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Francesco Turrisi

Francesco Turrisi is a pianist, accordionist and percussionist. He left his native Italy in 1997 to study jazz piano and early music in The Hague royal conservatory, where he obtained a bachelor and a master's degree. Between 2004 and 2007 he played harpsichord and percussion with acclaimed early music ensemble l'Arpeggiata. With l'Arpeggiata he performed at the major early music festivals in Europe and around the world (Turkey, Russia, China). In 2006 he moved to Dublin where he is currently resident and very active as a performer and teacher.

Francesco is the founder of Irish ensemble Tarab, a group that experiments with Mediterranean music, jazz improvisation and Irish traditional music. Tarab is currently ensemble in residence at the Mermaid Arts centre (Bray). The group is participating in a series of concerts called quatrain, that includes guests such as Theodosii Spassov (kaval), Savina Yannatou (vocals), Pedram Khavar Zamini (Tombak) and Haytham Safia (oud) In 2007 he received an Arts council award to record his first CD “Si Dolce e' il Tormento”, a collection of original compositions inspired by Italian music of the 17th century and performed by his jazz piano trio. The trio was signed by IMC in 2009 and is currently one of the most important ensembles on the Irish Jazz scene.

Francesco is also a member of other important Irish ensembles such as Yurodny (Balkan Jazz), eX early music ensemble, Morisca (medieval music).

He has collaborated and performed with many artists from the jazz, early music and world music scenes: Dave Liebman, Jean Toussaint, Furio Di Castri, Gianluigi Trovesi, Gabriele Mirabassi, Maria Pia de Vito, Theodosii Spassov, John Ruocco, The King's Singers, Veronique Gens, Dominique Visse, Philippe Jaroussky, Vittorio Ghielmi, Lee Santana, Pepe el Habichuela, Lucilla Galeazzi, Bijan Chemirani, Zohar Fresco, Pedram Khavar Zamini, Abdullah Chhadeh.

In Ireland he has played with Ronan Guilfoyle, Michael Buckley, Sean Carpio, Emer Mayock, Cora Venus Lunny, Kate Ellis, Judith Mok, Roisin El Safty, Robbie Harris, Brendan Doyle, Mike Nielsen, Dorothy Murphy, Siobhan Armstrong, Catriona O'Leary, Rebecca Collins, Julie Feeney.

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Album Review

Rhiannon Giddens: You're The One

Read "You're The One" reviewed by Katchie Cartwright


Rhiannon Giddens has a voracious musical appetite and a big talent that uses everything to fuel her many creative activities. With a MacArthur, a Pulitzer, and multiple Grammys on her shelf, this has not gone unnoticed. In a body of work that includes musicological projects along with different types of art, You're The One focuses on Giddens as a songwriter, in a variety of idioms. “I hope that people just hear American music," she says. “Blues, jazz, Cajun, country, gospel, ...

8
Album Review

Francesco Turrisi: Northern Migrations

Read "Northern Migrations" reviewed by Ian Patterson


For his fifth album as leader Dublin-based Italian pianist Francesco Turrisi strikes out on his own with his first solo piano recording--a format he's well used to in a live setting. These thirteen compositions/improvisations were inspired by his family's migration north from Sicily to Turin, and subsequently by his own northern migrations--first to The Netherlands where he graduated in jazz and baroque music and then to Ireland where he has made his home. As with Turrisi's outstanding debut Si Dolce ...

6
Book Review

Dublin Jazz Book Vol. 1

Read "Dublin Jazz Book Vol. 1" reviewed by Ian Patterson


Dublin Jazz Book Vol. 1 Sam Kavanagh Pages: 80 ISBN: 979-0-9002321-0-6 Self Published 2014 Original, adventurous and visually striking, the Dublin Jazz Book may be the first jazz Real Book in the world to celebrate the original compositions of a single city. Conceived of by saxophonist Sam Kavanagh and designed by Steven McNamara, the DJB seeks an alternative path to gigs dominated by American jazz standards and a move towards the type ...

2
Album Review

Francesco Turrisi: Grigio

Read "Grigio" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro


Album composito, sporto su diversi crinali, quello che ci propone il pianista e compositore torinese Francesco Turrisi, in realtà espatriato ormai da diciassette anni, prima all'Aja e poi a Dublino, dove si è ottimamente inserito in un tessuto in cui la componente jazzistica si mischia felicemente con svariate altre. In questo Grigio, per esempio, Turrisi affianca due pagine interamente proprie ad arrangiamenti firmati a due mani con Róisín Elsafty di temi tradizionali, appunto, irlandesi, non senza una ...

4
Album Review

Francesco Turrisi: Grigio

Read "Grigio" reviewed by Ian Patterson


For pianist Francesco Turrisi 'old' music is a redundant term. In the Dublin-based Italian's world all music exists in a continuum. Turrisi's debut, Si Dolce e il Tormento (Diatribe Records, 2009) may be the only example of the mediaeval theorbo--a long-necked lute-- in a jazz setting. Fotografia (Diatribe Records, 2011)--a series of piano trio improvisations--veered between free-jazz abstraction and Mediterranean and Brazilian blues lyricism. For Songs of Experience (Taquin Records, 2013), Turrisi eschewed bass in favor of Fulvio Sigurtà's trumpet ...

4
Album Review

Francesco Turrisi: Songs of Experience

Read "Songs of Experience" reviewed by Ian Patterson


Pianist Francesco Turrisi's first two albums as leader, the classically influenced jazz of Si Dolce e il Tormento (Diatribe Recordings, 2009) and the more brooding, improvised Fotografia (Diatribe Recordings, 2011) were united by Turrisi's mostly spare voice as much as they were by the folk, classical and jazz threads from which he draws inspiration. Here, Turrisi plots a strikingly minimalist course, playing seemingly fewer notes than on his first two releases combined. With trumpeter/flugelhorn player Fulvio Sigurtà the dominant voice, ...

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Interview

Francesco Turrisi: In Pursuit of Ecstasy

Read "Francesco Turrisi: In Pursuit of Ecstasy" reviewed by Ian Patterson


It has often been said that composer/harpsichordist/violinist Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was the first jazz musician. His contrapuntal techniques and ideas on harmony, rhythm and form have influenced countless jazz musicians. Numerous are the jazz musicians who have also studied classical music, usually prior to shifting to jazz. Few, however, are those who have taken a Master's degree in jazz and then opted to study early music, a term that refers to European classical music dating roughly from the Medieval ...

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Event

Pianist Francesco Turrisi Launches Album Grigio At London's Vortex Jazz Club, 10 February

Pianist Francesco Turrisi Launches Album Grigio At London's Vortex Jazz Club, 10 February

Source: All About Jazz

Ireland-based Italian pianist Francesco Turrisi celebrates the UK launch of his album Grigio, his third release on the Diatribe label with a concert at London’s Vortex Jazz Club on Monday 10th February. Turrisi’s highly melodic, deeply lyrical music draws from jazz, classical and folk traditions that reference various cultures and epochs. Alongside Turrisi’s striking originals, Grigio showcases the pianist’s haunting arrangements of traditional Irish songs, baroque and Hebrew songs that sound utterly relevant today and John Zorn’s “Hadasha”. Described by ...

37

Interview

Multi-Instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi Interviewed at All About Jazz!

Multi-Instrumentalist  Francesco Turrisi Interviewed at All About Jazz!

Source: All About Jazz

It has often been said that composer/harpsichordist/violinist Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was the first jazz musician. His contrapuntal techniques and ideas on harmony, rhythm and form have influenced countless jazz musicians. Numerous are the jazz musicians who have also studied classical music, usually prior to shifting to jazz. Few, however, are those who have taken a Master's degree in jazz and then opted to study early music, a term that refers to European classical music dating roughly from the Medieval ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

You're The One

Nonesuch Records
2023

buy

Northern Migrations

Taquin Records
2018

buy

Grigio

Diatribe Records
2014

buy

Songs of Experience

Taquin Records
2013

buy

Grigio

Diatribe Records
2013

buy

Fotografia

Polystar / Libra
2012

buy

Attaccati li Tricci

From: Fotografia
By Francesco Turrisi

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