XYQuartet
XYQuartet
- Nicola Fazzini (alto sax)
- Alessandro Fedrigo (bass guitar)
- Saverio Tasca (vibes)
- Luca Colussi (drums)
«QUAND LA RECHERCHE MUSICALE PRODUIT DE LA BEAUTÉ ON NE PEUT QUE S’EXTASIER»
Serge Baudot, Jazz Hot
«XY PLAYS A ‘MODERN JAZZ’ WITH CROSS STRUCTURES, COMPLEX CONNECTIONS AND A CONSTANT COURAGE TO RISK»
Ernst Mitter, Freistil, November 2013
«ONE OF THE MOST PECULIAR ITALIAN JAZZ GROUPS OF OUR TIME»
Stefano Merighi, Centro d’Arte in Padua
«ONCE YOU GET INTO “XY”‘S GAME, YOU’LL BE FASCINATED BY IT. EXCELLENT»
Enrico Bettinello, Il Giornale della Musica, May 2014
ITALIAN SECOND “BEST GROUP”
TOP JAZZ 2014 and 2017 – MUSICA JAZZ magazine
XY Quartet is a musical ensemble formed by Nicola Fazzini on alto saxophone, Alessandro Fedrigo on electric bass, Saverio Tasca on vibraphone, and Luca Colussi on drums. The quartet was born out of the shared desire of Nicola Fazzini and Alessandro Fedrigo to create a sonic world, a scenario for new improvisational possibilities and innovative forms of musical writing. Interlaced sequences, pitch class sets, non-retrogradable rhythms, and polymeters are among the elements that constitute the grammar of the XY language, a fluid and original compositional tool, complex in structure but generous in its modes of communication.
Established in 2011, the ensemble has released six albums through nusica.org (Idea F, XY, Orbite, QuartettoQuartetto, StraborDante and Lexycon) and is considered a significant presence in the new Italian jazz scene. It received awards as the second-best Italian group in 2014 and 2017 from the magazine Musica Jazz. In its active concert career, XY Quartet has participated in major national and European jazz festivals.
In live performances, XY Quartet is characterized by the strength and expressive effectiveness with which it processes musical materials in a constant balance between composition and improvisation. The quartet’s repertoire is influenced by various sources, including musical explorations of the 20th century, from serialism to minimalism, as well as inspiration from non-sonic realms such as science fiction, architecture, literature, and linguistics. The transdisciplinary and unique approach makes XY Quartet a truly original ensemble on the international scene. The members of the quartet like to imagine that their music has been inspired and composed by Jon Futuru, an imaginary character living in a distant space-time: elements of the musical language are taken out of their historical, geographical, and social context and projected into another dimension that becomes a hypothetical extraterrestrial future.
Over the years, XY Quartet has undertaken various original live projects, including “5 Astronauts,” a multimedia concert in collaboration with video artist Claudio Sichel, and “StraborDante,” a performance with the voice of John De Leo and multivisions by Francesco Lo Pergolo inspired by Dante Alighieri’s Inferno. The ensemble has performed at numerous jazz festivals and venues across Italy and has toured in Switzerland, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Germany, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Luxembourg, and Hungary.
Nicola Fazzini is a saxophonist and composer, born in Milan but based in Venice, with extensive experience performing live both in Italy and abroad. He has over forty album recordings to his credit. For years, he has been involved in innovative and experimental music projects (Nicola Fazzini Quartet, XYQuartet, Hyper +, CREI), and has performed with artists such as Enrico Rava, Peter Erskine, Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, Miles Okazaki, Amir ElSaffar, François Houle, and Samuel Blaser. He has served as the artistic director of several music festivals (including Jazz a Mira and Jazz Area Metropolitana), and has collaborated on numerous projects with the cultural association nusica.org and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. A graduate in Jazz Saxophone, he currently teaches Jazz Composition at the Tartini Conservatory in Trieste.
www.nicolafazzini.com
Alessandro Fedrigo. Bassist, composer, and improviser Alessandro Fedrigo is one of the few specialists in the fretless bass (without frets). He has performed at the most important jazz festivals in Italy and toured in the USA, Canada, Germany, Austria, Finland, Poland, Estonia, Hungary, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Croatia, England, Switzerland, Serbia, Latvia, Luxembourg, Ecuador, and Japan. A focus on sound is one of the defining traits of this musician, who has honed his craft through a long apprenticeship during which he explored jazz, free improvisation, experimental music, and electronic music blended with multimedia performances. He has recorded around forty albums with various ensembles.
www.alessandrofedrigo.com
Saverio Tasca plays both vibes and marimba but he is also a composer who experiments different music languages like jazz, contemporary and classical. He worked both in Italy and all other the world also for the theatre, playing with Franco D’Andrea, Jovanotti, Ivano Fossati and many others. Now he teaches at Vicenza Conservatory.
He believes that classical music and ethnic music are the real sources of these days music. His path implies free connections between him and the other musicians and between him and the different instruments he plays. It implied a lot of collaborations visible on his instrumental style too. So the timpani, the drum and avant-garde instruments echo on his phrasing and on his keyboards. His project are Saverio Tasca Trio, a duo with Roberto Gemo and the Vibeguitar Quartet. He played in CREI Ensemble.
www.saveriotasca.com
Luca Colussi is an eclectic drummer who works in different situations; he is an improviser, a composer and a teacher too. In fifteen years he worked for the theatre, for movies and in poetry readings, but he dedicated most of his time to jazz music. He studied and played with Kenny Wheeler, Fred Hersch, John Taylor, with whom he recorded a cd. He has played with David Liebman, Andy Gravish, Mike Applebaum, Francesco Bearzatti, F. Bosso, F. Boltro and many others in Italy and all over Europe. He has a great flexibility on rhythm, an amazing groove and an outstanding creativity; these are the most important characteristics of his style. Among his latest projects there are Rosa Brunello y los Fermentos (they have just been produced by CAM-Jazz), Glauco Venier Quartet and Dario Carnovale Trio (they have just been produced by Albóre for the Japanese market).
www.lucacolussi.com
XY
Nicola Fazzini (alto sax), Alessandro Fedrigo (bass guitar), Saverio Tasca (vibes), Luca Colussi (drums)
5 Astronauts
A multimedia project in collaboration with the video artist Claudio Sichel.
Nicola Fazzini (alto sax), Alessandro Fedrigo (bass guitar), Saverio Tasca (vibes), Luca Colussi (drums), Claudio Sichel (visuals)
QuartettoQuartetto
A project realized with four percussionists of the Arrigo Pedrollo Conservatory of Vicenza.
Nicola Fazzini (alto sax), Alessandro Fedrigo (bass guitar), Saverio Tasca (vibes), Luca Colussi (drums), Christian Del Bianco (percussions), Paolo Zanin (percussions), Rossano Muzzupapa (percussions), Luca Gallio (percussions).
StraborDante
XYquartet & John De Leo
StraborDante
A musical journey of 9 stages in Dante’s Inferno
John De Leo – voice, Alessandro Fedrigo – music compositions and arrangements, electric bass, Nicola Fazzini – music compositions and arrangements, alto sax /XYQuartet, Luca Colussi – drums/XYQuartet, Saverio Tasca – vibraphone / XYQuartet, Vincenzo De Vivo – dramaturgy and lyrics, Francesco Lopergolo – multivisions, Franco Naddei – live electronics
On the occasion of the VII centenary celebrations in 2021 for Dante Alighieri’s death, StraborDante is born: a musical journey between jazz, rock and noise, in which the imaginary of Dante’s Inferno comes to life in a multimedia show. Original songs and rearrangements of thirteenth-fourteenth-century compositions by the XYQuartet , talk through the unique voice of John De Leo and the images created by the artist Francesco Lopergolo. During the nine different stages of the StraborDante’s journey, meetings, dialogues, awesomeness, allegories and the extraordinary inventions that populate the most evocative Canto of the Divine Comedy come definitely to life.
To give life to the rich imaginary of Inferno is the sound of XYQuartet, a prominent ensemble of the Italian and European jazz scene: Nicola Fazzini (alto sax), Alessandro Fedrigo (electric bass), Saverio Tasca (vibraphone) and Luca Colussi (drums). Nicola Fazzini and Alessandro Fedrigo are the music composers : 4 original tracks – Oscura (N. Fazzini). Limbo (A. Fedrigo), Pozzo del Gigante (N. Fazzini), Canto Invisibile (A. Fedrigo) which describe the places between the circles of Inferno. To this we add the work of arrangiament of 4 medieval compositions taken from il Laudario di Cortona, musical code of the XIII century, works of Marchetto da Padova, author of songs and motets like Ave regina coelorum/Mater innocenccie (Marchetto da Padova)- rearranged in a duplicate Version of Ave Corpus Sanctum(Marchetto da Padova), Peccatrice Nominata (Laudario di Cortona AAVV) and Piangiamo del crudel basciar (Laudario di Cortona AAVV) and considered one of the first representatives of Ars Nova in Italy.
The interpretation of the texts and of the original dramaturgy of Vincenzo De Vivo, is performed by John De Leo: an eclectic and versatile artist, one of the most interesting voices among with his extraordinary stage presence in the Italian music scene of the last decade. His voice-instrument , at times warm, acute, scratchy,and deeply felt is perfectly able to interpret the multiple shades of the composition, from singing to acting. A remarkable interpretation that, together with the electronic live by to Franco Naddei , gives words and dialogues back to the famous characters like Virgilio, Paolo and Francesca, Pier Delle Vigne, Ulisse, Count Ugolino encountered during the journey from the dark forest to the heart of the underworld.
StraborDante borders on the visual performance thanks to the images that take shape with multi-visions by the artist Francesco Lopergolo. The musicians are completely absorbed in settings, appearances, visual allegories, achieved by the alteration of the images and the re-elaborated version of the shooting at Grotte del Caglieron , in the region of Montello. (Fregona TV).
The intrinsic bond between music, acoustics, poetry and image examined by the same father of the Italian language with StraborDante is not only an artistic action but more a philological reconstruction aimed to led poetry to its most authentic origin back, to a time when the relationship with music was much closer, in an almost symbiotic way. By “Overflowing” and turning the borders between theatrical pièce, concert, and the historical and linguistic boundaries upside-down, the show leads us right into the Word and Dante’s vision, returning it with all the dynamism and newness of the extraordinary immortal Work, that is still able to convey its greatness.
The project has been promoted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the International Cooperation – General Management for the Country System Promotion – within the project “Vivere all’italiana in musica”.
booking@nusica.org
+39 328 4318936