Born: May 24, 1962 Primary Instrument: Guitar, acoustic
Simone Guiducci, italian jazz guitarist and composer.
Born in Turin, Italy, Simone Guiducci, guitarist and composer, has been hailed as one of the most talented musicians on the Italian jazz scene since the early 90′s going on to make several internationally acclaimed recordings as leader. With his project GRAMELOT, a creative dialogue between italian folklore themes and jazz improvisation, Simone Guiducci has forged strong ties with the recording and concert worlds, working with Ralph Alessi, Erik Friedlander, Enrico Rava, Paolo Fresu, Chris Speed, Don Byron, Gianluigi Trovesi, Kenny Wheeler, Maria Pia de Vito, Nicolas Simion and Eberhard Weber. He has 4 cds produced by italian label Felmay : the debut album, CANTADOR (2000); CHORALE (2002) with Erik Friedlander on cello and Ralph Alessi on trumpet as guests ; DANCIN’ ROOTS (2004, featuring clarinetist Don Byron as guest), STORIE DI FIUME (2006) and the last release THAT’S ALL FOLKS, (december 2011), again with Ralph Alessi as special guest.
As one well known critic puts it, GRAMELOT’s folk-jazz is “fluid and free, rippling between jazz, classical and popular music, between regional and global, between the ancient and modern world. It is a language of jazz improvisation interwoven with popular melodies, spoken with an ease and grace. It is many ‘languages’, spoken as musical expressions or idioms, which come together in a world where the imagination shapes them into new and old forms that are always intriguing”.
Guiducci has received acclaim both from Italian critics, who voted him second in Top Jazz’s classification of emerging talents in Italy, and from abroad, with reviews in leading specialist magazines including JAZZMAN (France), ALL ABOUT JAZZ (USA), CADENCE (USA), JAZZMAGAZINE (France) and relevant interview on top magazine JAZZPODIUM (Germany) .
CHORALE came in at number six in the 2002 best jazz record top ten, voted by the panel of critics judging in the TOPJAZZ classification of the specialist monthly italian magazine Musica Jazz. This recording was also in the TOPTEN of the year 2003 by ALL ABOUT JAZZ Editor Michael Ricci.
In the past few years, Simone Guiducci has performed in Italy & all around the world : Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro, Montreal, Moscow, Berlin, Sao Paulo, Stockholm, Buenos Aires, Caracas, Amsterdam, Istanbul, Quito, Lima, Mexico City, Vancouver, Helsinki, Vilnius, Tallin, Liège, Charleroi, Lyon, Ankara, Frankfurt, Guatemala City, Dusseldorf, Bremen, Dublin, Nantes, Zagreb, Beograd, Tirana, Haifa, Nazareth and more.
…Overall, this is enlightening stuff! Unassumingly charismatic, Guiducci continues to flaunt his personalized approach to modern jazz in a conclusively prolific way ! …Feverishly recommended…
…Guiducci’s signature invocation of jazz and italian melodies is something of a trademark sound…
********************************************************** Bill Shoemaker on JAZZREVIEW (UK) - CHORALE
…the limpid “Last Chorale & Dance” and the children’s song-based “Filastrocca per Martina” provide a strong finish to the album reasserting the glow of Northern Italian folk music as the project’s main inspiration and the Gramelot Ensemble’s abilities in collectively improvised passages. It is a fullfilling end to a very satisfying album…
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Elliott Simon on ALL ABOUT JAZZ (Usa) – CHORALE
…Inspired by the invented “gramelot” language of 15th century troubadours and the modern gramelot of playwright Dario Fo, the Ensemble’s latest release, Chorale, exposes a quintet that is in search of a broader musical patois but at the same time is comfortable with its roots…
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Paul Olson on ALL ABOUT JAZZ (Usa) – DANCIN’ ROOTS
…the elements of the group’s sound—ethnic, folk, baroque, and jazz—always sound organic, never calculated or artificially inserted. Dancin’ Roots is great to listen to right out of the shrinkwrap, but it’ll stay with you: its top-notch group cohesion and sturdy tunes won’t grow tired as the album’s novelty fades. With this release, Simone Guiducci and his Gramelot Ensemble surely must be seen as one of the world’s best working jazz groups…
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Primary Instrument:
Guitar, acoustic
Credentials/Background:
Teacher at Jazz Conservatory in Mantova, Italy
