Ferdinando Faraò belongs to one of the few Italian jazz dynasties. The son of an amateur drummer, he is the brother of piano player Antonio Faraò and the cousin of piano player Massimo Faraò. Inspired by his father's wide collection of jazz records and captivated by a concert of Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald that he had seen in Milan at the age of 10, he started to study the drums with the support of his family. By the age of 20 he had become the in-house drummer at Capolinea, Milan's most important jazz venue. In the '80s he played in the Claudio Fasoli Quartet and accompanied many North American musicians that toured Italy, such as Lee Konitz, Mal Waldron, Sal Nistico and Bob Mover. In the '90s he joined the quintet of Italian singer Tiziana Ghiglioni and has been increasingly involved in special audio-visual projects. His recording career as a solo artist started relatively late, in 1997, with the album Listening Self, featuring Pietro Tonolo on saxophone, Piero Leveratto on double-bass and Franco D'Andrea on piano. Faraò is a subtle drummer that leads from the back rather than putting himself under the spotlight. Also at ease on percussion and xylophone, he can provide a versatile and wide aural palette. A witty composer, Ferdinando Faraò privileges mid-tempo compositions in which he often experiments with odd time signatures, sudden rthythmic shifts and sampling.
Concept album in forma di suite, Darwinsuite prende spunto dalle celebrazioni darwiniane (nel 2009 la ricorrenza è duplice, bicentenario della nascita del grande scienziato e centocinquantenario della pubblicazione de “L'origine della specie”) per rendere omaggio alle attualissime idee del naturalista inglese. Evoluzione (in musica) in forma di suite, successione e variazione sul tema, flusso e riflusso.
Una suite che, proprio come una teoria scientifica che nasce, si divincola tra architetture di accordi emergenti e improvvise, centrifughe, irruzioni di frammenti eccentrici e di dettagli apparentemente insignificanti, che, come insegna il grande naturalista, così insignificanti non sono mai.
Un processo creativo di scoperta in cui il contributo di Ferdinando Faraò, sia quale batterista sia quale compositore, é riuscitissimo: un'opera originale e complessa, arricchita come in una “transmutazione” dalle personalità dei musicisti che vi hanno partecipato, da Tracanna a Falzone, da Caruso a Mangialajo Rantzer, sino all'originale sintesi espressiva del quartetto vocale Kibuchi Ferrara Bravo Forges.
ferdinando faraò, drums, compositions
tino tracanna, tenor & soprano sax
giovanni falzone, trumpet
beppe caruso, trombone
tito mangialajo rantzer, bass
shinobu kikuchi, soprano voice
serena ferrara, contralto voice
pilar brano, tenor voice
francesco forges, bass voice
