Born in Turin, Italy, Simone Guiducci, guitarist and composer, has been hailed as one of the most talented musicians on the Italian jazz scene since the early 90′s going on to make several internationally acclaimed recordings as leader. With his project GRAMELOT, a creative dialogue between italian folklore themes and jazz improvisation, Simone Guiducci has forged strong ties with the recording and concert worlds, working with
Ralph Alessi, Erik Friedlander, Enrico Rava, Paolo Fresu, Chris Speed, Don Byron, Gianluigi Trovesi, Kenny Wheeler, Maria Pia de Vito, Nicolas Simion and Eberhard Weber. He has 4 cds produced by italian label Felmay : the debut album, CANTADOR (2000); CHORALE (2002) with Erik Friedlander on cello and Ralph Alessi on trumpet as guests ; DANCIN’ ROOTS (2004, featuring clarinetist Don Byron as guest), STORIE DI FIUME (2006) and the last release THAT’S ALL FOLKS, (december 2011), again with Ralph Alessi as special guest.
As one well known critic puts it, GRAMELOT’s folk-jazz is “fluid and free, rippling between jazz, classical and popular music, between regional and global, between the ancient and modern world. It is a language of jazz improvisation interwoven with popular melodies, spoken with an ease and grace. It is many ‘languages’, spoken as musical expressions or idioms, which come together in a world where the imagination shapes them into new and old forms that are always intriguing”.
Guiducci has received acclaim both from Italian critics, who voted him second in Top Jazz’s classification of emerging talents in Italy, and from abroad, with reviews in leading specialist magazines including JAZZMAN (France), CADENCE (USA), JAZZMAGAZINE (France) and relevant interview on top magazine ALL ABOUT JAZZ (USA) and JAZZPODIUM (Germany) .
CHORALE came in at number six in the 2002 best jazz record top ten, voted by the panel of critics judging in the TOPJAZZ classification of the specialist monthly italian magazine Musica Jazz. This recording was also in the TOPTEN of the year 2003 by ALL ABOUT JAZZ Editor Michael Ricci.
In the past few years, Simone Guiducci has performed in Italy & all around the world : Tokyo (Auditorium Gianni Agnelli e Sweet Basil JazzClub), Vancouver ( International Jazz Festival), Buenos Aires (Teatro El Globo, Los 36 Billares), Rio de Janeiro ( Auditorium IIC), Mosca ( Teatro Pushkin), Kyoto (Aula Magna (京都大学), Sao Paulo (Museo Nazionale), Caracas (Centro Italo-Venezuelano), Quito ( Casa de la Cultura Ecuadoriana), Lima (Teatro Raimondi), Città del Messico (Museo del Arzobispado), Guatemala City (Teatro Nacional da Camera), Cordoba (Teatro Municipal), Amsterdam (Auditorium IIC), Montreal (Theatre de la Place des Arts), Bogotà (Teatro Colsubsìdio), Stoccolma (Auditorium IIC), Helsinki (Teatro Savoy), Vilnius (Congress Hall), Tallin (Auditorium IIC), Lione (Salle Molière), Istanbul (Naima & Nardis Jazz Club), Brema (Jazzahead), Berlino (Schlott Club), Varsavia (Teatro Dei Buffi), Dublino (Sugar Jazz Club), Nantes (Rendez-Vous de’ Erdre), Vigo (Imaxina Sons), Zagabria (International Jazz Days), Belgrado (Dvorana Kulturnog), Tirana (Akademia e Arteve), Haifa (Auditorium Krieger) , Nazareth (Teatro Elsana) and more.