Actis Dato Quartet (Italy):

Carlo Actis Dato - saxophones and bass clarinet
Piero Ponzo - saxophones and clarinets
Enrico Fazio - double-bass
Fiorenzo Sordini - drums

This is the most original and amusing group of new italian jazz, whose music successfully combines sound and extemporaneaous entertainment.

The group draws over jazz, mediterranean and middle-eastern ethnic music, afro and funk rhythms, caribbean, oriental, east-european sounds, old italian-like songs, here and there adding hironical flavours and sonorities that recall tropical sea-side resort atmospheres or pop songs. This heterogeneous material has been merged into a high level set of composition (all originals by Carlo Actis Dato) and improvisation, all seasoned with a bit of humor. The quartet on stage does such an involving performance whose it is hard staying insensitive: a such crazy, explosive mixture of music and theatre that the audience easily becomes part of the show.

The quartet, born in 1984, has partecipated to radio broadcast programs for the national networks in ltaIy, Sweden, Finland, Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium.



In the annual referendum of music critics for "Musica Jazz" magazine it was ranked among the top italian groups in 1988, 1990, 1992, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2001; his records have been appreciated by jazz magazines worldwide (Cadence, Coda, Swing Journal, Jazztimes, Down Beat, Wire, Jazzthetik, Jazz Podium, Jazz Nu, Jazz Magazine, Jazz in Time, Improjazz, Musiche, Jazz & Tzaz, Margen, Jazzology, Cuadernos de Jazz, Blu Jazz, Jazz Live, Jazzman, Rubberneck, Ritmo, Jazz Hihyo, Jazz Life) and are quoted on "The Penguin Guide to Jazz" and on Larousse Encyclopaedia.

The japanese review "Jazz Hihyo" has indicated "Ankara Twist" and "Blue Cairo" as the best examples of european jazz . The american magazine "Down Beat" gave four stars to the CD "Bagdad Boogie".

Festivals:

Japan: Tokyo(ArcHills'99),Fukui,Tokyo,Yokohama('00),Yokohama,Fukui('01).
Ethiopia:Addis Abeba('01).
Yugoslavia: NoviSad, Beograd, Kragujevac(01).
Tunisia: Tunis, Tabarka(01).
Croatia: Zagreb('01). Morocco: Rabat, Casablanca('99).
Canada: Montreal('91), Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary, Hamilton, Toronto ('92).
French Antilles: Martinique ('92). Greece: Patras ('94).
Belgium: Oupeye ('93), Bruges ('99).
Austria: Wiesen ('93).
Finland:Turku('91), Raahe('94), Kajaani(2000).
Switzerland: Zurich('87), Lausanne('88), Basel('89).
Slovenia: Lu-biana('01).
Germany: Koln ('88), Villingen, Aachen ('89), Nuremberg, Leipzig ('94), Berlin, Jena ('96), Hamburg, Münster, Ulm('97), Mainz, Nuremberg('98), Senden('99), Vilsophen(2000). France: LeMans, Angers, Nantes('88), Strasbourg('89), Rive-de-Gier('90), Coutances, Mulhouse('91), Toulouse, Bretagne, Mimi, Uzčs('92), Grenoble('93), Oloron ('95), Besanēon('97), Valence, Metz, Longwy, GermLouron('98), Apt, Perpignan, Valence('00), Grenoble, Coublanc('01).
Italy: S. Anna Arresi, Iglesias ('88), Cagliari, Turin, Boulogne, Torbole, Noci, Aoste, Polignano, Clusone (89), Como, Trento, Siena ('90), Gibellina, Vicenza, Palermo ('91), S. Arcangelo (92), Sassari, Verona, Ruvo (93), Raguse, Florence ('94), Vittorio Veneto, Taranto ('95), Castiglioncello ('96), Lucca, Chianciano, Ruvo ('97), Pozzallo, Siracuse, Pisa ('98), Rome-RAI, Tivoli, Roccella Jonica ('99), Quartu (00), Giaveno, Forte dei Marmi, Bene Vagienna, Amelia(01).

© Jūratė Kučinskaitė