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Michael Occhipinti

An eight-time JUNO Award (Canada's Grammy) nominee for Best Contemporary Jazz Album, guitarist/composer Michael Occhipinti's inventive approach to creative music of all kinds has earned him a broad array of listeners and the respect of critics and musicians alike.  Crossing genres that include jazz, chamber music, funk, world music, and anything involving modern guitar sounds, Michael is both a versatile musician and an imaginative band leader.  His Sicilian Jazz Project has been called "a masterpiece of cross-cultural fusion" and has thrilled audiences in Canada, the U.S., Italy, and Mexico.  Starting with field recordings of forgotten Sicilian folk music and reinventing the music as a mix of global genres, the project  earned Michael a JUNO nomination, the 2009 Ragusani nel Mondo Award (which he and his musician brother Roberto received together in Ragusa, Sicily for their contribution to Sicilian culture), and a Chalmers Award that allowed him to live in Sicily from March - June 2010.  

Michael Occhipinti & Shine On: The Universe of John Lennon is Michael Occhipinti's newest project, selected by the staff at Jazz FM as a Top Pick of 2012.  Typical of Michael’s willingness to challenge himself, the recording pulls off the tricky task of making some the best known songs in the world sound original and fresh. Shine On features the stellar vocals of Elizabeth Shepherd, Laila Biali, Dominic Mancuso, Yvette Tollar, and Denzal Sinclaire, and Michael's distinct arrangements of songs by John Lennon and the Beatles. The group has toured Canada’s music festivals from St. John’s to Victoria, and the record has received strong radio support in the U.S.A., Britain, and on Canadian radio, including live-to-air performances on CBC’s Q and on Jazz FM. The band turned heads at the APAP conference in New York, and is now booking shows for 2014 and beyond.

In 1994 Michael Occhipinti and pianist Paul Neufeld formed the 16-piece NOJO, The Neufeld-Occhipinti Jazz Orchestra, a group the Los Angeles Times describes as "one of the most original sounding large ensembles on the current jazz scene." The group has released five recordings of original music, alongside their newest recording NOJO Explores The Dark Side of The Moon which features the band performing original arrangements of Pink Floyd’s classic album.  All five of NOJO’s original music recordings have been JUNO nominated (including the band’s 1995 debut which won the award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album) and its music has intrigued a number of renowned guest soloists including sax great Joe Lovano, trombonist Ray Anderson, trumpeter Kenny Wheeler, and most notably clarinetist Don Byron and the late saxophone giant Sam Rivers, who both recorded and toured with the ensemble. NOJO has performed at such prestigious venues as the Umbria Jazz Winter Festival in Orvieto, Italy, The Jazz Standard in New York, and Montreal’s Festival International de Jazz de Montreal.

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Album Review

Peter Campbell: Old Flames Never Die

Read "Old Flames Never Die" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


There's a “square peg, round hole" problem holding vocalist Peter Campbell back in the renown department. He doesn't fall into the resounding soul-stirrer category, à la Gregory Porter, the bop poet-philosopher niche, ruled by Kurt Elling, the pure experimentalist's camp, typified by Theo Bleckmann, the neo-soul realm, occupied by José James, the group-minded singer-songwriter space(s), elevated by artists like New York Voices' Peter Eldridge, or any number of other fairly clear-cut categories. The world of male vocalists is, perhaps, the ...

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Album Review

In Orbit: in Orbit

Read "in Orbit" reviewed by Anya Wassenberg


In Orbit--the group, the song and the album--have a groovy 70s retro kind of feel, crashing chords, melody and dissonance, all to a disco beat. High on energy, with an emphasis on danceable grooves, In Orbit is a cross-border group with a core of Canadian guitarist Michael Occhipinti and American saxophonist Jeff Coffin, who shared composing duties on the album. Tom Reynolds adds tasteful and understated piano to the mix, with the strong combination of Felix Pastorius on ...

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Extended Analysis

Michael Occhipinti: The Sicilian Jazz Project

Read "Michael Occhipinti: The Sicilian Jazz Project" reviewed by Raul d'Gama Rose


Michael Occhipinti The Sicilian Jazz ProjectTrue North Records2008 It is a fact of history that modern music can be traced to the seven-note diatonic scale (do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti)--solffeggio--that came into existence when the Benedictine monk, Guido of Arrezo created its scale. He did so ingeniously, by nominating syllables from the first verse of “The Hymn of St. John," written by Paulus Diaconus in the 8th century. But it is also true, though less known, ...

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Album Review

Michael Occhipinti: Creation Dream - The Songs of Bruce Cockburn

Read "Creation Dream - The Songs of Bruce Cockburn" reviewed by Glenn Astarita


Canadian guitarist/composer and co-leader of the “NOJO” large ensemble, Michael Occhipinti pays homage to fellow countryman and celebrated folk singer, Bruce Cockburn on Creation Dream – the songs of Bruce Cockburn. With this release, the guitarist garners some additional support from frequent collaborator, clarinetist Don Byron, along with a sympathetic cast of top-notch Canadian jazz musicians, while Cockburn, strums his acoustic guitar on one track, (“Pacing The Cage”).

The musicians inject or perhaps transpose the themes and finely crafted lyricism ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Old Flames Never Die

Self Produced
2020

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in Orbit

Ear Up Records
2018

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Michael Occhipinti:...

True North Records
2008

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Creation Dream - The...

True North Records
2001

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Creation Dream The...

Creative Sources
0

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Stars

From: Old Flames Never Die
By Michael Occhipinti

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