in concert Francisco Gonzalez (guitar), Nelson Gomez (guitarron), Ricardo Sandoval (mandolin, bandola and cuatro), Alexis Cardenas (violin) and Rafael Mejias (percussion).

Website : www.recoveco.net

Discography : ‘Recoveco CD,’ ‘ bicho y hecho’