Jumbo Gumbo is a musical project that was born in Rome in 2014, from the meeting between Massimo Bevilacqua (vocals, harmonica, acoustic guitar, stomp box), Ariel Di Castro (electric guitar, choirs), and Doriana Violi (vocals, tambourine, kazoo).
Strengthened by their previous personal experiences, the three decide to merge their instruments and their passion in the service of the music that so much keeps them together, the Blues and the Rock and Roll; suddenly the live music work becomes intense, to the point they became frequently visitors of the most important Romans and Italians stages; but, at the same time, the real musical breakthrough happened at the beginning of 2015 when the three launch into a large and ambitious project that will lead them, to date, to be a significant presence in the scene of musical entertainment for ceremonies, private events, inaugurations, and above all weddings. To date, their music has played a leading role in the union of many dozens of people who asked for their presence and their music for their most beautiful day, going from a soft accompaniment for an aperitif, to a wild dancing party, bringing the Jumbo Gumbo to be an affirmed and recognized reality in the Music for Events scene.

Ariel Di Castro

electric guitar, acoustic guitar, slide, backing vocals

(Roma, 1979) since I was a child, I started to have an enormous curiosity towards music, attracted by the haunting sounds of the guitar, and so I started at the age of 8, to study the first rudiments of music, first the classical, and then the artists who always they influenced me: Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry, Janis Joplin. Having had the first electric guitar as a gift, it pushes me deeper into techniques and styles typical of American music from the 50s-60s-70s, thanks also to Maestro Michelangelo Piperno, who welcomes me among his own students, at the MP School of Rome. During these years, I cast the most important Roman stages (Fonclea, Big Mama etc.) definitely acquiring confidence and experience with the live music world. In 2015, thanks to meeting the "fingerpickin" guitarist Massimo Bevilacqua and the lead singer Doriana Violi, I choosed to start the "Jumbo Gumbo" project, with which, together with an intense live stages activity (more than 250 gigs in 3 years ), and to the writings of original tunes, I specialized more and more in the entertainment of great musical events.

Doriana Violi

voice, kazoo, tambourine

(Lamezia Terme, 1987) my artistic path started at the age of 14 with a street theater company in my city, and it is thanks to street theater that my real and exciting contact with the public begins, through which I learn to get naked by managing also the sudden reactions of passers-by. At the age of 20, I discovered music as enrichment of my life, that’s the reason why I decide to go deeper into my studies, enrolling in different schools in Rome, including the Saint Louiss School of music where I started to acquire greater vocal technique . I entered in the world of live music collaborating with different groups, both as a solo singer and as a chorister in different bands, ranging from rock to soul / gospel. In 2015 I meet the "fingerpicking" guitarist Massimo Bevilacqua, and we choosed to start the "Jumbo Gumbo" project, first as a duo, then expanding the musical project, and making it a trio, together with guitarist Ariel Di Castro; with this trio we have jumped, and still we jump, on the stages of the most renowned venues of the Roman and Italian music scene, with over 250 live performances between 2015 and 2018. Simultaneously with the composition of own tunes, my first great passion, and countless concerts, I get specialized more and more in the entertainment of great events such as weddings, inaugurations and presentations.

Massimo Bevilacqua

acoustic guitar, harp, stomp box, backing vocals

(Napoli, 1970) vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonica and stomp box, I was born and grew up in Naples where I learnt the fingerstyle guitar technique, which I still teach in Rome, where I live. My work , made by 8 records and thousands of concerts in the last 28 years, has always been very intense, starting from the nightclubbing life of Naples, going on to in Europe first (Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, France), and in the USA then, where since 10 years, I play regularly throughout the Mid-West American area, working with the Memphis Skyline Production record label. A truly passionate about American music, author and composer, I worked with many overseas musicians including singer Barbara Diab (Canada) and Watermelon Slim (WC Handy Awards 2006), of which I am also the exclusive manager for Italy. Together with the promotional tour of "Naked", my last recording work, as well as the first of entirely original music, produced and distributed by Good Music Associazione Culturale (Genoa), from 2015, with the band Jumbo Gumbo, I joined the world of "music for events" (weddings, inaugurations, ceremonies, etc.) that leads me to travel around Italy with great satisfaction and excellent feedback from critics and the public. "Maximum black pretending to be a bluesman, but the way he tells the stories of people who wrote those songs, lets him present those songs in the voices of the people who wrote them." (Memphis Magazine, October 2017)

You're the one that I want (Grease soundtrack)

Collaborators

 

Gianluca Giannasso - Drums

I approach music first as a singer and then, at fifteen, as a self-taught drummer, and then I perfect myself in few accademie through Milan and Rome. I have worked with many bands and many soloists in couple of musical fields, including Dead Shrimp, with whom I recorded two albums, had many gigs throughout Italy and worked on two soundtracks, as well as having opened concerts by international artists (Jonathan Wilson, Lucinda Williams, Luke Wislow King, Mariem Hassan, etc.), and I have been in Web Notte by Assante and Castaldo, Last Before Dinner, with which I worked at two soundtracks, and made the music for a commercial of the FIAT, as well as numerous live collaborations and recording sessions with Morgan, Lele Battista, Paolo Benvegnù, Roberto Luti, The Moonshine Liquors. I also played, through Italy and Europe, twice on tour with Reed Turchi (guitarist from North Carolina) and as many with Luther Dickinson (North Mississippi Allstars, Black Crowes). At the same time I'm carrying out "Rèv", my solo project where, in addition to playing the drums, I composed all the material, sang and played the synthesizers, under the artistic direction of Lele Battista.

Alessandra Scirdi - Backing vocals

I was born dreaming f becoming an actress and next to this path I build also the musical one, so I studied piano and singing with Stefano Caponi, Caio Bascerano, Tosca, Donatella Pandimiglio, to then join the two passions starting to work as an actress and singer in musicals . At the age of 17, my first important work at the Sistine theater in Rome, with "Buonasera buonasera", directed by Claudio Insegno, followed by years of stages, among which the most important is the one with Giorgio Albertazzi, with whom I stage Il Merchant of Venice for about 190 dates. In 2004 I graduated in drama academy; I worked with the pontifical institute of sacred music under the direction of Reverend Gennaro Becchimanzi and singing in polyphony choir for several years, an experience that allowed me to start working both as a singer, in the Blues Crimes Band for "The music factory" on Rai Doc Futura , which as a chorister for Spiritual Front in the albums Armageddon Gigolò and Black Hearts in Black suites. I also collaborated with Federico Zampaglione, leader of Tiromancino, in the "Nel respiro del mondo" tour, also taking part in the big show of May 1st, Rome 2016. Again, I became a singer and leader of the band Audiostop, collaborating with Stefano Masciarelli, with whom I performed throughout Italy, collecting more than 250 live concerts in a concert show dedicated to the history of Italian music. Since 2015, thanks to a ten-year friendship with its members, I am working with Jumbo Gumbo as a backing vocalist, always keeping my dual role as singer-actress intact.

Costanza Cruillas - Bass

I studied acting in Rome at the La Scaletta Theater School where I graduated. In the following two years, thanks to a scholarship, I attended specialization courses in the Mimic Method at the same school, studying with Orazio Costa Giovangigli. I went through courses in didactics with the Mimic Method with Giuseppe Manzari, Alessandra Niccolini and Mirella Bordoni. I studied electric bass first as a self-taught musician then with Maestro Luca Barberini. I did the first tour as a professional bass player with Michele Ascolese, and there it happened the musical activity has become the main one, with some sporadic things into the theater. Many concerts and collaborations (Deborah Johnson, Mark Hanna, Francesca de Fazi, Francesco Forni, Stefano Malatesta, Egidio Marchitelli, Leo Pari, Sara Jane Olog, Alessandro Pitoni, Gina Fabiani, Luca Carocci, Stefano Scarfone, Gabriele Lopez, Giancarlo Romani , Massimo Giangrande, Fabio Rondanini, Leno Landini, Funkallisto, Matteo Agostini, Emma Tricca, Giacomo Lariccia, Margoo, Almost Blues Band, Emiliano Bonafede), just to name a few. I am also a composer of TV soundtracks for the "Helikonia" label and published by Rai Trade.

Lino Muoio - Mandolin

I started playing guitar at the age of 16 driven by the inspiration of rock guitarists like Jimmy Page, Angus Young, Jeff Beck and Van Halen. In 2000 I joined a historic band of the Italian Blues, the Blue Stuff with which I collaborated until 2018. In 2008 I released the first solo album "Blues on me" while in 2012, after a long series of studies and research, I realized "Mandolin Blues", the first Italian album entirely dedicated to the Blues mandolin. In 2016, the research continues with "Mandolin Blues - The Piano Sessions" and in 2017 the third chapter of the series "Mandolin Blues - The Acoustic Sessions" is released, in which it gathers and collaborates on original and unpublished songs with the best Italian acoustic bluesmen. Also in 2017 I started working with an international Blues star, Corey Harris, with whom I am on tour. In addition to the live activity with the Mandolin Blues Quartet where I shoot for European Blues festivals, I am involved in teaching and workshops on the Blues mandolin.

 

Sara Berni - Singer

(Rome, 1973) After my winning the "Certificate of Merit" from the American Billboard Song Contest as author and performer and in 2000 I opened for Sting concert in Cape Town; then a long list of events and collaborations came out, just to mentione some of them, the "Gospel Jubilee Festival" (RAI SAT), "Teate Gospel Festival" awards; "Voceania"; I participated at "Jazz for Children" at the Auditorium of Rome (for "Save the Children"), at the concert for political refugee women in Italy, "La notte Rosa" by Cattolica, "Miss Italia 2005" (RAI1); I worked too with Lino Quagliero / Gerardo Di Lella Big Band, singing with Claudio Baglioni, Biagio Antonacci, Edoardo Bennato, Cesare Cremonini, Alexia, Annalisa Minetti, Neri per Caso and many others; I have a theatrical tour with the Baraonna and with Pippo Franco in "There's fun, as Freud said". Countless participations in festivals of national relevance Ciampino Jazz Festival, Christmas in Jazz, Montepulciano Blues Festival, I have worked too as a back vocal/studio vocalist wit RDS, Enrico Montesano, Francesca Alotta, Edoardo Vianello, Silvia Salemi, Scialpi both in RAI and in TMC, and in Mediaset. In 2019 my band was chosen as the best band ever in Italy to represent the Blues in the American Art Festival "OnStage! Festival". I have 4 published records as a soloist and an upcoming fifth one with my original tracks.

 

Daniele Bazzani - Acoustic Guitar

(Milan, 1967) I graduated at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory of Rome, from 2003 onwards I published four solo records for acoustic guitar and since then I perform on the stages of some of the most important international festivals in the USA, France, Croatia, England, Scotland and Wales, Greece, Holland, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Belgium.
Some of my songs have been used for commercials, theater shows and documentaries, including one from the well known "Istituto Luce"; in 2018 I arranged the Andrea Valeri's Eurorchestra, a 30 pieces complete band that debuted in September, same year, at the Teatro Verdi in Casciana Terme. I wrote 9 didactic methods for Fingerstyle guitar that has been published by Fingerpicking.net, I still work with “Chitarra Acustica" magazine and, for 10 years, I worked at magazine "Chitarre" while I was endorser of Elixir strings. In 2014 I started my project, of which one I am still the artistic director, about the music school "ScuolacusticA", focused on the study and the tecniques of fingerstyle guitar, with many different locations all over Italy.

Luiza Constantin - Singer

I was born in a family where music was breathed everyday,and that's how my voice comes out, with a deep, rough, crisp and melancholy tone, but always with an emotion that comes out naturally, even from the most casual vocal emission, and arrives to the listener as words that are sometimes reassuring, sometimes languid, sometimes dramatic. I participated at TV shows The Voice and Tu Si Que Vales, collecting the congratulations of the anchomen Gerry Scotti, Paolo Bonolis, and Maria de Filippi; I recently recorded a song used like as the title track of the soundtrack of the fiction “La porta rossa” aired on RAI. My next future includes participation in The Voice Romania and my record debut with unreleased Italian songs.

Valentina Tramacere - Singer

Born in 1984, I have always had a passion for music; I started when I was a teenager performing in many places with my first band, then, in 1999, I started studying singing at the Saint Louis College of Music, gaining experience as a soloist and also as a chorister in the choir of Susanna Boots and in the SAT & Bs of Maria Grazia Fontana. Over the years I collaborated with many professionals of the Roman musical scene, and since 2008 (from participating in X Factor) to 2016, I am a part of the vocal group Quinta Giusta; in 2013 I participated as a soloist in The Voice of Italy, joining Piero Pelù's team. Since 2008 I have been a singer dubbing (for Disney cartoons and other productions) at Studio Compresso by Francesco Albanese and Trafalgar for Ernesto Brancucci.I am currently involved in the Blues and Rhythm'n'blues group “The Sweet Waters” and with many others musical Soul, Jazz and Pop bands, with which I perform in many Italian clubs. I am a singing teacher since 2008.

Emiliano Begni - Piano

Pianist, arranger, vocalist, I started studying classical piano with Margarita Eva Fernandez and Claudia Agostini, then moving on to modern styles with Pierpaolo Principato and perfecting at the jazz department of the Conservatory of Frosinone "Licinio Refice" with Greg Burk, Marco Tiso, Roberto Spadoni. Always fascinated by the world of singing and musical theater (I participated at X FACTOR with the QUINTA GIUSTA vocal quintet), in which I hold the role of musical director and musician / actor, I have been a regular collaborator with Rossana Casale since 2006 (tours, theater performances and recordings). I am founder and collaborator of various unpublished musical projects. In addition to an intense teaching activity in Italy and abroad, during my career I have played with Maurizio Fabrizio, Ellade Bandini, Gigi Cappellotto, Tosca, Vincenzo Cerami, Nicola Piovani, Lillo & Greg, Virginia Raffaele, Lisa, Teddy Reno.

Maddalena Amorosi - Caricaturist and Illustrator

My name is Maddalena and I am a Designer and Illustrator.
I truly believe my characters need to have a personality in order to convey a story ,which can bring to mind feelings and memories to the observer of the drawing!
All my artworks are developed following a traditional technique on semiruvid sheets that give watercolor, pastels and colored pens a visually more refined and warm texture.

Tommaso Costantini - Saxophone

Tommaso Costantini (Rome, 1979) I play sax since I was 11
years and I began just for fun in the music band of my town, then I choose to undertake the
academic studies to make music for living. I attended the University of Music in Rome for 4
years with a jazz background, then I graduated in conservatory in classical saxophone. In addition to playing the sax I have always had another great passion, the DJ one! This is my strong point, putting together the two jobs into one person, so I am be able to satisfy every kind of request from the customer. From a musical point of view, I am avery versatile saxophonist ranging from pop to jazz, blues, funky, to disco music with sax. I worked at many private events, and thanks to that I have now a long set list which allows me to always find the right sound for any situation.

Riccardo Morsilli - Violin

Riccardo Morsilli (Genoa, 1967) aka "Magic Violin", I graduated in violin at the "N. Paganini" Conservatory in 1988, starting to work with many prestigious orchestras including the Symphonic Orchestra of R. A. I. of Rome and in 1996/97/98 I was a member of the Sanremo Festival Orchestra.
I collaborated with important artists, from Barry White to Roby Facchinetti and last June I have performed at the "Infiorata di Genzano"
I currently work mainly performing at events, parties, ceremonies.

Daniel Myskiv - Violin

Daniel Myskiv (Lviv, Ukraine 1991), I began studying violin at the age of 5, joining Solomia Kruscelnizka's music school, where in 2008 I obtained the Diploma of Violin and entered the Higher Academy of Music in Lviv, participating in many concerts as a soloist with the Ukrainian State Philharmonic Orchestra.
I moved to Italy in 2011 and enrolled at the Conservatory "Licinio Refice" of Frosinone in the solo violin course within the two-year specialization, where I graduated with the highest grade, and today I attend the course of High Specialization in Music from the Chamber at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia. I have played in many orchestras, under the guidance of Jeffrey Tate, Saulius Sondeckis, Stanislav Kochanovsky, Nicola Piovani, Salvatore Accardo, Ramin Bahrami and I have participated at many national and international concerts and festivals, playing from the classical to the romantic repertoire up to the contemporary one, solo and chamber music.

Valentina Del Re - Violin

Valentina Del Re (Rome, 1981), I started studying violin at the age of five at the Popular School of Music in Testaccio and continued my studies with Maestro S. Budeer. I graduated in Philosophy with honors at the University of RomaTre, as well as a Bachelor's Degree in violin with honors and a Bachelor's Degree in violin with honors and Honorable Mention at the L. Refice Conservatory of Frosinone. Currently I am graduating in Chamber Music at the same Conservatory under the guidance of Maestro F. Vicari.
I worked with: Orchestra Roma Sinfonietta, Orchestra of Roma Tre, Orchestra Filarmonica di Benevento, Orchestra Notturna Clandestina, and I have played conducted by Ennio Morricone, Luigi Piovano, Sir Antonio Pappano, Giovanni Sollima. I have played at many concerts in chamber formations, from classical music to jazz, and many festivals too, including Umbria Jazz. I am the president of the Cultural Association Controtempo (Frosinone), dealing with musical activities such as seasons of chamber music and Masterclasses of High Musical Specialization.

Livia De Romanis - Cello & Viola

Livia De Romanis (Rome, 1990), I started studying the cello at the age of o and in 2002 I joined the conservatory of Santa Cecilia where I obtained a lower diploma license in 2010. In March 2012 I graduated at the Modena Conservatory under the directuion of the master Marianne Chen. I attended Masterclasses held by the masters Luigi Piovano, Samuli Peltonen, Quartetto of Cremona and Miguel Da Silva, and I participated in numerous concerts as first cello, playing, among other things, the performance of Verdi's Requiem in 2009 in the San Paul's Basilica. I have been collaborating for several years, playing in Moscow in the Zentr Slobodkina concert hall, at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in the Petrassi room and Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles as first solo cello and I did many recordings, for movies, short films and soundtracks .
In 2012 I entered the Academy of Santa Cecilia for the course of Higher Education for chamber music, graduating after 3 years. I participated in important festivals (Mantova Chamber Music, Lucca) winning first prize at the Melos, O. Stillo di Paola, Mercato San Severino, Cava de Tirreni competitions.

Gianluca Diana - Dj Set

I tell musical stories in Rome, the city where I live and work, in different forms and ways. I am working at few radio’s (Città Aperta, Popolare, RaiRadio 3, Città Futura) and I am writing on «Il manifesto» and «Alias». Since 2005 I have been running one of the main blues shows in Italy, the Mojo Station Blues Festival. For twenty years I have been mixing live records with never dully, and always groovy, dj-sets.

Fabio Terracina - Dj Set

I was born and raise among the notes of Black music, so I began my career in 87 as a DJ, during my adolescence, when I approached the role first as a musician, and then as House Music Producer with Glorioso Sound label, with multiple releases on the market. A very versatile dj I enjoy a collection of around 5000 vinyls and in my performances I also play liveset synth and electronic drums to enrich my djset ranging from the 70s to today's pop genres.

Angelo Moscati - Karaoke

I am a singer and karaoke animator, with long working experience in the villages and in different places of the Roman scene; I participated in the "Mia Martini" award, coming to the final step, and to the international prize of Italian music, winning the critics prize together with the well-known band "I Tazenda" with the song "mother earth". I also worked with many singers from the Roman rap scene and recorded some dance tracks with the "Glorioso sound" label record.