Mediagallery:

The Spiritual Meaning of Sound

For this occasion, using the beautiful reverberation of the Church of S. Caterina, pieces from the repertoire of some traditional musical cultures that he has had the opportunity to directly experience will be played, such as the Tuareg, Gnawa, and Malian cultures, as well as pieces inspired by the folklore of other musical traditions.

With “the Spiritual Meaning of Sound” he refers to those who, through listening, are able to experience an inner resonance and, thanks to this inner resonance, can become aware of the quality (of sound) that constitutes our deepest essence.

OREB, the title of Dimitri Grechi Espinoza’s latest project, is another name to indicate Mount Sinai, where Moses met God “face to face” in a dialogue that became incandescent material for all humanity in the Ten Commandments of the Teaching. But Oreb is also the mountain where the prophet Elijah, tired and disgusted from too much killing, encounters the silent voice of God. The Lord was not in the wind, not in the earthquake, not in the fire; but in a “voice of suspended silence,” barely perceptible to the ear. It is this quality of silence that is expressed in Dimitri Grechi Espinoza’s solo saxophone: a silent space that needs to be created within oneself before speaking with the Other, before speaking with others.

Gabriella Caramore – host of “Uomini e Profeti” Rai Radio3

DIMITRI GRECHI ESPINOZA was born in Moscow in 1965, attended Jazz Mobile in New York, and completed professional qualification courses at Siena Jazz with P. Tonolo. In 2000, he founded the musical research group Dinamitri Jazz Folklore, which in 2014 ranked second in the Musica Jazz magazine ranking as the best Italian group. In August 2001, he was invited to play at the Pan-African festival in Brazzaville (Congo). From March 2002 to 2003, he collaborated with Goma Parfait Ludovic, director of the Congolese company Yela wa, in researching African healing music traditions through workshops and performances. Since 2004, he has mainly focused on two directions: applying the results of research on traditional cultures to the music of the Dinamiti Jazz Folklore group and the solo concert “Oreb/The Spiritual Meaning of Sound,” in addition to teaching activities. In 2011, he participated in the “Fesival Au Desert” in Mali, and from 2012 to 2014, he directed the “Azalai-Caravan” musical project with which he performed at some of Europe’s largest festivals.

Oreb has been performed at some of Italy’s most prestigious locations, including:

• Pantheon (Rome), Baptistery S.Giovanni (Pisa), St. Giles Cathedral (Edinburgh), Pinacoteca di Brera (Milan), Church of the Grande Madre (Turin), Basilica S.Gaudenzio (Novara)
• Cappella Pazzi (Florence), Planetary (Milan), Baptistery S.Giovanni (Volterra), Uffizi Gallery (Florence), Basilica S.Miniato (Florence), Basilica S.Vitale (Ravenna)
• Cisterna Mirabilis (Naples), Duomo Pozzuoli (Naples), Abbey of Rosazzo (Udine), Palazzo Liviano (Padua), Basilica S.Maria delle Grazie (Milan)