Make your portraits English version

[***English version***]

The new Saxofollia album is looking for co-producers! Would you like to join us? Our album “Portriaits” has been on hold for months because of the pandemic. We would now like to produce it with a crowdfunding campaign. With your help (and in exchange for rewards) we are convinced we'll get through.

"Portraits” is the title of our new album that should have been released last spring. Unfortunately, the spread of the pandemic stopped us from finishing the album off, and we didn't manage to complete the recording, mastering and mixing of the record. The live concerts that were going to fund the completion of the album, are no longer permitted.

MAKE YOUR PORTRAITS is a crowdfunding campaign that will make all of you our new producers! It will be possible for everyone to actively participate in the production of the album, which, with your support, will be released in spring 2021. These portraits are homages to some of the greatest jazz musicians such as: John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Cole Porter, Gordon Goodwin. Each song has been arranged especially for this album by Roberto Sansuini and Stefano Nanni. 

The cover cover art has been illustrated by Stefano Landini, a famous Italian artist and cartoonist who has done commissions for Marvel, Disney, Lucas Film.

This album is the culmination of years of study into musical techniques, styles, and arrangements. Thanks to this approach the classical and chamber qualities of the saxophone quartet coexist with its jazz soul. Thanks to your help we hope to achieve this ambitious goal.

Who are Saxofollia?

• FABRIZIO BENEVELLI Soprano Sx 
• GIOVANNI CONTRI Alto Sax
• MARCO FERRI Tenor Sax
• ALESSANDRO CREOLA Baritone Sax

Saxofollia Saxophone Quartet is one of Italy's best known and most popular chamber music ensembles, first prize-winner at 8 national and international competitions.
Saxofollia's members have been playing for years with top symphony orchestras such as La Fenice (Venice), Filarmonica della Scala (Milan), Arena (Verona), Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana (OSI). Versatility and a constant seek for new musical genres are among the best qualities of this formation, which have been widely expressed in the different projects the group has brought on the stage. Saxofollia plays with mastery and ease not only classical repertoire, such as baroque or opera, but also jazz music, moving from swing to be-bop up to modern jazz. Saxofollia has recorded 7 albums. Some of their tracks have recently entered the "iTunes Top 100 Chart" of the most popular pieces in countries such as Canada and Japan.

Saxofollia need you: what are you waiting for? 
Support #makeyourportraits!

How will we use the funds?

Some of the costs have already been incurred by the Trifonica label, for the rest we need you!  Here in detail you will find the breakdown of the costs related to the production of the album.

Inside the project: discover "Portraits" 

These “portraits” are homages to some of the greatest jazz musicians. The opening of the album is a suite of 4 tracks from the repertoire of Cole Porter, arranged by Roberto Sansuini. 

He approaches these Swing and Latin songs as if dealing with the music of Bach or Mozart, weaving voices, playing with counterpoint. In the end there is both the delicacy of a string quartet and the impetus of a jazz orchestra. 

What follows are "Six variations on Goodbye Pork Pie Hat". Six variations by Roberto Sansuini on an original theme by Charles Mingus. Here, a genre typical of classical music, such as the "theme with variations," is applied to a composition from the traditional jazz repertoire. In 1959, the composer and double bass player Charles Mingus wrote a ballad commemorating the death of saxophonist Lester Young. During this short cycle of variations the initial idea becomes the pretext for the construction of new songs, and here, although the music is notated, the affinities with jazz are evident. The style and the techniques used in thesecomposition are deliberately heterogeneous, as if the theme was seen from different, even opposing, angles.

"Mr. J.C.", a tribute to John Coltrane, closes the Sansuiniano triptych. In it some of Coltrane’s most famous songs of the have been reimaginedfor a saxophone quartet, with plays on reworking rhythmic (Giant Steps), counterpoint interweaving (Like Sonny, Naima) and re-harmonizing (Big Nick). 

Another original song, "Diffusion," by Gordon Goodwin celebrates, in four movements, a brief history of the saxophone.

The first two movements, in allegro and waltz, are a homage to minimal music and the French '900, followed by a swing and hip-hop movements, which clearly link to the most recent life of the instrument. In this gallery of musical portraits there is a tribute to the Italian song: "E se domani", made famous by the interpretation of Mina, revisited in a medium rock version by Stefano Nanni.

Bill Holcombe is thethe composer of another original, “A Tale of Three Cities, (London, Paris, NewYork)” which skillfully mixes unreleased material with jazz standards and traditional melodies from the three cities. The result is a playful and fun suite that wonderfully reflects the spirit of the quartet.

PORTRAITS

FOUR SONGS FROM THE COLE PORTER SONGBOOK

Cole Porter - Arr. Roberto “Bob” Sansuini (2018)

SIX VARIATIONS on GOODBYE PORK PIE HAT

Charles Mingus / Roberto Sansuini (1997)

E SE DOMANI

Carlo Alberto Rossi - Arr. Stefano Nanni (2019)

MR. J.C. 

John Coltrane - Arr. Roberto “Bob” Sansuini (2018)

DIFFUSION

Gordon Goodwin (2006)

A TALE OF THREE CITIES

Bill Holcombe (1999)

LIMITED EDITION POSTER