Sea stories: these are the ones told by Luigi Esposito, the pianist and composer who opens on Thursday, March 21 at 8:00 PM «The Aquarium Concerts». A novelty of the May Music festival that this year proposes some “themed” appointments at the Darwin Dohrn Museum, namely the sea museum that has been living in the premises of the former Press Club for some years.
The concert is titled Take Me to See the Sea and features the presence of Esposito along with percussionist and drummer Emiliano Barrella, with the participation of violinist Anna Rita di Pace. The concert includes the performance of tracks from the CD: Printemps, Breeze, The sands of noon, Nahual, Take me to see the sea, Susette, Gears, Ciardino 'e salt, The waltz to Nicole, Missing each other, North - West and the new single, just released, Line 140.
«I don't like to give a name to music - says Esposito - My favorite definition is contemporary: within it coexist jazz, cinema - I grew up listening to Ennio Morricone - world music, and classical. I often talk about a window on the Mediterranean because melodically my music recalls the Mediterranean sound, that of the countries that face it; but a part also looks at the jazz from Northern Europe. The references? Brad Mehldau, Esbjörn Svensson, Claude Debussy, and Maurice Ravel».
His first album, released in 2022, is titled like the recital: «Take me to see the sea», is recorded for the independent label Apogeo Records, and recalls the image of the places where the author's entire experience is condensed. Esposito's music tells of feelings and sensations, of love and absence, sometimes of pain, of detachment, and it does so moving on the thread of a sweetness that is an expression of the soul. The Mediterranean colors remain always recognizable, but the style of the tracks inevitably looks beyond, up to forming a happy combination of heterogeneous influences in which the original signature of the composer is found.
In addition to his solo musician activity, Esposito accompanies the composition and performance of music for the theater: he worked in “Reginella… I am Free - Dream in words and music” by Gianfranco Gallo, dedicated to Libero Bovio. «Line 140» is his new single, about which he says: «I looked for a rhythm that recalled the journey and the sense of movement. It is the story of afternoons that had a punctual start but I never knew when they would end. Time was diluted in the wait, spent watching old men play bocce, having a coffee at the kiosk, chatting with others who, like me, were waiting for the bus. Some gestures became rituals, some faces became friends. And even under the rain, there was the panorama of Posillipo to cheer me up».
The piece recalls to mind the happy chorality of Pat Metheny's The first Circle and will not be the only new performance on the program. «At the Darwin-Dohrn museum I will also present another unreleased piece, Theme for Giogò which I wrote in homage to the young musician killed in Piazza Municipio. There is a different maturity in the performance of the tracks that the audience will be able to perceive during the concert. I am the same as two years ago, but I am already thinking about the next album», he concludes.