CONDUCTOR

Ferdinando Faraò ha sviluppato un approccio “personale” alla composizione e alla direzione di grandi organici grazie alle esperienze maturate in questi anni con diversi musicisti e direttori d’orchestra.

Particolarmente importanti e significative sono state le collaborazioni con Adam Rudolph e il riferimento al suo “concept”, che pone le basi del progetto Go: Organic Orchestra. Si tratta di un metodo sperimentale unico nel suo genere: una orchestrazione spontanea, che si sviluppa attraverso griglie musicali modali, spunti tematici e ritmici basati sulle strutture intervallari concepite assieme a Yusef Lateef.

Per quanto riguarda la scrittura e l’organizzazione propriamente orchestrale ha avuto grande importanza lo studio delle opere di Mike Westbrook, in particolare di “Platterback” e di “ A Bigger Show”, quest’ultima realizzata a Milano nel 2016 in una “premier italiana” sotto la guida dello stesso Westbrook con sua moglie Kate.

Altra importante esperienza di collaborazione quella con Karl Berger, compositore, arrangiatore ed educatore, che con Ornette Coleman e Ingrid Sertso fondò il “Creative Music Studio” in Woodstock NY, per incoraggiare i musicisti e gli studenti allo sviluppo delle proprie idee musicali.

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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 Ellingtonand 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, Bob Mover and Larry Schneider. 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.