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Livio Minafra Piano Solo

La fiamma e il cristallo – Enja Records (De) – 2008

(all compositions by Livio Minafra – Mawi Editions)

Ninna per Mimma: Ninna per Mimma

Campane: Campane

Choo choof: Choo choof

Cerbiatto: Cerbiatto

Bulgaria: Bulgaria

Download La fiamma e il cristallo Album Cover !

Livio Minafra

La fiamma e il cristallo

ENJ-9521 2

Release Date: July 2008

Livio is the WINNER of the Italian Top Jazz 2008 as the BEST NEW TALENT! Read more downloading heredown:

1. Cover of the Italian magazine ‘Musica Jazz’

2. Interview of the Italian magazine ‘Musica Jazz’

3. Prize: Top Jazz 2008

4.La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno – 27/dec/08

5.Il Corriere del Mezzogiorno – 27/dec-08

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Watch Livio’s new videos!

In piano solo at Casa del Jazz during the TOP JAZZ 2008, playing Bulgaria, from La fiamma e il cristallo:

Top Jazz 2008 Reportage @ TG3 RAI

TGR3 RAI – Il Settimanale

With the MinAfric Orchestra:

With the Musica d’oggi Ensemble at Accademia alla Scala of Milan:

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Forthcoming concerts:

To know all Livio’s dawned forthcoming concerts in piano solo and with his projects please visit his myspace : http://www.myspace.com/liviominafra

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GIORGIO GASLINI INTRODUCES LIVIO NEW CD

‘La fiamma e il cristallo’

Pianist/Composer

Set For Worldwide Release On July 2008

Releasing a solo piano recording is an arduous task requiring bravery. I remember feeling ready for it only in 1981 (“GASLINI PLAYS MONK”), after more than thirty years of artistic career. Only years later did other solo piano works follow. Therefore the young Livio Minafra is to be admired and respected: by releasing this solo piano Cd, he takes all the risks of an arduous and yet intriguing adventure upon himself.

To paraphrase a famous statement by the philosopher Wittgenstein (“One can talk only about what one knows. It is better to say nothing about the rest”), when creating “open” music by drawing upon one’s own imagination, one always ends up quoting known sources and omitting the others as a matter of fact.

In music, too, is such a rigour required. And Livio shows he possesses it in this very recording.

Performed with an impetuous piano style, the eleven original compositions reveal, within solid and vigorous formal structures, the variously shaded echoes of Livio’s musical interests and influences: the rhythmical and somewhat crazy ways of silent movie comedians (Buster Keaton, Ridolini); the sounds of nature, which give birth to consonant and natural chords; the perpetual motion typical of Paganini; the use of repeated notes as in one of Chopin’s famous scores and of harmonies let free to resonate as in Debussy’s impressionistic style; some swift and circular melodic lines liked by Rimsky Korsakov and his famous flying bumblebee; moreover, Debussy’s “children’s scenes”, some “ostinatos” recalling Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies, and some flashes of folk nursery rhymes that immediately turn into sonorous repeated phrases similar to a jazz riff. It’s all right, this is all too normal.

What eventually matters is the overall work of a young pianist-composer, who manages to blend his own primary musical thought, acting as a guidance, with a rich memory archive, that becomes mere “working material”. The recording includes some pleasant moments of fresh and genuine inspiration that light up an intense and complex musical journey.

Therefore, Livio Minafra deserves praise for this work, prefiguring even greater achievements that in future the listener is invited to witness.

Giorgio Gaslini, Milan, 6 December 2007

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Photos:

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Download Assets:

Track Listing:

Ninna Per Mimma 04:42
Choo Choof 06:52
Polvere 02:46
La Danza Del Vulcano 07:33
Rintocchi 02:56
Muezzin 09:07
Cerbiatto 05:46
Campane 06:53
Bulgaria 06:55
Nella Notte Il Cristallo 07:59
Bonus Track only on iTunes: Umoresca 07:22

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Press

- Press 1 (sep/dec 2008) -

- Press 2 (jan 2009) -

- Press 3 (jan “Musica Jazz” 2009) -

- Press 4 (feb/mar 2009) -

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Livio Minafra – Profile

Born in 1982 in the land of Bari. At the age of 10 he began studying the piano with Professor Francesco de Santis and in October 2004 he finally graduated from the “Niccolò Piccinni” Conservatory in Bari after completing his studies with Professor Valfrido Ferrari. In 2007 he also got the Diplome in Jazz – arrangements and composition, with a thesis on Cecil Taylor.

Since 2001 he has been a member of his father’s sextet, the Pino Minafra Sud Ensemble, both as a pianist and as a composer. With the Sud Ensemble he has played extensively in Italy, in Germany, in Japan, in France, in Holland, in Spain, in Austria, in Portugal as well as in Macedonia.

In 2002 he and his father Pino wrote and performed some music compositions inspired by the character of the famous puppet Pinocchio; such piece of work had been commissioned by the American choreographer Karole Armitage (who also worked as a choreographer in the videos of the superstar Madonna) for the Dutch theatre company Introdans.

In 2003 he joined Canto General, a music ensemble including V. Curci, R. Ottaviano, P. Minafra, F. Mezzina and V. Mazzone and whose name was inspired by Pablo Neruda’s epic poem. Since its birth this ensemble has been committed to taking part in political and trade union demonstrations, peace demonstrations and any other events related to social and civil issues (Father Alex Zanotelli and the Combonian Missionaries, Gay Pride 2003, Gravina-Altamura Peace March 2003, Marzabotto, etc.). With Canto General, in 2007, in a project dedicated to South Africa, he realized a cd called Viva la black – Ogun Records (Uk) – with guests Louis Moholo, Keith and Julie Tippetts. This cd won for the Italian review “Musica e dischi” as the best cd realized in 2007.

Canto General has also met Emanuele Parrini and Ernst Rejseger in a project dedicated to the Taranta phenomenon.

From 2003 to 2007, though turning his hands to the accordion, he took part in the Municipale Balcanica from Terlizzi, a music ensemble that has given 200 concerts in Italy, in Germany, in France, in Bulgaria realizing in 2005 “Fòua”, the first CD of the Municipale Balcanica. In October 2006 they met in Ancona the famous Kocani Orchestra in a project called ‘Tra sponde’ with guests P. Minafra and R. Ottaviano and arrangements by Livio Minafra.

On the contrary “La dolcezza del Grido” is the title of his own first cd, a piano solo recording of all original compositions, was released in 2003 by Leo Records, the prestigious record label based in London and producing “Music for the Inquiring Mind and the Passionate Heart”. This piece of work has already received wide recognition.

Just to make a few examples, this recording was chosen by the American journalist Steve Koenig for jazzhouse.org among the top ten CDs of 2003; it was recommended by the Slovenian journalist Bogdan Benigar as one of the best CDs for students to the local Student Radio Station in Lubijana; it was placed by the Greek Tzaz Magazine among the top ten CDs of 2004 in its annual referendum.

Moreover, the Japanese Jazz Critique Magazine considered him to be one among the best talented musicians of the New Jazz Generation in 2004. In January 2005 he was voted by seventy critics from all over Italy as the 4th among the best new national talented musicians in the annual referendum (better known as “Top Jazz”) held by the Italian “Musica Jazz” Magazine. In 2006, by ranking fifth, he was reconfirmed as one of the top ten Italian new talents.

In solo piano he played in Germany, Japan, Italy, French, Slovenia, Portugal, Bulgaria, Serbia..

In 2005 he released “Terronia”, the latest CD of Pino Minafra’s Sud Ensemble (with the female choir “Faraualla”, the poet Vittorino Curci and the Meridiana Multijazz Orchestra as guests), produced by the German recording label Enja. With “Terronia” and the Pino Minafra Sud Ensemble he has won the important prize “Top Jazz 2005” with the Italian Magazine Musica Jazz as the best cd and the best group of the year.

In 2006 he won the “Award for Best Soundtrack” at the Independent Short Film Festival taking place in Inveruno (Milan) and called “Corti e liberi”. The soundtrack had been composed for the short film “La via dell’arte” (“The Way of Art”) by Pierluigi Ferrandina, featuring Alberto Rubini among others.

In the same year he also received the “Musica News International Award” from the Italian magazine “Musica News”, issued by the Calabria Jazz Centre. Consequently his name was added to the list of winners of the previous editions: Trilok Gurtu, Amina Myers, Tiziana Ghiglioni, Paolo Fresu, Stefano Bollani, Al di Meola.

In 2007 he created with his father Pino the MinAfric Orchestra playing in Italy and French. With this orchestra he played also with Louis Moholo, Keith and Julie Tippetts in Grenoble and Paris (Fr) and Sant’Anna Arresi (It).

In 2008 he composed the “Concerto a colori, for unprepared piano and orchestra“ played the 19th and 21th July in Bari by the Orchestra Sinfonica della Provincia di Bari. Conductor: Massimiliano Caporale. Arrangements: Livio Minafra and Bruno Tommaso. Piano, accordeon and improvvisation: Livio Minafra.

In the same year he realized with Enja Records (De) his second piano solo La fiamma e il cristallo with some new compositions of his. This cd includes liner notes by M° Marcello Abbado, M° Giorgio Gaslini and Fabrizio Ciccarelli. With this cd in 2009 for the Italian magazine ‘Musica Jazz’ he won the prize TOP JAZZ 2008 as the best new talent of the year!

He played also with Bobby Mc Ferrin, Mario Schiano, Sergej Kuryokhin, Paul Rutherford, Lucilla Galeazzi, Michele Lomuto, Daniele Sepe, Radiodervish, etc. and he has recorded for several labels: Raitrade (Italy), Enja (Germany), Leo Records (UK), Ethnoworld (Italy), Ogun (UK), etc.