Biography
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Born
10 January 1978 (age 46)
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Born In
Bari, Bari, Puglia, Italy
Kekko Fornarelli (alias Francesco) was born in Bari, Italy in 1978.
He began learning classical piano at the age of three, first through private tuition and later at the Conservatorio Piccinni in Bari. Fornarelli’s love for jazz music began at the age of 18. From there on, Kekko has immersed himself in the study of the instrument, the style, and the music, a life journey which has led him to travel worldwide and meet a great number of artists.
Fornarelli’s first album, Circular Thought, was released in 2005 by the record label Wide Sound. He moved to France in the same year, where he spent three years pursuing his studies towards his personal idea of music.
The collaborations with different artists, such as Manhu Roche, Flavio Boltro and Rosario Giuliani, led him to publish the second album in 2008, A French Man in New York, also released by Wide Sound and distributed by Egea,a work inspired and dedicated to the figure of the French pianist Michel Petrucciani.
In 2011 his third album, Room of Mirrors, was released by AUAND records and distributed by Egea. Room of Mirrors is inspired by the predeceased Swedish musician Esbjorn Svensson. In order to widen the audience for jazz performers and to promote his work, Kekko Fornarelli has produced a video clip for one of his tracks, Daily Jungle.
The first video clip in the history of jazz, Daily Jungle is montage through video conference between the three protagonists, the musicians of the project Kekko Fornarelli (piano), Gianlivio Liberti (drums) and Luca Bulgarelli (double bass), performing the track using household furniture and everyday objects. This was directed and edited by Lorenzo Scaraggi.
His last work, Monologue(2012) is a Piano Solo recital. A dialogue between Fornarelli and his instrument: every echo, loop or refrain is a skirmish between Kekko and his piano, a conversation between the contrasting voices of his soul. From this point of view, the decision to abandon the rhythm section of double bass and drums, to entrust everything to the intensity of the piano. It will debut in Dublin this year.
Acknowledged as a great talent everywhere in Europe, Fornarelli has already in its projects collaborations with prestigious artists of the international jazz scene such as Rosario Giuliani, Flavio Boltro, Michel Benita, Bearzatti Francesco, Luca Bulgarelli, Yuri Goloubev, Benjamin Henocq, Nicolas Folmer, Jerome Regard, Manhu Roche, Andy Gravish, Eric Prost, Marco Tamburini, Jean-Luc Rimey Meille and many others.
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