RESUME
FOR FABRIZIA BARRESI
I was born in Rome, Italy, in 1959. After completing
bilingual studies in Italy at the Lycée
Chateaubriand in Rome, I received a
diploma in “Baccalauréat
ès Lettres et Philosophie” from the
Université
de Grenoble (France). After graduation I began
my studies in classical
piano, classical (opera) voice as a
“soprano
lirico-leggero”, and other vocal
techniques (Arabian
music, Pigmies singing techniques, Indian classical music,
overtone singing and Nada Yoga). My work focused very
soon on bone
resonance, body voice and the
re-education of verticalization and the
ability to listen to
special frequencies based on the studies made
by the famous French otorhinolaryngologist
Dr.
Alfred Tomatis.
I also studied jazz
harmony, piano, alto saxophone and drums
and created my
own personal method of research regarding the sound of the
vocal instrument and improvisation, by working on jazz
standards and original compositions. In 2004 I studied
with Jerry
Coker his special program
“Jazz
keyboards for pianists and non-pianists”, and I now teach
it in Italy with his personal authorization.
One of the main points of my method is to use our
physical
memory in its entirety, unlocking
muscles, articulations, senses interrelations and therefore
special natural movements to obtain
the best performance with a little amount of conscious,
technical effort, so that the focus stays on
both artistry and feeling, and the
quality of the vocal sound remains natural, and
personal.
Being a teacher as well as a performer I received a diploma
as a Consultant
Facilitator and Instructor from 3in1Concepts
(Burbanks, CA). This technique helps to
resolve motor
and learning dyslexia. I frequently work
together with psychologists and therapeutists, on vocal
re-education and many other psychologic and physical
unbalances related to vocal expression.
My work with singers and actors and in personal study, is
concentrated as much on feeling
as on the
study of technique. It’s a discovery of an
emotional
sound hidden between the lines
of physical sensation and tied to the vibration of sound,
timbre, and emotion. It departs from the art of
scat
singing but moves towards a less
syllabic territory: the
new sounds/colors and dynamics are therefore purely
instrumental. The group work begins
with the construction of a vocal
warm-up and is created
specifically for the participants. It utilizes various
techniques of vocal emission from the classical techniques
of lyric (opera) singers to ethnic techniques from various
parts of the world as well as the vocality tied to
blues
and
gospel.
The search for the
most authentic personal vocal sound is the fundamental goal of
the study, so that the singer can release by choice his/her
models of imitation, preconceptions of personal capacity,
and preconceptions of timbre and vocal potential. The
objective of the seminars is to develop an ability to
listen that is personally, as well as globally, open. In
this way the individual’s sound fuses perfectly with
the collective sound, developing
the gestation, projection and extension of personal colors
within the sound/improvisation of the
group.
I am a member of several jazz groups in Italy and the U.S.
as well as working free-lance. I’ve made two
recordings in Italy: Pithecanthropus
e Altre Storie (original
music and arrangements of compositions by
Charles
Mingus recorded with bassist and
arranger Andrea
Avena)
and the suite Estrela
da Tarde (original
compositions by Andrea
Avena based on poems by
Pablo
Neruda and Manuel
Bandeira, with the
M.J.Urkestra
conducted
by Roberto
Spadoni).
In 1992 I participated at Knoxville
Jazz and Blues Festival (TN) with various American
combos, pianist Donald
Brown and saxophonist
Joe
Donato.
During the festival, I also participated in the
“Singers’
Summit” – an octet
of singers including Bob
Dorough, Janet Lawson, April Arabian, and Patty
Coker.
My first American CD, named CHOICE,
has been released in 2006. The band features
Mark
Boling on guitar,
Rusty
Holloway on bass,
Keith
Brown on drums,
Carlos
Fernandez on percussions, and
Ira
Sullivan and Jerry
Coker as special guests on
horns.
In 1993 I was invited by the Berklee
College of Music in Boston to hold a seminar on
improvisation focusing on the use of specific techniques
used to create bone resonance, and special creative
warm-ups. Having created a method of study for vocal
technique and improvisation, I teach these techniques in
workshops both in Italy and abroad for singers, actors, and
dancers, dedicated to the
relationship between sound, space and
movement.
Since 1994 I’ve been the director of the
Voice
Program and Improvisational Techniques in Siena, Italy
(Fondazione Siena Jazz – Accademia Nazionale del
Jazz), where I teach
vocal
technique, interpretation, improvisation, and I lead a
Gospel
choir and a combo
class for singers. The Siena
Jazz jazz school is internationally wellknown for its
distinctive creative approach directed towards the
development of artistic and stylistic personality. Its
seminars have produced many international talents.
Since 2001 I’ve been leading workshops for
professional training at the “Teatro
Eliseo” in Rome (a project led by the
opera and theatre director Marco
Carniti). I’ve also
collaborated with the actor, author, and theatre
director Leo de
Bernardinis, who used to perform as an
actor together with jazz improvisors as Steve
Lacy, Jean-Jacques
Avenel and John
Betsch,
on the research project “L’Attore
Jazzista”. In relation to
this project, I worked with professional actors teaching
correct vocal projection in relation to the character
portrayed and each actor’s expressive color in
response to the dramatic choices of the director; we also
worked special jazz exercises and warm-ups in order to
enhance certain musical skills, as listening, rhythm, right
pitch intonation and harmonization; the final goal of this
project was to bring the actors to act their pre-written
lines as if they were in fact improvising in a jam session,
making each single performance a unique theatrical event.
In 2002 I was invited to participate in a project by the
French composer Hector
Zazou where I did a live
performance with a septet for the 1956 film
Le
Mystère Picasso, where
Pablo Picasso himself is painting and
the director Henri-Georges Clouzot shows how the paintings
are created, layer after layer, in subsequent flows of
improvisational energy; the original soundtrack having been
removed for this special performance, to allow brand new
compositions (both written and improvised) to serve
Picasso’s powerful images, artistry and genius thru
the experience of jazz improvisation and contemporary
sounds and rhythms.
At present I’m working with the researcher
Alberto
Tedeschi on an experimental study
begun in Milan in 2003 on the effect Holographic
Bioresonance“ has on vocal sound and
artistic performance. I’ve regularly participated
with a cappella vocal improvisation and the use of a
technology created specifically for the occasion
(Wide
Holographic Intensified Transferred Energy,
W.H.I.T.E.“ technology) as well as participating
in lectures on quantum physics and water physics held by
various researchers of Q.E.D.
(Quantic Electro Dynamics), among them
Professor
Emilio Del Giudice of the National
Italian Institute of Nuclear Physics.
Patty Coker's liner
notes
Fabrizia epitomizes the definition of the
ultimate artist: “the musician achieves
true artistry when he or she becomes one with the spirit of
the music being performed”. This, Fabrizia unfailingly
achieves. She has an innate taste for what is beautiful and
witty in jazz music, both intellectually and in her tender
heart.
We met when she was in serious search for information that
would deepen her understanding of the music she loves, and
she applies information, as assimilated, effortlessly into
her improvisation. Always the student, she then seeks to
pass on ways to apply the information to her own students
at the Fondazione Siena Jazz
– Accademia Nazionale del Jazz, in Siena, Italy.
No rote application for Fabrizia, as you will discover in
this remarkable CD! It’s a joy to open up the ears
for a treat of vocal versatility, sheer spontaneity,
playfulness, and pathos, over a wide range of material,
vocal and instrumental in intent and origin.
“Amazing
Grace” is a
fitting signature for the offering here, simply sung
with Ira Sullivan
and Jerry Coker
in full support. Just
heavenly!
Special attention should be given to the strength and
backgroup experience of the instrumentalists involved in
this project. From the University of Tennessee
Studio Music and Jazz Program developed by Jerry
Coker, Fabrizia
selected members of that Faculty for the CD.
She had already been working with and sitting in with the
premier rhythm section, comprised of internationally
known Donald
Brown, piano;
Mark
Boling, guitar,
Rusty
Holloway, bass;
and Keith Brown
on drums; this made for a
strong rapport going into the recording studio.
Carlos
Fernandez added the
percussion spectrum brillianty. Add to this, the genius
of Ira
Sullivan, and the
result is a rare musical treat!
Patty Coker.
Choice
credits
Fabrizia Barresi
would like to thank:
Mark,
Rusty, Keith, Ira and Carlos,
for their great artistry, fantastic skills, and warm
friendship; Patty
and Jerry
Coker, for their
precious teachings, support, love and trust;
Allen
Smith for his complete
dedication to this project, his perfect engineering skills
and wise advices, the cheers, the goose bumps, and for the
special creative atmosphere he keeps in his peaceful
studio; Seva, for the incredible mastering sound,
and Bob
Wade, for having
immediately gotten who I am, and pictured it;
Betsy
Wheeler for her sunny
house, her smiles, her morning coffee, and her well-tuned
grand piano; the Langou
family for the
wonderful European meals we shared, and their great help in
everything; my students
and friends,
Christian,
Loretta, Lorenzo and Betta:
without you my work would
have had no sense; Ella, Billie
and Sarah,
for having haunted my teenager’s voice dreams;
Miles,
Trane and
Bird
for making me yearning for an
instrumental sound; Juan Miró, Jacques
Prévert and
Pablo
Picasso, for being
around in my lyrics, Antibes (France) and
“La Joie de
Vivre” as
well; my brother Luca
for his great support and for
organizing my trips all over the world; my father
who made me sing and swing,
and my mother
who taught me how to write
stories; my aunts Louise and
Clara, who gave me the
power to realize my dreams; Reine-Aimée
Marcos, for her
African, deep earthy wisdom; Alberto Tedeschi
and prof. Emilio del
Giudice, for their
scientific research and discoveries; Sophie Commermann and
Bruno Duquennoy, for
taking good care of me; all those I’m
thinking of, and not forgetting, just don’t have enough room here
to tell you how grateful and happy I am to have had you
with me in my life; the amazing Grace of
the Lord, who called
me to sing in his service so far away from my
homeland.