After the bestselling 2011 album “Madreperla” RICCARDO TESI &BANDITALIANA are back with their new album “Maggio”

Since it was started in 1992, BANDITALIANA has become one of the most famous and long-lived band on the international world music scene, their cross-border music with a mediterranean scent always peculiarly combining styles and rites of the Tuscan tradition, jazz nuances and songwriting.

During their first 20 years BANDITALIANA participated in the major world music festivals all over Europe, in Japan, North America and Australia. This year their continuous world tour will take them onto the major stages of Canada, then to Austria, France, Switzerland, Netherlands and Belgium.

Their new album “Maggio” contains some new songs of travels, sea and hope and some instrumentals of southern sparkling rythms mingling with improvisation and riffs betraying an everlasting love for progressive sounds, all of which well matched with ritual songs of the Tuscan mountains, echoing of balcan dance and curry fragrance.

As usual, the recording sessions of Banditaliana have seen the participation of several guest musicians, namely the extraordinary balcan brass band Fanfara Tirana, the fiddle and tambourine player Mauro Durante, leader of the Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino, the young jazz pianist Alessandro Lanzoni, just awarded the title of best new talent by the magazine Musica Jazz, the lute of Mauro Palmas, a cornerstone of Sardinian music, and the cello of Enrico Guerzoni currently playing for Zucchero.

Riccardo Tesi, driving force and inspirer of the rediscovery of Italian diatonic accordeon, is considered one of the most original and influential musician on the European world music scene. He can boast many collaborations ranging from international ethnic music (Elena Ledda, Justin Vali, Kepa Junkera, John Kirkpatrick, Patrick Vaillant) to jazz (Gabriele Mirabassi, Gianluigi Trovesi) and to the great italian songwriters (Ivano Fossati, Fabrizio De André, Gian Maria Testa)

He was a member of THE SAMURAI, international quintet of some of the most important accordeon players on the European scene.

Since it was started in 1992, Banditaliana leading elements have been Maurizio Geri, singer and guitarist of great skill, whose style combines the themes of mediterranean music with swing-manouche improvisation; Claudio Carboni, saxophone player endowed with a precise and clean phrasing, raised in the best ballroom dance tradition, and the creative and eclectic barefoot percussionist Gigi “Fastfoot” Biolcati.