NO GENDER

Danilo di Paolonicola Quartet feat. Flavio Boltro

Event in honor of the 160th anniversary of Paolo Soprani

September 13th, 2023 – 10,30 pm

Castelfidardo, Piazza della Repubblica

For more information, write to info@pifcastelfidardo.it or call 071 7822987.

Jazz, folklore and improvisation, a fascinating mix which is also the secret of the NO GENDER show: always being unique and never the same. All this is possible thanks to the great research work that DANILO DI PAOLONICOLA, together with other artists, has engaged in deepening the aspects related to the musical traditions of the various peoples, to then arrive at an original and constantly evolving language.
In this show, the accordionist will be joined by the well-known trumpeter FLAVIO BOLTRO and by the musicians GIONNI DI CLEMENTE (𝘾𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙖, 𝙊𝙪𝙙 𝙚 𝘽𝙤𝙪𝙯𝙤𝙪𝙠𝙞 ), NICOLA DI CAMILLO (𝘽𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙤 𝙀𝙡𝙚𝙩𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙤) and GLAUCO DI SABATINO (𝘽𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙖).

With “No Gender Vol.2”, Danilo Di Paolonicola continues his extraordinary exploratory journey that leads him to touch different lands and continents, a research journey that began years ago, in which “No Gender” (2016) represents the first synthesis. In this new work the compositions are inspired by the rhythms included in the music of traditional dances, enriched by jazz harmonies and innovative virtuosity elaborated on bellows instruments. The song titles are often derived from the name of the dance steps from which the rhythm or sound was inspired, such as Applejacker (Clog Dance step used in Country, Western, Bluegrass, Tip Tap dances) Boleo (Argentine Tango step performed by the woman led by the man) Payduska (Payduska Horo is a Bulgarian dance in 11/16, divided into two fast and three slow units), Pizzica Delle Fontanelle (Pizzica rhythm with Funky sound, Seven Steps (inspired by the rhythm in 7 /8 of Greek dances, called Calamation). A World Music path made of different sonorities and reinterpretations, a tight and warm, Mediterranean rhythm, is the background for a series of references to different cultures that come into contact and enrich each other. Jazz , folklore and improvisation, are the three foundations about conducting.

Danilo Di Paolonicola, born in 1977, approaches music at the age of six playing the accordion and immediately demonstrating a precocious talent by winning all the competitions in which he participated and shortly thereafter considered a child prodigy. Winner of six “World Championships” (1987-88-89-90-91-95) of diatonic accordion and numerous national and international competitions. Among the numerous competitions won, in 2007 Danilo with his group “Ethnic Project” won the most important competition in the world for jazz accordion “Premio Città di Castelfidardo” and in the same year always with his group he also won the “Premio Stefano Bizzarri” where he had the honor of opening Richard Galliano’s gala concert. He obtained a first and second level degree in Popular Music Composition and Arrangement at the Luisa D’Annunzio Conservatory of Pescara in with honors. He studied variety accordion and jazz music with maestro Renzo Ruggieri, he attended advanced training courses at the Berklee School in Perugia (Umbria Jazz). Since 2008 he has been teaching the first experimental course in Italy for diatonic accordion at the “A. Casella”, and since 2019 at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome and Rieti. In 2009 and 2010 he was a teacher of the Campus Afam advanced training courses in Santa Severina (Kr) set up by the Istituto Superiore di Studi Musicali Tchaikovsky of Nocera Terinese (Cz). He has held master classes and seminars in conservatories, festivals and competitions, including the Castelfidardo International Festival. He is the official demonstrator of the “Paolo Soprani” accordion and accordion companies. He is the technical consultant and official demonstrator of “Roland Europe” for the V Accordion line for which he created the first virtual diatonic accordion.

He is the representative of the accordion in the world for the Castelfidardo museum, which organizes events related to the history of the accordion. He has over sixty discs as a side man, and in 2008 he collaborated in the creation of the disc “Abruzzo Mediterraneo” produced by the Wide Sound label with Angelo Valori’s M.Edit Ensemble group which was distributed as an attachment to the Abruzzo newspaper “Il Center”. He has recorded several soundtracks for Cinik records, including “La Casa Sulle Nuvole” produced by Warner Bros, “Buoni a Nulla” produced by Rai, L’uomo Fiammifero, Il Viaggio di Kalibani, Fratelli D’Italia, La Madonna Della Frutta , etc.. In 2016 his latest entirely unreleased recording work with artistic collaborations of the highest level entitled No Gender was released for the Cinik Records label. In 2020 he recorded the soundtrack of the film / documentary Fellini degli Spiriti produced by Raicinema. He is the artistic director and creator of the Saltarello Festival and the Saltarello Popular Orchestra which together represent the flagship of Abruzzo.

In 2021 he produced and arranged the first disc of the Orchestra Popolare del Saltarello entitled “Abruzzo” winning first place in the Corriere della Sera Discs ranking curated by the music critic Mario Luttazzo Fegiz and later presented on the Piazza Verdi radio broadcast of Radio Rai . He has given concerts in Switzerland, Germany, France, Belgium, Croatia, Holland, Hungary, Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Japan, California, Florida, Portugal, etc. He has performed in various festivals dedicated to popular, ethnic and jazz music and classic, to remember the International Accordion Festival in Castelfidardo, the first classical music Rave in 2018 with the Orchestra Notturna Clandestina conducted by maestro Enrico Melozzi, Concertone on May 1st in Rome with the Popular Orchestra of Saltarello, La Casa Del Jazz in Pescara, Suoni Mediterranei of Atri (TE), Muntagninjazz (AQ), Serravalle Jazz Festival ( MI), Pineto Accordion Jazz Festival (TE), Giulia Jazz (TE), Peperoncino Jazz Festival (CS), Namm Breakfast (Los Angeles), Campi Sonori (AQ), ATG Accordion Festival (Orlando Florida), Instruments & Music Festival ( PG), CMA World Trophy (Pineto TE), V-Accordion Festival (music park Rome), CMA World Trophy (Spokane Washington USA), Giverny tour Festival Ascoli in canto, Adriatic Mediterranean (AN), Notte della Taranta 2016, 2018 and 2019 (LE) in the stages of the cobweb concerts and on the main stage of Melpignano (LE), Italian Embassy in Washington for the Urbino Press award presented to CNN journalist Wolf Blitzer representing Italian culture in America etc …

He has also played and collaborated with musicians such as: Renzo Ruggieri, Peppino Principe, Enrico Melozzi, Paolo Di Sabatino, Giovanni Sollima, Lele Melotti, Paolo Costa, Livio Gianola, Massimo Manzi, Massimo Morriconi, Enrico Pierannunzi, Fabrizio Bosso, Flavio Boltro, Luca Bulgarelli, Maria Pia Devito, Claudio Filippini, Maurizio Rolli, Angelo Valori, Elsa Lila, Linda Valori, Grazia Di Michele, Teresa De Sio, Awa Ly, Nino Buonocore, Antonella Ruggiero, Moni Ovadia, Erri De Luca, Jerry Gates, Ernestico Rodriguez , Ludovic Beier, Mike Rossi, Larry Mitchell.

International trumpeter originally from Turin, Falvio Boltro boasts a career that began way back in 1982, where he performed for RAI, the Turin Symphony Orchestra and great names of the time such as Steve Grossman, Cedar Walton and Billy Higgins. Musician” in 1986 by the trade magazine “Musica Jazz” he then played with the legends: Freddie Hubbard, Clifford Jordan, Jimmy Cobb, Bob Berg, Dave Liebman, Don Cherry, Joe Lovano and Laurend de Wilde. After his first Italian period he moved to France, where the genre was exploding, and joined the National Jazz Orchestra, to then travel the world together with Michel Petrucciani’s sextet which he joined in 1996, until to the disappearance of the pianist, to then move to the quintet of Eric Legnini, to that of Michel Portal. Having baked several CDs, the time comes for Boltro to release two as band leader: “Road Runner” and “40 degrès” and finally play on the best album of 2003 “Air”, so nominated by the French Academy of Jazz. Back in Italy Flavio Boltro joins Rosario Giuliani’s quintet and since 2007 he has also played simultaneously alongside Gino Paoli, at the time at the center of Italian Jazz culture, to then create his own quartet in 2008 releasing a CD in 2010 in collaboration with the newspaper “L’Espresso”. From 2011 he started playing various arias from the Italian Opera and then released his latest album in 2012 with a new quintet, whose music draws inspiration from the magical 60s. In recent years his concert activity is very intense, he collaborates with Nino Buonocore and with Alex Britti, as well as again with Di Battista and produces a new project in his name, the B.B.B. trio. In 2020 the meeting and the beginning of the collaboration with Danilo Di Paolonicola.