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

chitarra acustica, elettrica, slide, kazoo

(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

voce, kazoo, tamburello

(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

chitarra acustica, armonica, stomp box, seconda voce

(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

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.

Gianluca Diana

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.

Alessandra Scirdi

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

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.