Sossio Banda

Sossio Banda
Francesco Sossio sax, clarinet, traditional wind instruments, voice; Loredana Savino voice; Tommaso Colafiglio guitar;
Giorgio Albanese accordion; Francesco Leoce acoustic bass; Michele Marrulli drums, frame drums;
Pino Basile darabouka, riq, bendir, canjira, duff, cupa cupa.
Sossio Banda: 7 musicians, considered one of the most interesting proposals in the panorama of Italian World Music. Their music
starts from the Alta Murgia in Puglia (the heel of Italy) and is contaminated by rhythms and influences of the Mediterranean area
through the use of traditional and non instruments. The repertoire includes unpublished songs as well as Puglia’s traditionals revisited and reinterpreted in a World key that gives the band an original and innovative sound rich in contamination. The band’s music
deals with universal themes such as socio-cultural integration, peace and brotherhood among peoples.
The group’s leader Francesco Sossio, saxophonist and composer, was born in 1978 in Gravina in Puglia, a town in the inland of
Bari. He studied with Andrea Pace and graduated in saxophone from Conservatory San Pietro alla Maiella (Naples). In those years
he played in several Jazz, Soul and World ensembles and, from 2003 to 2007, joined the band of Enzo Avitabile with whom performed in various national and international Festivals along with the ‘Bottari di Portico’ band and musicians such as Baba Sissoko,
Manu Dibango, Cheb Khaled, Femi Kuti, Luigi Lai, Maurizio Martinotti and many more; with Avitabile he also recorded the albums
Salvamm’o munno (il Manifesto, 2004) and Festa Farina e Forca (il Manifesto, 2007).
All the Sossio Banda members come from different musical experiences, mixed harmoniously creating an original and unique sound.
SUGNE the new album
Sugne (from the Puglia dialect: “Dream”) is the first album of the Sossio Banda: eleven tracks matured in five years of intense live
performances in Italy and abroad. An album with great variety, with songs that combine worlds distant in space and time with simplicity and elegance, and reinterpret, through a contemporary sensibility, the great heritage of Puglia’s folk music (with a particular
attention to the Murgia area). The original pieces proposed by the Band recall traditional sounds and harmonies, enriched by the
contributions of musicians that have walked different paths. This results in an innovative Mediterranean sound, able to mix passionate rhythms with melodies of great intensity. It is not a revival but a reckless experimentation combined with a deep understanding
and respect for our cultural heritage; it is the experience of a contemporary humanistic spirit, which feels the need to give to the
world its own uniqueness, its richness, receiving back a treasure of knowledge and open-mindedness.
But there is more... Sugne tells the hope of a world without borders and barriers of identity, singing peace and interest for the “other”.
And more... Sugne tells about the Murgia, a rough and ancient land, with its open, majestic landscapes, where the eye stretches
to meadows and cornfields, broken by cliffs, gorges, rocks and dry stone walls, all silent witnesses of centuries of human sweat.
The air is clear and the colours intense, saturated: green, yellow, blue, red. The same air and the same colours that spring from the
notes of the Sossio Banda.
Sugne is produced by HisTricks Records, published by La Contemporanea music publishing, and sponsored by the National
Park of Alta Murgia and the Association Libera. A portion of the proceeds from the CD sales will go to support the Cooperative Terre
Joniche of Isola di Capo Rizzuto (Crotone), member of Libera Terra, which is carrying out a social and environmentally project for
the sustainable reuse of a farm seized to the ‘Ndrangheta (Calabria’s Mafia).
Francesco Sossio
Loredana Savino
The Show
The show starts from Puglia, in particular the High Murgia area, homeland of the group, and reaches out to the remote corners of
the globe through different sounds, rhythms and languages. The use of dialect is the symbol of their belonging to their homeland.
Having clear in mind what are our origins makes us appreciate even more the differences, and only then there can be real exchange and contamination; through tradition songs and original compositions, it is possible to be contaminated by the music from
all over the world, conveying a mass of information, messages and universal values such as peace and human rights through the
language of music. Thus the Murgia dialect dialogues with Arabic and other languages of northern Africa.
The use of many traditional musical instruments, from both the Puglia region (tammorre, bagpipes, castanets, horns, guitar picks,
etc.) and the entire Mediterranean basin (dorbouka, duff, riq, etc.), gives the Band an original and innovative sound full of influences
and contaminations recalling the Arab world, the Balkans and Africa. Their ambition is to lead people, through music, to an awareness of the positive value of cultural diversity, transmitting universal values and principles in order to promote the development of a
world without borders and conflicts.
Giorgio Albanese
Francesco Leoce
Tommaso Colafiglio and Pino Basile
Michele Marrulli
Events
Sossio Banda represented Italy and Puglia in numerous national and international Festivals:
Festival Sete Sòis Sete Luas (Tangier, Morocco; Ceuta, Spain; Oieras, Portugal; Ponte de Sor, Portugal),
Intercentique Festival of Lorient (France), Alexandrina World Music Festival (Alexandria, Egypt), FIMU (Belfort, France),
Notte della Taranta (Zollino, Lecce, Italy), Folk Festival Umbria (Orvieto, Terni, Italy), Folkest (Spilimbergo, Pordenone, Italy),
Festival delle Balle (Cotignola, Ravenna, Italy), Sentieri Mediterranei (Summonte, Avellino, Italy), Caffeina@cultura (Viterbo,
Italy), Festa di Piedigrotta (Napoli, Italy), Pietre che cantano (Cisternino, Brindisi, Italy), Festival Venezia inCanto,
Festival Suoni della Murgia, Milano Film Festival, Salento Film Festival (Tricase, Lecce, Italy),
Slow Food e NuartFest (Lecce, Italy), Ragnatela Folk Festival (Matera, Italy), Premio Andrea Parodi (Cagliari, Italy),
Primo Maggio Festa del lavoro (Bari e Lecce, Italy), Castelsardo World Music Festival (Sassari, Italy),
Tarantella Power (Badolato, Cosenza, Italy), and many more.
Prizes and Awards
Umbria Folk Festival 2012 Award (Orvieto), “Innovation and Research” Award at Castel Raniero Folk festival (2010), Andrianese
Award for Young Music (2010), “Andrea Parodi Award” for Italian World Music (2009), Folkontest (2009 ), ANCI Award “Memorie e
Musiche Comuni” (2008)
Link
www.sossiobanda.it ● www.facebook.com/sossiobanda ● www.youtube.com/FRANCESCOSOSSIOBANDA
Listen Sugne
DEEZER www.deezer.com/it/album/6981464 ● SPOTIFY http://open.spotify.com/artist/5wjhvbe0vsziLmwqOi93uV
Management Natascia Abbattista [email protected] ● +39 339 4550671 +39 338 9051327
Booking Manuela Coluccino [email protected] ● +39 393 1099573 +39 320 9049379
Booking EuropeCamille Thiebaut [email protected] ● +39 334.1027598
Production La Contemporanea ● www.lacontemporanea.com ● [email protected]
+39 06 7005382 - 77077784 Fax: +39 06 77590729