Fabrizia Barresi - Choice

PERSONNEL: Fabrizia Barresi, vocals; Mark Boling, guitar; Rusty Holloway, bass; Keith Brown, drums; special guests Ira Sullivan, flutes & horns; Jerry Coker tenor sax; Carlos Fernandez percussion. NOTES, by Patty Coker: Fabrizia epitomizes the definition of the ultimate artist: "the musician achieves true artistry when he or she becomes one with the spirit of the music being performed". This, Fabrizia unfailingly achieves. She has an innate taste for what is beautiful and witty in jazz music, both intellectually and in her tender heart. We met when she was in serious search for information that would deepen her understanding of the music she loves, and she applies information, as assimilated, effortlessly into her improvisation. Always the student, she then seeks to pass on ways to apply the information to her own students at the Associazione Siena Jazz, in Siena, Italy. No rote application for Fabrizia, as you will discover in this remarkable CD! It's a joy to open up the ears for a treat of vocal versatility, sheer spontaneity, playfulness, and pathos, over a wide range of material, vocal and instrumental in intent and origin. "Amazing Grace" is a fitting signature for the offering here, simply sung with Ira Sullivan and Jerry Coker in full support. Just heavenly! Special attention should be given to the strength and backgroup experience of the instrumentalists involved in this project. From the University of Tennessee Studio Music and Jazz Program developed by Jerry Coker, Fabrizia selected members of that Faculty for the CD. She had already been working with and sitting in with the premier rhythm section, comprised of internationally known Donald Brown, piano; Mark Boling, guitar, Rusty Holloway, bass; and Keith Brown on drums; this made for a strong rapport going into the recording studio. Carlos Fernandez added the percussion spectrum brillianty. Add to this, the genius of Ira Sullivan, and the result is a rare musical treat! (Patty Coker). BIOGRAPHY: I was born in Rome, Italy, in 1959. After completing bilingual studies in Italy at the Lycée Chateaubriand in Rome, I received a diploma in "Baccalauréat ès Lettres et Philosophie" from the Université de Grenoble (France). After graduation I began my studies in classical piano, classical (opera) voice as a "soprano lirico-leggero", and other vocal techniques (Arabian music, Pigmies singing techniques, Indian classical music, overtone singing and Nada Yoga). My work focused very soon on bone resonance, body voice and the re-education of verticalization and the ability to listen to special frequencies based on the studies made by the famous French otorhinolaryngologist Dr. Alfred Tomatis. I also studied jazz harmony, piano, alto saxophone and drums and created my own personal method of research regarding the sound of the vocal instrument and improvisation, by working on jazz standards and original compositions. In 2004 I studied with Jerry Coker his special program "Jazz keyboards for pianists and non-pianists", and I now teach it in Italy with his personal authorization. One of the main points of my method is to use our physical memory in it's entirety, unlocking muscles, articulations, senses interrelations and therefore special natural movements to obtain the best performance with a little amount of conscious, technical effort, so that the focus stays on both artistry and feeling, and the quality of the vocal sound remains natural, and personal. Being a teacher as well as a performer I received a diploma as a Consultant Facilitator and Instructor from 3in1Concepts (Burbanks, CA). This technique helps to resolve motor and learning dyslexia. I frequently work together with psychologists and therapeutists, on vocal re-education and many other psychologic and physical unbalances related to vocal expression. My work with singers and actors and in personal study, is concentrated as much on feeling as the study of technique. It's a discovery of an emotional sound hidden between the lines of physical sensation and tied to the vibration of sound, timbre, and emotion. It departs from the art of scat singing but moves towards a less syllabic territory: the new sounds/colors and dynamics are therefore purely instrumental. The group work begins with the construction of a vocal warm-up and is created specifically for the participants. It utilizes various techniques of vocal emission from the classical techniques of lyric (opera) singers to ethnic techniques from various parts of the world as well as the vocality tied to blues and gospel. The search for the most authentic personal vocal sound is the fundamental goal of the study, so that the singer can release by choice his/her models of imitation, preconceptions of personal capacity, and preconceptions of timbre and vocal potential. The objective of the seminars is to develop an ability to listen that is personally, as well as globally, open. In this way the individual's sound fuses perfectly with the collective sound, developing the gestation, projection and extension of personal colors within the sound/improvisation of the group. I am a member of several jazz groups in Italy as well as working free-lance. I've made two recordings in Italy: Pithecanthropus e Altre Storie (original music and arrangements of compositions by Charles Mingus recorded with bassist and arranger Andrea Avena) and the suite Estrela da Tarde (original compositions of poems by Pablo Neruda and other South American authors together with the M.J.Urkestra and the composer and conductor Roberto Spadoni). In 1992 I participated at Knoxville Jazz and Blues Festival (TN) with various American combos, pianist Donald Brown and saxophonist Joe Donato. During the festival, I also participated in the "Singers' Summit" '' an octet of singers including Bob Dorough, Janet Lawson, April Arabian, and Patty Coker. My first American CD, named CHOICE, will be released in February 2006. The band features Mark Boling on guitar, Rusty Holloway on bass, Keith Brown on drums, Carlos Fernandez on percussions, and Ira Sullivan and Jerry Coker as special guests on horns. In 1993 I was invited by the Berklee College of Music in Boston to hold a seminar on improvisation focusing on the use of specific techniques used to create bone resonance, and special creative warm-ups. Having created a method of study for vocal technique and improvisation, I teach these techniques in workshops both in Italy and abroad for singers, actors, and dancers, dedicated to the relationship between sound, space and movement. Since 1994 I've been the director of the Voice Program and Improvisational Techniques in Siena, Italy (Fondazione Siena Jazz '' Accademia Italiana del Jazz), where I teach vocal technique, interpretation, improvisation, and I lead a Gospel choir and a combo class for singers. The Siena Jazz Jazz School is internationally wellknown for it's distinctive creative approach directed towards the development of artistic and stylistic personality. It's seminars have produced many international talents. Since 2001 I've been leading workshops for professional training at the "Teatro Eliseo" in Rome (a project led by the opera and theatre director Marco Carniti). I've also collaborated with the actor, author, and theatre director Leo de Bernardinis, who used to perform as an actor together with jazz improvisors as Steve Lacy, Jean-Jacques Avenel and John Betsch, on the research project "L'Attore Jazzista". In relation to this project, I worked with professional actors teaching correct vocal projection in relation to the character portrayed and each actor's expressive color in response to the dramatic choices of the director; we also worked special jazz exercises and warm-ups in order to enhance certain musical skills, as listening, rhythm, right pitch intonation and harmonization; the final goal of this project was to bring the actors to act their pre-written lines as if they were in fact improvising in a jam session, making each single performance a unique theatrical event. In 2002 I was invited to participate in a project by the French composer Hector Zazou where I did a live performance with a septet for the 1956 film Le Mystère Picasso, where Pablo Picasso himself is painting and the director shows how the paintings are created, layer after layer, in subsequent flows of improvisational energy; the original soundtrack having been removed for this special performance, to allow brand new compositions (both written and improvised) to serve Picasso's powerful images, artistry and genius thru the experience of jazz improvisation and contemporary sounds. At present I'm working with the researcher Alberto Tedeschi on an experimental study begun in Milan in 2003 on the effect Holographic Bioresonance has on vocal sound and artistic performance. I've regularly participated with a cappella vocal improvisation and the use of technology created specifically for the occasion (Wide Holographic Intensive Transferred Energy, W.H.I.T.E. technology) as well as participating in lectures on quantum physics and water physics held by various researchers of Q.E.D. (Quantic Electro Dynamics), among them Professor Emilio Del Giudice of the National Italian Institute of Nuclear Physics.

1) Les Feuilles Mortes
2) Footprints
3) You Don't Know What Love Is
4) Send in the Clowns
5) Dolphin Dance
6) Twenty-Five Times Around the Sun
7) Someday My Prince Will Come
8) Summertime
9) Amazing Grace