Giovanni Ceccarelli and Fabrizia Barresi first met almost ten years ago in Italy, as they had both just come back from the U.S. They had performed there with many great artists, led clinics (at Berklee College of Music in Boston) and recorded, both happy and thrilled by their musical experiences.

The common path was evidence in words and thoughts, but their lifes brought them on the road again, far away from each other. In the meantime, both have been practicing Indian music during their jazz path and growth...

So finally they met again last October 2006 in Paris, played together for a wonderful whole day of improvised music, and decided joyfully to start this new project.

They named it Inner Urges (after Joe Henderson's composition) as they were sounding and choosing their repertoire with passion and dedication: these were actually inner urges for both, evidently.

So... enjoy! Life is a golden gift... And a precious diamond that glows in a thousand shades, if shared in harmony, peace and love.

* * *
Inner Urges est un projet né et élaboré à Paris, axé autour d’arrangements originaux de morceaux puisés dans des traditions musicales variées (jazz, rock, pop, musiques traditionnelles du Japon et de l’Inde…), dans une relecture résolument libre et contemporaine. Le piano et la voix dialoguent en permanence, mêlant écriture et improvisation, dans un subtil entrelacement de liberté mélodique et de construction rythmique, grâce à la souplesse du phrasé et des timbres des deux instruments. Le projet est en tournée européenne, et donnera lieu à un enregistrement à l’été 2007 pour une publication début 2008.

Il programma, articolato su due livelli di dieci lezioni ciascuno, vuole fornire agli allievi un modus operandi per quanto riguarda la tecnica vocale moderna, lo studio del repertorio jazzistico, l’improvvisazione modale e tonale, e la loro pratica quotidiana.

Tutte le nozioni fondamentali (propriocezione, appoggio, ancoraggio, risonanza, respirazione, postura; coscienza dell’intonazione dei singoli intervalli, e della loro valenza melodica ed armonica, improvvisazione modale, improvvisazione su cadenze, uso di patterns numerici o intervallari, permutazioni ritmiche, improvvisazione su un giro armonico – blues, scelta del repertorio e della tonalità adatta alla propria voce) vengono presentate, spiegate e soprattutto praticate in maniera estesa durante le lezioni di gruppo.

Verranno dunque anche dati suggerimenti su come praticare le scale per l’improvvisazione, organizzare le idee per la strutturazione di un solo, trasporre una partitura sia nella parte melodica che in quella armonica, analizzare armonicamente un brano, apportare variazioni melodiche e ritmiche al tema.

Ho incluso nel mio metodo anche vocalizzi originali basati sulla conoscenza del tonguing negli strumenti a fiato, accentazioni ed articolazioni tipiche della big band, vocalizzazioni delle articolazioni del drumming e delle percussioni, esercizi ritmici con la voce, il corpo e gli oggetti basati sul terzinamento largo e stretto delle frasi musicali e sulla percezione del differente peso dei quarti e degli ottavi, esercizi vocali sul fraseggio focalizzati sulla scelta di speciali elementi sillabici e fonematici, articolazioni vocali legate alle varie lingue utilizzate (in particolare l’inglese americano e il portoghese brasiliano).

Dal Soffio al Suono: il Respiro, il Suono Osseo e la Body Voice
Dal Suono al Timbro: Carotaggio delle Vocali e Ancoraggi delle Consonanti
Dal Timbro alle Armoniche: Tecniche di Overtone Singing

Lo Strumento: Anatomia e Fisiologia della Voce attraverso la Propriocezione
Lo Strumentista: Suonare la Voce e Vocalizzare il Suono
La Musica: Le Note come Perle lungo un Filo

Intenzione del Suono: la Morfologia, la Direzione e il Disegno
Movimento del Suono: il Ritmo e il Colore
Canovacci per l’Affabulazione Cantata e la Libera Improvvisazione
Ricerca e Scoperta del proprio Centro Tonale

Synchronic locusts

The locusts were chanting so loud that their overtones were rising up from the ground like fireworks.
From the sounds that were produced, one could almost visualize the colors, iridiated and vaporous like under big rainbowed cupolas.

One day, at sunset, on the edge of a green hill bending over a lake, they had graciously offered me this fantastic, glowing drone, and I had been improvising on it for a while.

Those locusts come out all together only once every seventeen years. Next time will be in 2021.

As a professional musician, I had already been teaching vocal techniques for eighteen years (working with classical opera repertoire, contemporary music, jazz, mantra and nada yoga chanting, and overtone singing) when suddenly I bumped into a new adventure.

It began, of course, by attending a lecture given by Alberto Tedeschi in July 2002. I was listening very carefully to all this new information, when he said: “So, you’re a singer. Would you like to do an experiment with your voiceà”
A few months later I went to my doctor for a normal audiometric check up, and the astonished doctor replied “Oh, it seems as if you’ve changed all your technique, the results are completely different… actually, looking at the diagram, your MUSIC has changed…!”. It was absolutely true.

I’ve been working with W.H.I.T.E® technology for more than three years now, using them in my work with singers and actors, and I can tell you that this technology works with bodies, voices, and resonant spaces!!! When I leave home to hold workshops and concerts, my whole set of Lights, tiles and Piastras always travels with me. After arriving at the classroom, jazzclub or theatre, I usually have time to carefully place four Piastras/tiles in the corners (or more, depending on the shape of the room or hall I’m working in).

Then I flash the Light I’ve chosen for the day from my set all around the room. I prepare a glass of water, “rephase” it with the same Light, and drink it. Finally, I begin to vocalise, filling the space with vibration, but “rephased” because of the water I’ve been drinking.

I have noticed that when I sing after drinking the “rephased” water, not only does my whole body become more vibrant and indeed tuned with that special level of Light/water, but also the whole environment. Even the glass on the pictures, the walls, the windows, and the objects around the room will soon be answering with the same harmonics in an enhanced way. Especially when working with the “higher” Lights, such as Vortex or Infinity, the air becomes lighter and therefore singing is easier. The space seems to lose its limits, and the sound is freer: you need less strength, which is the very right way to get a nice, natural sound. I can actually see and hear how much calmer and more confident my students are. They feel at ease in a space that has been “rephased” in this way.

Working in groups becomes peaceful and naturally creative and the learning process is easier and more fun. This enables students and performers to discover that in fact limits are a thing that lives only in their minds and not in their bodies and souls… For my students, as well as for myself, it is an opportunity to work on both technique and consciousness. This for me means working on the true artistic aspect of our singing.
Very soon during our laboratory experimentations we all noticed that singing a new sound meant sounding a new aspect of our consciousness, changing our minds forever about the peculiar connected aspects of our life and thoughts - quitting false images. This was at once a safe journey with a new serenity towards our deepest Self.

Using the Lights for working on performance is also astonishing…The concerts I’ve given after “rephasing” myself with Lights have been very special. Special, not only for me, but for the musicians and audience as well. Even without knowing that I used a “rephased sound” to sing and improvise, the things people tell me after a performance are always connected with some aspects of a newborn consciousness. I’ve also been working with actors seeking the characters of the play from the depth of their bones and belly, looking for a special resonance inside themselves. Their true voices come out clear and shining …

During several recording sessions the sound waves on the screen of my computer were evidence of the difference, not merely a subjective sensation. The quality of my voice completely changes by enhancing certain harmonics when I use different W.H.I.T.E® Lights. This occurs every time in the same way. A certain wave ALWAYS corresponds to a certain Light.

The work on rhythmic exercises and music is great fun after having been “rephased” with Black Light and Morpheus. These Lights improve the body’s ability to sing and give the students a more direct approach to a sound that uses their bones, internal organs, and muscles. I generally use the “higher” Lights for myself, however, since my musical search, although rooted in jazz singing, is travelling somewhere else. I’m fascinated to rediscover it again and again each time I perform - connecting with the infinite fields of energy of my ancestors, singing so as to sound deeply, the universe.