Simona Cosimi - Vocals, Andrea Di Biase - Bass, Bruno Heinen - Piano, Emiliano Franco - Drums

Simona Cosimi

Simona Cosimi is an Italian Jazz singer and singer-songwriter based in London since 2011. Her main project is original pop/jazz/soul songs with the special traits of her unique phrasing and an intense, yet soft, voice. Born in Rome, she developed her musical style in Bologna where she attended university. There, Simona began to sing Blues in Marco Fiume's band and with the acoustic duo Bring a Bottle.
She also collaborated on various other projects with musicians from Bologna and Ferrara. Over time, Simona began performing a repertory which came to include Jazz Standards, Swing, Bossa, and Blues and sung in English, Spanish and Portuguese.
She has also collaborated with the University of Bologna Jazz Band, Teo Ciavarella, Jam Quartet and The Blueberries Quartet (for which she has written all original works) and, after going back to Rome, with several Jazz musicians from the capital such as Alberto Parmegiani, Vincenzo Bardaro, Andrea Colella, Arturo Valiante, among others. She participated in various Jazz festivals such as AlmaJazz and the Valtidone Festival.
She has taken part in numerous workshops such as the Berkley Umbria College Jazz Clinic, Roma Jazz's Cool and the Spoleto Jazz Workshop, Jazz Singing Improvisation Workshop at Goldsmith College in London. She has learned Voicecraft techniques (1st level Jo Estill technique). Furthermore, in 2010 Simona attended Popular Music School of Testaccio (Scuola Popolare di Musica di Testaccio) in Rome, where she started studying Jazz guitar. In the same year, she recorded her first original Cd "Don't call me my love".

Andrea Di Biase

Andrea Di Biase is a Double Bass player and composer based in London/Milan.

In the UK he has played concerts with outstanding musicians like Stan Sultzman, Norma Winstone, Pete Saberton and Asaf Sirkis.

Together with pianist Liam Noble, Andrea plays in the new trio of the legendary trumpet player and composer Kenny Wheeler.

He played in major festivals such the London Jazz Festival, The Hague Jazz Festival and was invited at the 2011 Meeting of IASJ (International Association of Schools of Jazz) in Sao Paolo, Brazil in which occasion he played with the jazz giant Dave Liebman.

He is leader of the Oltremare quartet with the reknown pianist Antonio Zambrini, the british alto sax player Mike Chillingworth and drummer Jon Scott. With that band he recorded his first album Uncommon Nonsense as a composer which has been released in 2011 by the renowned british label Babel. He also recently released the Dialogues Trio new album Twinkle Twinkle by pianist Bruno Heinen, featuring Julian Siegel on sax. Andrea has recorded live radio programmes forBBC radio 3 and is currently booking a winter tour for the launch of Oltremare quartet Album Uncommon Nonsense.

Bruno Heinen

Bruno Heinen is a London based contemporary pianist, composer and bandleader. Bruno studied classical piano at the Royal College of music with Andrew Ball and then went on to win prizes from the Musicians Benevolent Fund and the Countess of Munster Trust to take his Jazz masters at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he studied under John Taylor. Here, he completed a Masters of Musical Performance. He teaches Jazz harmony to the classical piano students at the Guildhall every year as well as leading small bands made up of Jazz Undergraduates. As a composer, Bruno has written for groups ranging from sextet to two piano’s and percussion, and from big band to classical string trio. In 2008 Bruno arranged Karlheinz Stockhausen’s ‘Tierkreis’ for Jazz sextet - wich features James Allsopp, Tom Challenger, Fulvio Sigurta, Andrea Di Biase and Jon Scott. Bruno’s sextet have just recorded his version of the piece, which is set to be released on the Babel Label in March 2013.

He leads with bassist Andrea Di Biase, Dialogues Trio, with Jon Scott on the drums. Bruno also has a longstanding duo with world renowned Palestinian Singer Reem Kelani. His recent endeavours include collaborations with Julian Siegel, Martin Speake, Byron Wallen and Christian Brewer.

Emiliano Franco

Emiliano Franco is from Salerno, Italy. He has been playing as a professional drummer for 20 years gaining a strong knowledge of several genres. Graduated both at the Salerno and Brussels Jazz Conservatories, Emiliano grew up in the Jazz scene of Salerno, Naples, Rome and Brussels. He attended to jazz composition and technique workshops developing a high degree of musical sensitivity.

He is based in London since 2012, where he's been playing as a side-man (Renato D'Aiello, Dean Mongerio, Elisabeth Shepherd) as well as carrying on with his main original project "E.F Groove to Groove".

Doors 7pm. Performance from 8pm - 11pm. Admission: £10 Advance booking Recommended : 020 7916 0544. info@mapstudiocafe.com