I Liguriani

I Liguriani
A land to love is a Ligurian tourist slogan, and that is what “Suoni dai
mondi liguri” (Sounds from the Ligurian World) is—a music to love!
— Folk World
Calissun/Piva di San Dalmazio
Stamattina si va all’assalto
Boghe - Michel Ballati
O Gorizia tu sei maledetta
U Garollu - Fabio Rinaudo
Tiribi Taraba
I Liguriani is a five-member band from Italy’s northwest, the region stretching from the French Riviera to Tuscany, bordering Piedmont and Emilia.
The eclectic repertoire of I LIguriani includes traditional Italian folk music and
political ballads, dance music of the Appenines, an emigration ballad about a
1906 tragedy at sea, and a classical piece by Niccoló Paganini. The band play
melodies and ballads, both traditional and composed by the musicians, from
Liguria and neighboring regions, including dances like mazurkas, sbrandi and
monferrina from the Piedmont and Scottish waltzes from France. The band’s
accomplished musicianship and infectious joy in the playing of these tunes has
won I Liguriani acclaim throughout Europe. With Fabio Rinaudo on Central
French musette pipes, Fabio Biale on violin and voice, Michel Balatti on flute,
Filippo Gambetta on accordion, and Claudio De Angeli on guitar.
The band released its first album Suoni Dai Mondi Liguri in 2011 (Felmay),
(Sounds of the LIgurian World), and received great acclaim from the European
press. They have toured with great success in Spain, Germany and Italy and
appeared at Celtic Connections in Glasgow in 2012. The band has collaborated
on a number of theatre projects in Italy and has been heard on radio broadcasts in Australia, Canada and Spain.
Photos by Alice Ellena
Tour Schedule
“
Brilliant…subtle…
accomplished…passion…vitality…
Read individual bios…
beautiful and delicious!
Elizabeth Roth
info@rotharts.com
www.rotharts.com
”
I Liguriani
Bios
Fabio Rinaudo (bagpipes - musette Bourbonnaise) | The bagpipe is Fabio’s
‘instrument of choice’ (World Music Magazine, Italy). An accomplished multiinstrumentalist, Fabio plays various kinds of bagpipes, from northern Italian
pipes to uilleann pipes, musette Bourbonnaise and Scottish smallpipes. He
has studied the uilleann pipes of Ireland for more than twenty years and as a
founder and member of the Birkin Tree, has played them all over Italy, Europe
and in Ireland. The Birkin Tree has recorded four albums: “Continental Reel”
(1995), “A Cheap Present” (1998) , “3 (three)” (2001) and “Virginia” (2010)
receiving wide acclaim from the public and the Italian, European and American
press. Fabio has also collaborated in performance with Martin Hayes and Dennis
Cahill, the piper Liam O’Flynn which whom he has studied, singer Niamh Parsons
and the harpist Grainme Hambly among others. In 2008 Fabio toured Italy as a
musical guest of The Chieftains.
In addition to traditional Irish music, Fabio is dedicated to the study of the
traditional music of northern and central France and Italian early music, and
especially to the French bagpipes: the musette bourbonnaise.
He was a founding member of “Ensemble del doppio Bordone” with whom he
has played in hundreds of concerts (Italy, England, Scotland, Germany, Austria,
Belgium, Switzerland and Spain ) and recorded two CD’s. He collaborates with
the noted early music group “Ensemble Micrologus” with whom he plays in
important music festivals throughout Italy He has performed as a soloist with
the Orchestra of the Paganini Conservatory in Genoa at the Teatro Carlo Felice
performing works by Peter Maxwell Davies and has been featured in more than
forty recordings (traditional, early and pop music.)
Fabio has also collaborated on television with well-known Italian singer-songwriters including Angelo Branduardi, Riccardo Cocciante and Giorgio Conte.
Fabio is the president and artistic director of Corelli Musica, an agency devoted
to the promotion of acoustic music and, in particular, ethnic music from all
parts of the world as well as classical music, blues and jazz.
Filippo Gambetta (accordion) | Filippo began studying the accordion at age
thirteen under the guidance of Riccardo Tesi. He has collaborated with Max
Manfredi, with the group Echo Art, the Orchestra Regionale Ligure, Fretted
Instrument, directed by Carlo Aonzo, with the Canadian violinist Oliver Schroer
and the American, Sandra Wong, nyckelharpa player, with Vincenzo Caglioti and
Remy Boniface in a trio of accordions and with his father Beppe Gambetta on
numerous tours.
Filippo studied the clarinet for three years at the Conservatorio Paganini di
Genova. In 2000 he made the album “Stria” and in 2003 “Pria Goaca”, both
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I Liguriani
Bios (cont’d)
for the label Felmay. In 2001, he represented the ‘Italian Folk Alliance’ at the
Alliance meeting in Vancouver, won the first prize in the Green Age Festival
and second prize in the Kaustinen Folk Festival in Finland. He has performed at
numerous folk festivals including: Edmonton, Festival d’Eté, Calgary, Vancouver festival, Winnipeg , Biberach musikfruhlings, Roots and Blues Festival, Folk
Festival in Aarhus (Denmark) , Lithos (Syracuse), Emmas (Olbia), Acoustic Paths
(Pistoia), Folk Routes (Trento), Italic tribes (Bertinoro), and Music in the Castles
of Liguria.
He has composed and performed music for theater for il Teatro della Tosse and il
Teatro Modena of Genoa. He has collaborated with the dancer Aline Nari (Sosta
Palmizi) and Katreen Tufano (David Parker Bang Group), with whom he developed the show “Halloween” (for Auditorium Montale - Teatro Carlo Felice in
Genoa). He is dedicated to teaching both in Italy and abroad.
Fabio Biale (vocals, fiddle) | Fabio began studying the violin at the age of
six, attended the Conservatorio Paganini di Genova, and joined the Youth
Orchestra performing in Italy and abroad. He has actively collaborated with
the “Camerata delli Musici Savonensi” which gave him the opportunity to play
ancient and baroque music.
He attended classes at the C.P.M., Milan’s professional music center, one of the
best schools of contemporary music in Italy, where he studied theory, harmony
and jazz improvisation. Fabio dedicated himself to the study of the traditional
music of Northern Italy as well as ‘swing manouche’ (gypsy jazz a la Django
Reinhardt) which led him to participate in other bands: “Amici di Django Reinhardt” and “I Luf.” Fabio is an accomplished singer, songwriter and an arranger,
and a multi-instrumentalist: beside the fiddle, he also plays guitar, piano and
bodhran.
A sought-after collaborator in Italy, Fabio has played with a diverse group of
well-known musicians and artists in the Italian folk, jazz and singer-songwriter
world. In addition to the groups mentioned above, he has worked with Zibba Almalibre, Birkin Tree , Tonino Caroltone, Bunna, Federico Zampaglione and Roy
Paci among many others and has arranged and recorded with most of them.
Michel Balatti (flute) | Michel graduated with honors from the Conservatorio
Paganini di Genova. He was the winner of competitions both as a solo performer and in chamber music and performed several times as a soloist with orchestra. In 1998, after attending a concert by the Italian-based Irish band, Birkin
Tree, he began a serious study of traditional Irish music and the simple system
wooden flute.
After playing in other groups, including “Mistral” and “Common Mor”, he was
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I Liguriani
Bios (cont’d)
invited to be part of the Birkin Tree in 2001, with whom he has performed in
many concerts in Italy and abroad and with whom he also collaborated on four
CD’s. In 2003 he decided to leave his career as a classical musician and devote
himself entirely to the wooden flute and Irish music and moved to County Clare
in Ennis, Ireland.
In the latter part of Michel’s time in Ireland he successfully participated in the
local musical community, playing not only in sessions, but also in concerts and
ceilis. In May 2004, he returned to Italy, and was invited to work with the accordion player and composer Filippo Gambetta with whom he toured in Canada to
the Vancouver Folk Festival, Mission Folk and other festivals as well as recording
live concerts for the CBC.
Michel has collaborated with musicians such as Martin Hayes, Dennis Cahill,
Niamh Parsons, Tola Custy, Cyril O’Donoghue and The Chieftains. Over the years
he has performed in Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, Turkey, Denmark, Belgium, United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada and the United States.
Claudio De Angeli (acoustic guitar) | The Genoese guitarist Claudio De Angeli
has devoted years to the study and performance of traditional and acoustic
music.
Former student of Armando Corsi, with whom he has deepened the study of
harmony and improvisation, and Beppe Gambetta with whom he studied the
technical finger picking and open tunings, Claudio collaborates on a regular
basis with the young accordion player Filippo Gambetta, with whom he recorded
two albums for the Felmay label (“Stria” in 2000 and “Pria Goaca” in 2002). He
has performed at numerous festivals with Filippo in Canada, the U.S, Germany,
Finland and Italy including Lithos, Edmonton folk festival, Festival d’Eté, Calgary Folk Festival, Vancouver Folk Festival, Winnipeg Folk Music Festival, border
crossings, Biberach Musikfruhlings, Roots and Blues Festival and ArtisticaMente.
Claudio is a songwriter and composer and is dedicated to traditional Irish music
as well as the traditional music of Italy. He is part of the group Ca Reel On and
collaborates with the Birkin Tree.
Elizabeth Roth
info@rotharts.com
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I Liguriani
Reviews
Songlines | They play with passion and vitality, with a fairly eclectic repertoire that matches the spirit of the land and its people. — Songlines
fRoots | They power through Italian dance tunes like they are some sort of
latter-day Mediterranean Bothy Band. — fRoots
Folkworld | This is livelier…just more Mediterranean if you like. It is performed with passion and strong emotions. — Folkworld
Folkworld, 2011 | Liguria, the Italian Riveria, is a region in northern Italy
sandwiched between the Mediterranean sea and the Alps and Apennines
mountains. It has been a popular tourist destination for a hundred years, offering beautiful scenery and delicious food. Most people don’t know, however
that there also is some beautiful and delicious traditional music, which is the
missing link between south eastern France and Italy’s Piedmont and Tuscany.
The Ligurians are singer and violinist Fabio Biale, flautist Michel Balatti, bagpiper Fabio Rinaudo (Central French musette pipes), accordionist Filippo Gambetta, and acoustic guitarist Claudio De Angeli. Their mission and concept is
traditional music of Liguria and music written in the traditional vein. I’m sometimes reminded of and I like it as much as the music of B.E.V. from the neighbouring area of Emilia and Veneto, but generally this is livelier and more gay,
just more mediterranean if you like. It is performed with passion and strong
emotions. There also is a thoughful and political edge at times. “Stamattina si
va all’assalto” is a song from World War I, arranged by Liguriani for a theatre
piece. “O Gorizia tu sei maledetta” relates to the bloody battle over Gorizia
(Görz/Gorica). “Sutta a chi Tucca” is a Ligurian partisan song set to a Russian
tune. Deeply moving are “Il tragico naufragio del vapore Sirio”, an emigration
ballad relating to a ship accident in 1906, and “Tiribi Taraba”, a popular Genoese song and tongue twister written by Piero Parodi in 1970. A Land to love is a
Ligurian tourist slogan, and that is what “Suoni dai mondi liguri” is - a music to
love! — Tom Keller,
www.folkworld.eu
Elizabeth Roth
info@rotharts.com
www.rotharts.com