LE ZOUAVE JACOB

During the Second Empire in France (1828–1913), a soldier called Jacob drew Parisian crowds by performing so-called miraculous cures. The craze that he created allowed to live from his “miracles” all of his life.

He performed a kind of group hypno-therapy, which prefigures the methods used by today's evangelists. One of his specialty was to heal trough some loud trombone improvisations, since he was a trombonist in the army as well as

insulting the patients in order to cure them. He had an atelier in Rue de la Roquette and his father was selling his
picture at the exit to be payed for the seances.

This trio has been created in Paris in 2013 and it has already successfully been playing in the Parisian region with many good responses. It is formed by three italian musicians who all have common origins from the South of Italy and long sejours in Paris ( actually two of them lives there). Alto sax virtuoso Gianni Gebbia from Palermo-Sicily who has been a leading voice in impro and modern jazz since the late 80’s and became know as one of the most brilliant experts of circular breathing solos. The contrabass player from Bari Mauro Gargano who formed himself in Paris at the  Conservatoire de la Villette and soon became one of the most requested bassist in France and not only, finally the percussionist Dario De Filippo from Ragusa - Sicily who has been developing new styles in contemporary percussions under the guidance of the late master Anga Diaz plus.
The main aim of Le Zouave Jacob is creating a surrealist jazz using al the differents backgrounds from th three musicians going from electronic music, pure jazz, extended tecniques and polyrithmic complexity.

The image of the Zouave Jacob is the starting point for an imaginary trip trough unattended surprises also from a visual point of view in the performance. In May 2013 they have been recording an album entitled “ Le Zouave Jacob “ in Paris for Objet-a label-

Video:
“ 80 rue de la roquette “
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIRp9RB-SzE
Live
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syIfjJ0wIBk