Heloisa “Luma” Lourenço: vocals, percussion
Jacopo Jacopetti: saxophone, classical guitar and percussion
Marco Ponchiroli: piano, percussion
Alvise Seggi: bass, percussion
Enzo Zirilli: drums, percussion
Jacopo Jacopetti’s musical project is dedicated to the sacred monsters of South American music and to Latin American compositions: Brazilian—both modern and classic (Chico Buarque, Djavan, Ivan Lins, Caetano Veloso, as well as Antonio Carlos Jobim, Dori Caymmi, Egberto Gismonti); Cuban (H. Belafonte), Argentine (A. Piazzolla), Uruguayan (H. Fattoruso)—as well as reinterpretations of well-known overseas jazz standards in a Latin American style, and original compositions. The seasoned quintet features an exceptional vocalist, delivering a concert of high musical level, enjoyable, and with great and immediate impact. It is an exciting journey through musical Latin America, rich in the colors and harmonies that characterize the melodies and rhythms of that part of the world.
Heloisa “Luma” Lourenço, Brazilian by birth but for a long time now a fully-fledged international citizen, divides her musical life between France and Italy. A singer with an emotionally stirring and decidedly uncommon timbre, she boasts a very personal style, imbued with grace and elegance. She made her debut together with singer Loalva Braz in the group Kaoma. She has collaborated with artists such as Manu Dibango, Paul Personne, and Richard Clayderman, and has always kept the spotlight on herself with numerous concerts in France at the Grande Salle in Paris, the Bataclan, the Divan du Monde, the New Morning and the Blue Note, and by appearing at major international events such as the opening of the Fête de la Musique of the Ministry of Justice, the Africa Festival in Würzburg (Germany), the Hotel Mamounia (Marrakech), and the Festival de Percussion de Conakry (Guinea). In Italy she is known for bringing her brasileiro sound to the Venice Carnival in 2002, to the 2007 St. Mark’s Square Carnival concert “Luma noite do Brasil,” and to the Latin American Music Festival in Milan.
Jacopo Jacopetti, saxophonist, composer, and producer from Padua, has been active on the Italian jazz scene for over 35 years. He has collaborated with Massimo Urbani, Pietro and Marcello Tonolo, Sandro Gibellini, Luigi Bonafede, Alan Farrington, Ron Blake, and is a founding member of Gianni Cazzola’s Italian Repertory Quartet—with Pietro Leveratto and Marcello Tonolo—with whom he recorded an album and performed at all major Italian festivals. During the 1980s and 1990s he was also active in the pop world with Matia Bazar, Ornella Vanoni, Eros Ramazzotti and Fabio Concato, recording and touring in Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Japan and Argentina. He has produced eight albums under his own name, three of them with a quintet featuring Sandro Gibellini, Roberto Soggetti, David Boato, Franco Testa and Riccardo Biancoli, and one with Robert Persi, Marc Peillon and Rodolfo Cervetto. He has also created a recording project with American opera singer Madelyn Renee, featuring nine famous operatic arias rearranged in a jazz style for quintet, big band and symphony orchestra. With Progetto Latino he has recorded two CDs.
Marco Ponchiroli graduated in piano from the Venice Conservatory. Very early on he began a path of exploration that led him to blend various musical genres and artistic experiences, from pop to reggae. He maintains a strong passion for jazz, his principal reference genre, and performs with well-known figures on the Italian jazz scene: Flavio Boltro, Massimo Manzi, Nicola Stilo, Robert Bonisolo, Ares Tavolazzi, David Boato, Enzo Zirilli, Michel Marre, Marc Abrams, Claudio Roditi, John Riley, and others. He toured South America with Fabrizio Bosso. He has recorded numerous CDs as pianist and arranger.
Alvise Seggi is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and music teacher. Primarily a double bass player, he also plays electric bass, cello, piano, guitar, and the Arabic oud. He graduated with top marks with a Bachelor’s degree in Jazz Music from the “G. B. Martini” Conservatory in Bologna and later completed a Master’s degree at the “B. Marcello” Conservatory in Venice. He studied on scholarship at the Columbia College Music Center in Chicago and at the Gheorghe Dima Music Academy in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. For television, he collaborates with La7 (Atlantide). With various ensembles he has taken part in numerous international festivals in Italy, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Slovenia, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Romania, Moldova, Lebanon, the United States, Mexico, and several African countries. His many collaborations include artists such as Elliott Sharp, Sheila Jordan, Farhan Sabbagh, Bruce Ditmas, Charles Coen, Pietro Tonolo, Mark Stockhausen, Rob Mazurek, Olivier Manoury, Steve Piccolo, Tammy Tang, Tim Sparks, Mohamed Askari, John Stowell, Jeff Hirshfield, Gregory Burk, Jimmy Weinstein, Dudù Kouatè, Pasquale Mirra, Zoran Majstorovic, and many others. He has taught electric bass and double bass in the Jazz Open Courses at the Venice Conservatory and has given courses at the IULM University in Milan.
Enzo Zirilli is considered one of the most creative and versatile drummers/percussionists of recent generations. Gifted with great musicality, which has allowed him to absorb and personalize every form of contemporary music, he has been active for over a quarter century, performing and recording around the world with leading Afro-American, Italian, and European musicians in jazz, world music, and pop, including: Dado Moroni, Enrico Pieranunzi, Bob Mintzer, Charlie Mariano, Steve Grossman, Eddie Gomez, Antonio Forcione, James Moody, Tom Harrell, Ira Coleman, Rossana Casale, Marco Pereira, Ivan Segreto, Peppe Servillo, Flavio Boltro, Ares Tavolazzi, Larry Nocella, Randy Brecker, Gloria Gaynor, Fabrizio Bosso, Rosario Giuliani, Furio Di Castri, Emanuele Cisi and many others. After being born and musically raised in Turin, he moved to London in 2003, where he quickly established himself as one of the most sought-after musicians and began collaborating with some of the musical icons of British and international jazz such as Jim Mullen, Stan Sulzmann, John Etheridge, Liane Carroll, Ian Shaw, Omar Lye-Fook and Hamish Stuart (for 10 years alongside Paul McCartney), as well as with other prominent musicians of the latest generations including John Parricelli, Gilad Atzmon, Alex Garnett, Brandon Allen, Ross Stanley and Quentin Collins.
