via toledo jazz quartet

Via Toledo Jazz Quartet

Via Toledo is an ancient street and one of the most important shopping thoroughfare in the city of Naples, Italy. Many poets compares Via Toledo to the American Broadway and the french writer Stendhal describe the spirit of this street like this «here we are in the beautiful Via Toledo, the happiest street on earth!».

These four musicians, Bruno Castellucci (Belgian from Italian Parents), Paolo Loveri, Angelo Gregorio (Italians from the region of Naples) and Fil Caporali (Brazilian) got together with the same spirit of Via Toledo in Naples. Happiness and passion for music, for jazz.

This project wants to present a unique kind of jazz musical performance to the live stage bringing together original compositions of the young upcoming artist Angelo Gregorio and unknown jazz standards, with the experienced swing of two of the most famous Belgian artists like Bruno Castellucci on drums and Paolo Loveri on guitar. To enrich the project and open it to south-american rhythm Angelo have choosen the Brazilian upcoming bass player Fil Caporali.

Bruno Castellucci
No drum school or conservatory of music for Bruno Castellucci (°1944), at least not as a student. Very soon however, he treads the boards as he wins a jazz competition and gets a helping hand from big names who known the business inside out. From the outset, his motto has always been the same: listen carefully to others and make no difference between jazz and other musical styles.
Over the years, it has led him to play amongst others alongside André Brasseur, Alex Scorier, Art Farmer, Philip Catherine, Joe Zawinul, Chet Baker and Jaco Pastorius. In 1974, he becomes Toots Thielemans regular drummer, a role which he also fulfils for three decades in German trombonist Peter Herbolzheimer's big band.
Artists the likes of Maurane and Marc Moulin also request his services. For a couple of months, he takes part in the musical 'Hair' and was the drummer for the original version of 'Eviva Espana'.
Castellucci's name circulates not only on the entire European jazz scene as a reliable and professional drummer for live concerts but he is also a very sought-after studio musician.
He is still active as a teacher and he is not yet prepared to miss the stage for anything in the world.

Paolo Loveri
Paolo was born in Italy in 1965 where he started his career by taking private lessons with Pietro Condorelli and then moved to Belgium to pursue his studies at the Brussels Music Conservatory with Paolo Radoni. After completing his studies, he decided to settle down in Belgium where he had the opportunity to play with some very prominent jazz musicians : Fabrice Alleman, Paolo Radoni, Bruno Castellucci, and Guy Cabay.
He then founded a Duo with the saxophone player Fabrice Alleman with whom he recorded 2 CD's and toured for 8 years, giving concerts in Belgium, opening the Audi Jazz festival for Larry CORYELL and Billy COBHAM and appearing in several concerts abroad. Paolo also played in « One shot band » founded by Fabrice Alleman and after that Paolo founded a trio with Paolo Radoni and Victor da Costa.
Paolo has toured with Benoît Vanderstraeten and Bruno Castellucci, featuring Pietro Condorelli, with whom he recorded his freshly released CD : « Three for one ».
Paolo also has a duo with Chrystel Wautier mainly playing jazz standards.
Up to present Paolo has played many music styles (jazz, rock, funk, pop etc), and has worked in recording studios and on stage with Salvatore ADAMO and Calvin Owens, Moutafa Largo but his main interest is clearly jazz.
Paolo also gives lessons in various music schools in Brussels and gives different workshops.

Angelo Gregorio
Born in Italy, Salerno, he arrives in Brussels in the 2010 with a diploma in classical saxophone. In the capital of Europe he took, at the Royal Conservatoire of Brussels, the Baccalaureate and the Master in Jazz Saxophone and a master in Jazz Music Pedagogy. At age 15 he travels between Europe and the United States (New Jersey), where he has the opportunity to follow many master classes with, Vik Juris, Ted Curson, Lenny Argese, Enrico Granafei and other American jazz musicians.
Before arriving in Belgium, Angelo attended several jazz workshop in Italy (Veneto Jazz, Umbria Jazz, Orsara Jazz, Jazz in Laurino) with teachers like Dennis Irwin, Michele Rabbia, Teo Ciavarella, Matt Renzi, Stefano Battaglia, Cinzia Spata, Paolino della Porta, Andy Shepard, Danilo Rea, Dick Otts and George Garzone. This last after having given to Angelo the award for best saxophonist "Jazz in Laurino 2009" says of him "He's my main man!".
2012-2013: he release, under the american jazz label «Trumpet Jazz LLC», his first records «Searching for the Roots» an experimental «Sax Solo» project where Angelo undress himself of all the harmonic instruments and play just with his horn with an extraordinary and unique technique. In the same year he i touring with various european bands such as: The Cool School (Cool Jazz of the 50'), The MoD (Electro Smooth Jazz).
2014-2015: he give birth to the «Orchestra Italiana Bruxelles» a jazz big band that plays Italian jazz standards from the early times arranged by Angelo for 16 musicians. This project brings Angelo to play for various embassies and the Orchestra become the official jazz big band of the Italian community of Belgium. In the same year he start a hammond trio with two young Belgian jazz talents: Julien Gillain and Lucas Vanderputten. The name of the project is «Ceci n'est pas un trio» an homage to the country that welcomed him, Belgium, referring to Magritte's surrealism. With this project he will be touring in Italy, Belgium and Germany.
2016: together with an Italian trumpet player Federico Mansutti he founds an international project between Belgium and Italy called «The Hipster Project» with the aim of proposing Hard-Bop and original composition. A tour of two week in the region of Friuli, in Italy, bring this project to the table of the Italian label Artesuono that the next year will record their first album.
2017-2018: Angelo releases three albums under the same label «Artesuono». The first is «Ceci n'est pas un trio» with his hammond trio. The second is «Orange & Sparkles» with «The Hipster Project». The third is with the jazz Singer Carla Piombino in her album «Take a Chance». He recently started to work on another album with original compositions.

Fil Caporali
Fil was born in 1990, natural from Sà£o Paulo, Brazil. He studied at Universidade Livre de Màºsica whose patron is the Brazilian composer Antônio Carlos Jobim. In 2009 studied at Cantareira University, where graduated in 2012 with the teacher Alberto Luccas.
From 2011 he was very active in Sà£o Paulo's jazz scene, some of his works are: recording of the album «Sabe Qual?» “ Ana Gilli (2011), teacher of a masterclass in the Conservatório Estadual de Màºsica JK de Oliveira in Pouso Alegre (2013); perform with the jazz groups such as: Septeto S.A (2011-2013), Leandro Brenner Trio (2011-2013), Samuel Pompeo quintet (2013), Soundscape Big Band (2012-2013), Speaking Jazz Big Band (2012-2013), Orquestra Jazz Sinfônica de Diadema (2013); he accompanied international singers like the American Michael Mayo and the Australian Liz Tobias (2013), classical music groups like Camerata Cantareira (2012-2013) and Orquestra de Contrabaixos Tropical (2013), group that gave him the opportunity to travel through the main Brazilian capitals as Brasília, Salvador, Recife, Curitiba and also to Panama city in Panama.
In 2014 moved to Brussels to do his master in music at Koninklijk Conservatorium of Brussels. Currently playing in projects like Margaux Vranken Trio, Pauline Leblond Double Quartet, Marie Fikry Oriental Jazz Project, Charlotte Haesen Quintet, UTNUZ, Aneta Nayan, Aishinka and others.
In 2015, he participated of a tour in China playing with the violinist Liu Xing. In 2016 Fil finished his master degree and was awarded with the Toots Thielemans Jazz Award. Thanks to this prize Fil releases by the swiss label UNIT Records his first album entitled "Fortune Teller" in 2017