A 2009 JUNO Award Nominee, Michael Occhipinti’s The Sicilian Jazz Project has been dazzling audiences world-wide with its intriguing mix of Sicilian folk material and the best elements of modern jazz, world music, funk, blues, and chamber music.  Combining a unique repertoire with the energy and skills of great musicians, it is a group like no other.
The newest project put together by acclaimed Toronto guitarist/composer Michael Occhipinti, with brother Roberto Occhipinti acting as the band’s bassist and producer, The Sicilian Jazz Project features some of Canada’s finest musicians, including Dominic Mancuso on vocals and guitar, Kevin Turcotte on trumpet, Ernie Tollar on flute/saxophones, Louis Simao on accordion, Barry Romberg on drums, and Michael Occhipinti on acoustic and electric guitars, with vocalist Maryem Tollar, violinist Hugh Marsh, percussionist Rick Lazar, and a string quartet all featured on the group’s CD as well.  As with his Juno Award nominated CD Creation Dream, which explored the songs of Bruce Cockburn from a jazz musician’s point of view, The Sicilian Jazz Project has Michael reshaping the traditional folk music of Sicily, and the disc has been called “a master piece of cultural fusion.”
       In 1954 ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax toured Sicily, recording traditional folk music performed by diverse individuals including sulphur miners, tuna fishermen, and assorted peasants and folk entertainers.  Many of these raw field recordings form the basis of The Sicilian Jazz Project, along with traditional dances and ballads gleaned from Michael and Roberto’s cousins in Sicily.  As the band’s composer/arranger, Michael Occhipinti has reinvented the music in imaginative ways that nevertheless capture the original emotions behind the songs.  The result is a passionate instrumental and vocal repertoire that makes reference to many genres and resonates with listeners.  
      The talented individuals who make up the group have experience in jazz, classical, Arabic, Cuban, Brazilian, and Italian popular music.  In inventing new ways of experiencing the source music, Michael uses the eclecticism of the ensemble and the multiculturalism of Toronto as a great asset and freely blends Sicilian music with global rhythms and a variety of modern approaches to the music.  Michael also incorporates his own unabashed love of electric guitar sounds.
The Sicilian Jazz Project has performed at festivals across Canada, in the U.S. and Mexico, and Michael and Roberto Occhipinti have just returned from Ragusa, Sicily where they were awarded the 2009 Ragusani nel Mondo prize and performed with singer Dominic Mancuso on the internationally broadcast Ragusani nel Mondo awards ceremony.

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