Migrants by Nicola Sergio

Nicola Sergio

Migrants

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Challenge Records
UPC: 0608917340525
Catnr: CR 73405
Release date: 30 October 2015
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Label
Challenge Records

UPC
0608917340525

Catalogue number
CR 73405

Release date
30 October 2015

""Sergios elegant, fluid style with many classical borrowings and analogies, and the sometimes flashing tougher jazz attacks rest upon the themes like a blueprint...""

JazzPodium, 01-3-2016

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

Press

About the album

As a migrant from southern Italy, a land of emigration, I have always felt the need to dedicate a song to this big “family” to which I think to belong: the migrants of the world. This time I have been further in composing for them a whole album written under the spell of strong emotions. When composing the ten songs, my inspiration was nourished by personal experiences, written documents, films, newspapers, but above all by my encounters with other migrants, the true witnesses of deeply human stories which were for me strongly inspiring.This is what “Nowhereland” is about: like many others, the migrant finds himself alone and lost on board of a boat on its way to a new country only known through the images of postcards and television, in which he won't be welcomed most of the time. It's not his homeland, it's a “no-where-land” where he has to live in search of a better future.“Ryork” is about the first Italian migrants embarking for America without any money, but with a bad full of dreams. It tells the true story of a young Napolitan who intends to emigrate to New York, but embarks on the wrong ship which takes him to Rio de Janeiro! In spite of this “mistake” the city pleases him and he chooses to settle there and raise a family.“Rain in my lunch-box” is about a migrant working in London who, during his lunch-break on the yard where he toils, finds nothing in his lunch-box but rain water. This work is an attempt at conveying all these stories. Improvisation is always at the heart of it, but for writing the themes i was inspired sometimes by jazz, sometimes by classical or by film music, without imposing to myself stylistic barriers. Because music is, in my opinion, very similar to the migration process: it is the result of continuous meetings and exchanges between different cultures and even different styles can coexist enriching one another to create cyclically new styles, new cultures, new migrations.
Nicola Sergio

Liner notes by Guillaume de Chassy:
The artistic development of Nicola Sergio is evocative of the ripeness of a good old wine: a promising beginning and a gradual maturation, the fruit of constant work and absolute determination. A refined composer, a lyrical improviser, the pianist is good at getting together the best musicians as the bass player Stéphane Kerecki, the drumer Fabrice Moreau and the sax player Jean Charles Richard.
Here he is, for the first time as soloist, inviting us on a ten-step visit through his poetical world. Piano solo: two words implying both exigency and deliberate risk. It means challenging truth leading the soloist to reconcile two opposite qualities: the control of the hand and the capacity to letting-go, something at which he brilliantly succeeds in this work.
His beautifull sound, his melodic inspiration, his harmonic palette are here at their best. The complexity of his rythms never impair the melody, the music flows like a brook would through a meadow. His piano technic matches his inspiration, the mind remains in control of the hand and there is no gibbering, no showing off. “Cinematographic” is the term that comes to one's mind when listening to this music, so sensitive (without sentimentalism), so full of imaginary figures.
With his remarkable sensitivity and his delicate piano-playing , Nicola Sergio leads us softly and safely along his first solitary voyage. We wish him more of the same.

Migrants promo video on Youtube: Migrants

“Die künstlerische Entwicklung von Nicola Segrio ist vergleichbar mit dem Reifeprozess eines guten Weins: ein vielversprechender Anfang und ein stetiges Reifen, das Bouquet konstanter Arbeit und absolute Entschlossenheit. Als versierter Komponist, der lyrisch improvisiert, ist es dem Pianisten ein leichtes die besten Musiker für seine Zwecke zu vereinen: Stéphane Kerecki, Fabrice Moreau und Jean Charles Richard. Zum ersten Mal stellt er sich hier seinem Publikum als Solist und läd es ein, eine Reise über zehn Etappen in seine poetische Welt zu unternehmen.” Guillaume de Chassy

Artist(s)

Nicola Sergio (piano)

The cosmopolitan Italian pianist/composer/arranger Nicola Sergio is a laureate of Economics. What makes him not the same as every other ex-student, is that at the time he got his Economics diploma, he also graduated Magna Cum Lauda for classical Piano at the Conservatory of Perugia in Italy in 2003! Even more impressive is the fact that he also graduated Magna Cum Lauda for jazz Piano and after that got a degree in musical teaching. This shows how enormously gifted Sergio is. Sergio also completed the ‘Prix Jazz’ at the CNR in Paris, the city in which he has resided since 2008. From an early age, the Italian musician’s talents were evident, helping him to earn various mentions of honour at numerous competitions and classical music festivals for young performers. Between 2004 and 2007 he played in a variety of groups in the jazz scene, from trio to quartet, quintet, sextet and Cuban music ensembles. These were all groups with which he performed on numerous festivals in Italy, France and Sweden. As Well as his activities in the jazz circuit, he became involved in projects of related genres in music, such as classical chamber music, film, theatre scores and he conducted big bands. Currently, he is leader of a Paris-based trio bearing his own name, which includes two special guests on saxophone, New Yorker Michael Rosen and Argentine Javier Girotto, and cellist Melanie Badal. With this project he recorded the CD entitled ‘SYMBOLS’, for independent label Challenge Records International. His compositions have already generated interest at many radio stations in France as well as in Italy. In addition, Nicola Sergio recently recorded a documentary and a CD with a quartet, as pianist/arranger/composer. This was for the project entitled ‘Cilea Mon Amour’, a re-visitation in the style of jazz of the principal operas by composer Francesco Cilea. This was released on the new label Nau Jazz. The particular characteristic of the Nicola Sergio Trio on the cd ‘Symbols’ can be found in its conceptual framework: the fundamental idea is that of developing a way of interpreting jazz which is not limited to the passive acceptance of any preliminary design. Rather, the modus operandi of the project is to explore modernism and multiculturalism. The first part of this explorative process consists of the use of non-traditional structures and harmonic progressions. The multicultural element arises from the fact that the creative influences from which the themes find their roots, are not limited to any one region, culture, style or epoch. With Nicola Sergio, as a composer as well as a pianist, jazz is a vibrant musical genre and has no specific boundaries. With the talent, the deep musicality and the ‘alive-ness’ of his music, Nicola Sergio will become an important name to remember.

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Composer(s)

Nicola Sergio (piano)

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Press

"Sergios elegant, fluid style with many classical borrowings and analogies, and the sometimes flashing tougher jazz attacks rest upon the themes like a blueprint..."
JazzPodium, 01-3-2016

"...this solo music is wonderfully composed and insightfully improvised."
Jazzthing, 01-2-2016

"There's always a lot of immediate inventiveness involved. The 'division of labour' between left and right hand is phenomenal!"
Jazzthetik, 01-1-2016

Jazzthetik Best Of 2015, Stefan Pieper, Category "Latenight".
Jazzthetik, 01-1-2016

["] .. All of the above may sound pompous and possibly some sentimental , but is quite essential for the beautiful moving music to" estimate Migrants " at its true value . Nicola creates a very atmospheric picture with his soulful warm piano playing , there is much to enjoy his music , despite or perhaps partly because of the distressing subject. I have not enjoyed myself in times as with this musical pearl... Highly recommended!"
Rootstime, 04-12-2015