Viola Romani Adami

 

Stage-name Viola Road, is a singer and song-writer She was born in Rome, the daughter of a cinema and theatre director who was assistant to Federico Fellini in “La Dolce Vita” and worked with numerous other cinematic luminaries.Her mother was an art dealer, and a collector of modern art and vintage jewellery. It was thanks to them that Viola learned to express herself through art.From soul to rhythm & blues, from hard rock to progressive , she’s perfectly at ease in all these music genres which blend one into the other.  Viola began studying opera at the age of 15.This experience helped her develop a greater appreciation of music and its infinite nuances, including researching one’s social identity.Viola collects records, books, video material, clothes, and memorabilia from the sixties and seventies, her chosen period of research and investigation.

After spending some years training as a goldsmith, creating jewellery and dealing in art, she went back to devoting herself to her original passion – music.Viola sang for one season with Blue Eyed Soul Team, a nice cover band which performed Northern soul and Motown songs. She left a significant stylistic mark on the band thanks to her experience of both the English and Italian music scenes and dancefloors.Viola sings and writes lyrics for Lord Shani, a psychedelic rock band led by Paolo Vallassina Bramino, guitarist and composer on the underground music circuit with bands such as Free the Nation, Mò Stipiti Funk and Matra.Viola also sings and writes lyrics for Mike Painter 5tet & Viola Road.  This band originated with Michele Pingitore, talented Hammond player, composer and arranger who played with and created numerous Italian bands on the mod and 60’s scene such as Four by art, Investigators and Santo  in a period spanning the beginning of the 80’s up to the present.Together with Pingitore, Viola recorded “Hammond Voice”.  Here the atmosphere of the Sixties is revisited through the eyes of someone who – as Viola – has turned her cultural and aesthetic passion for this era into a style of life which she does not copy but integrates into her own, without ever forgetting that times change .................................      as we do ourselves.

 

Toni Graziani

 

He started learning guitar as a young teenager, self-taught first, then he attended 2 years of classic guitar courses, and played acoustic and electric guitar with friends during secondary school days.

In 1979 he stably joined "The Mads", with whom he played till 1983. When "The Mads" split, he and part of the band started a new experience as "Microstyle" (1984/1987). At the end of such “new wave” era, they had a long and exciting soul/funk run as “Soul Express”, and meanwhile he I continued my guitar studies at the CPM (Professional Music Center) of Milano, until 1992 .Then has had a long period of reflection and studies, sharpening up his guitar and composition techniques, and he made some home recordings with "The Magic Mystery Band". In 2007 with the hammond organ player Mike Painter, he begins the collaboration before as a trio and currently as "Mike Painter 5tet & Viola Road". In 2012 reform the old band "The Mads" with full original lineup. They are still active now, both as a live act and studio recordings, with discographic projects going on.

 

Ivan Padovani

 

Born in Milan on July 15, 1972, after completing classical studies at the Conservatory, he started collaborating with various bands in the Milan area. In the 90s he performed in Milan's soul scene with The Investigators, with whom he recorded his first vinyl. Another important collaboration is with the Metropolis Orchestra, a band that explores the whole repertoire of Frank Zappa and with which he participates in the 2005 Zappanale, an international festival dedicated to the master of Baltimore. On this occasion he plays with Napoleon Murphy Brook and Ike Willis.

She is active in the meantime with other collaborations exploring various musical genres: Franziska (reggae), TribalTendencies (Funk House music),  Moanin 'Quintet   ( Tribute to Art Blakey), BabbutziOrkestar (Balkan music). He currently collaborates with Milan-based Honduran Mike Painter, with whom he has been releasing the latest Lp, Open Funk (band instrumental instrumental seventies) and MaxMayall Fine (eclectic guitarist and singer-songwriter in Milan)

 

Andrea Centonze

 

Born in Magenta (MI), Andrea began learning drums at the age of 13 with maestro Graziano Rampazzo. In 2008 he was admitted to the jazz department of “Accademia Internazionale della Musica” of Milan (Civici Corsi di Jazz), and he started to study with jazz master Tony Arco, obtaining a five years diploma in June 2013.That academic experience gave him chance to work with the most influent musicians in the Italian jazz scene like Franco Cerri, Enrico Intra, Franco D'Andrea, Marco Vaggi, Lucio Terzano, Gabriele Comeglio and Mario Rusca. mong his most important musical experiences, it is worth mentioning some famous festivals such as  “Break in Jazz”, "Jazz al Piccolo"  and “Ritmo delle Città”, where he played with Steven Bernstein, Riccardo Luppi and Cutello brothers. n 2010 Andrea started to play with “Time Percussion”, a percussion ensemble conducted by Tony Arco that hosted some of the most prominent jazz international personalities like Tullio de Piscopo, Billy Cobham, Airto Moreira, Dave Liebman and Max Roach.

In the same year he became part of the “Guitar Ensemble”, a group conducted by aestro Franco Cerri, and of the Big Band conducted by Paolo Tomelleri, playing with musicians like Giulio Visibelli and Emilio Soana. n 2011 he started a collaboration with the “Workshop Big Band” conducted by Fabio Jegher. Apart from jazz, he plays in the emergent Milan rock band Nouloho, and in a Funk\R&B\Soul band leaded by the hammond player Mike Painter.

From 2013 to 2015 he was official member of "The Alfredo Rey Orchestra".

Notable collaboration with well-known italian swing musician Giorgio Cùscito, Mauro Porro, Alfredo Ferrario and Renzo Luise da Fano.

 

Fabio Chesini

 

Saxophonist - Sax soprano, tall sax, tenor and baritone.

Born in Milan on 27 October 1970, he began playing in July 1988 at the small conservatory of milano, where he graduated in saxophone and music theory. He studied privately with Paolo Tomelleri, Renato D'Ajello and Michele Bozza,and then with master Tino Tracanna, to graduate at the jazz triennial academy at the Conservatorio G. Verdi in Milan. In 1993 he began his musical career with The Revers Blues Band, playing in Northern Italy clubs, and in 1997 with the band "I Soliti Ignoti", will play in the most important blues festivals in Germany and Switzerland, opening live artists such as Brian Augers and Robben Ford. In 2003 he collaborated with Claudio Bolli, a group inspired by Count Basie's music, Sammy Nestico, Sinatra and modern jazz by Miles Davis and John Coltrane, to contemporary jazz Mingus, becoming the leader of the saxophone section.In 2009, along with Alberto Traversi's quartet, he participated in the "CHIAMBRETTI NIGHT" television broadcast on ITALIA channel 1, and subsequently experimented with other genres such as reggae ska and rocksteady. He continued to collaborate with Mimmo Seccia, the great band "Avant Orkestra", the voice and guitarist of the Italian band "I Ragazzi della via Gluck " and with Mary Setrakian (vocal coach Nicole Kidman, Mary Blakes, Binoche, Milla Jojovich etc.)In Big Band Patchwork Style and Old Band Big Band becomes solo, both sax and high sax. In 2012 she starts playing with Mike Painter, hammond organ player of the Italian Mod scene.He is currently a member of the Verdi Jazz Orchestra of the Conservatory of Milan directed by Master Pino Jodice. Many are his collaborations with the Milan band; TEKA-P, Mamagoos and Heavy Winds, ElettrO2, Stand-By Duo, FJR - Redsolutions, Babbutzi, Sartorius Music, Sammy Osman, The Wonder Fellows, Max Mayall Fine, Fnukytown, ATJO by Angiolo Tarot. He also participates in the masterclass and seminars with Bob Moses, Bruno Tomaso, Franco D'Andrea, Paolo Silvestri and others and finally with Dirty Things Quartet, a new project as leader, revealing the contaminated musical territories of Funk, Jazz and Rock.