Andrea Capezzuoli e Compagnia is a band based in Milan, whose members joined together back in 2007, and can now be considered as a point of reference in the Italian folk music landscape.
Stories, legends, songs, ballads and dances from northern Italy are enriched with musical flavours (melodies and rhythms) coming from all corners of Europe and from America: these can be the romantic flavours of French mazurkas, as well as the energetic ones of the Qeubec reels.
The Andrea Capezzuoli e Compagnia music is a blend of innovation and tradition, which engages and enchants the audience, guiding them through a playful musical journey, full of complicity and joy, in the full spirit of a country folk festival during which people can enjoy really good music.
Melodeons, piano and fiddle are accompanied by the foot-stumping as a percussion and this gives to the sound of the band a unique touch.
Balfolk
The band has an outstanding and long lasting experience also in the folk dance environment. The repertoire covers many European traditional dances as well as dances and music coming from Québec. The concert can be complemented and completed by the presence of the ‘caller’, the master of ceremonies who guides the dancers through their choreographies.
Balquébec – The French-speaking Canada’s dances
A dance concert and a dance workshop from Québec, French-speaking Canada. The ceremony master, called “caller”, animates a series of dances composed of Sets and Country dances.
During the tune the caller indicates the figures of the dance (a bit like in the quadrilles of central-southern Italy) in the form of a “deedling” like as a further melody.
The dance québécois is integrated with balfolk dances “standard” to variegate the evening.
Gira la ruota – Ballads and songs from Lombardy and Piedmont
A new concert focused on the history of the epic-narrative ballad from north-western Italy (Lombardy, Piedmont, Canton Ticino).
The history and stories of our ancestors, told through songs and songs that are lost in the mists of time.
The popular ballad, in fact, does not come from a specific era; since its transmission was in oral form (from cantor to cantor), each piece presented can be two hundred years old, like a thousand.
Songs from epochs where mass media did not exist and every fact, every episode of news, wonderful or tragic, was told through music and in this way
he went around the world, being reworked, enriched, emphasized, transforming himself at every step, becoming a fable, anecdote, myth.
A concert therefore composed of ballads, love songs, satirical songs, ritual songs reworked according to the usual charge and energy of its integrants.
A journey into popular song with multiple facets and atmospheres: from romanticism of the song in the time of mazurka, to the overwhelming energy of the a cappella songs, accompanied, as always, by podorhythmias and refined arrangements.
A music of contamination between tradition and innovation, which involves, captures the public and drags him on a sonorous and playful journey full of energy and complicity, characterized by joy typical of the party and the pleasure of good music.
The band
Andrea Capezzuoli
lead vocals, melodeons, foot-tapping
Melodèon player, singer, bagpipe player, composer, arranger, has
always play folkmusic. He was the founder of many folk groups: Terantiqua, La Magiostra, Musicanta Din Delon.
E was melodèon player’s group Picotage, O Calascione and piper the early music ensemble La chambre du RoyRené.
In 2007 he founded Andrea Capezzuoli e Compagnia. With this group he is currently shooting
scenes of the most important Italian and foreign festivals (Canada, Peru, France, Germany,
Holland, Belgium, Czech Republic, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland).
He is currently melodeon player in these formations: BandaBrisca, Soleluna, Matapuexi.
He has to his credit a thousand concerts, sixteen recordings, and participation in numerous
radio and television broadcasts.
He has been melodeon teacher since 1996 with stable courses, private lessons and workshops in Italy and abroad. In 2012 he published a melodeon’s methode (“Manuale di Organetto Diatonico”).
www.andreacapezzuoli.com
Milo Molteni
fiddle, vocals, foot-tapping
Violinist and fiddleplayer. Gradueted in 1999 in Bergamo’s Music Conservatory went to Eire to learn the fiddle’s style: played with Inisfail, Dualismagic (founder) and Irish Swing project, Kilcar Mud and Folkamiseria, Celtic Harp Orchestra, InòR project. The experiences of this polyedric fiddleplayer are so different: improvisational accompaniment with Puppet’s Theatre of Como and the poet Danilo Perico, musical collaborations with Mell Morcone, Vincenzo Zitello, Attilio Attucci, Adriano Sangineto. In the same years grown the passion for Quebec music: Musicanta first and Andrea Capezzuoli e Compagnia later. He plays even for the balfolk with a new irish/jazz duo called iGneef. Teacher from 2006 and founder of Lario Fiddle Workshop, Milo had 12 cds and many collaborations, beyond more than thousand gigs on Europe’s stages.
www.milomolteni.it
Paolo Censi
piano, vocals
Pianist, composer and teacher, he approaches the world of music at a very young age, immediately starting the study of classical piano and music theory. After studying classical piano at the Milan Conservatory, he graduated in Jazz piano at the G.Verdi Conservatory of Como, deepening the study, practice and compositional theory of the Jazz language over the years by attending prestigious European high-level seminars, in particular improvisation, composition and orchestration with Maestro Giuseppe Emanuele. Over the years he collaborates with important musicians and various projects with which he performs in prestigious festivals, clubs and theaters in Italy and Europe – Out Loud Project, Diversa-Mente, Oz Robu, Camera con Vista, All About Wonder, Lovers Jam, PasPartout, Beppe Caruso 5th, The Freeze Frame, Andrea Capezzuoli e Compagnia and IGneef. For several years he has been composing and arranging for theater performances and creating soundtracks. For over 25 years he has been involved in the study and development of music teaching by proposing projects of a social and cultural nature, he holds improvisation and jazz theory, big band and piano courses.
www.paolocensi.it
Nicola Brighenti
“caller”, step-dance
Cofounder of Andrea Capezzuoli e Compagnia, he started dancing traditional dances at the age of sixteen and in 1997 founded the Ethnica Association, of which he is the current president and artistic coordinator. Since then he has grown in Ethnica, becoming a reference point in the association for teaching dances and organising folk events. During these years he specialised in traditional Irish and Québécoise dances and in particular in Irish step dance.
He has to his credit, both with Ethnica’s dance troupe ‘La Compagnia traBallante’ and as a soloist, performances all over Italy and much of Europe with groups such as Whisky Trail, Will O’ The Wisp, ‘F.B.A., Inis Fail, Saule Kilaite.
Main Events
Carrefour de l’Accordeon – Montmagny, Québec
Les Traversée de Tatihou – St. Vaast, France
TFF – Rudolstadt, Deutschland
Le grand Bal de l’Europe – Gennetines, France
Grand Bal Trad – Vialfré, Italia
Berguedà Folk – Catalunya
Tanzhaus Folk Festival – Leipzig, Deutschland
Alpentöne musikfestival – Altdorf, Switzerland
Nuit du folk – Le Mans, France
Labadoux – Ingelmunser, Belgium
Andanças – Lisboa, Portugal
Entrudanças – Castro Verde, Portugal
TEEU – Baarlo, Nedherland
Trad’Estiu – Foix, France
Le Bal de l’Yvette – Paris, France
Sixième continent – Lyon, France
Lautenbach folkfestival – Mulhouse, France
Etétrad – Aosta, Italia
Zingaria – Bari, Italia
Renofolk – Bologna, Italia
Capodanno Celtico – Milano, Italia
Capodanze – Foggia, Italia
P-assaggi sonori – Matera, Italia
Isolafolk – Bergamo, Italia
Musica oltre – Milano, Italia
Musica nelle aie – Faenza, Italia
CarneValanga -Venezia, Italia
Lavelfolk – Lecco, Italia