VI.BE

Elisabetta Maulo and Piergiorgio Pirro perform emotional, deep music with a high degree of spontaneity. Their sound could be described as a sort of contemporary chamber jazz influenced by Early Jazz music. It is sometimes minimalist, sometimes orchestral, and focuses on aspects such as the earthy and bluesy sound of the first era of Jazz, its unique rhythmic approach, and the use of polyphony in the arrangements.

They began to collaborate in 2011 in the form of a voice and piano duo, working on the repertoire of the jazz of the 20s and 30s, and soon starting to compose their own original pieces. This transition is documented in the album "Early", published by the label Improvvisatore Involontario in 2015. This work features the participation of two prominent Italian jazzmen of the same generation: Tony Cattano at the trombone and Beppe Scardino at the baritone saxophone and bass clarinet.

With time and sharing a number of diverse musical experiences, among which a 3-months residence in the jazz venue JZ Club in Hangzhou (China), the repertoire of the duo grew considerably. Aside from their original compositions, the duo plays now the music of composers like George W. Thomas, Spencer Williams, W. C. Handy, Fats Waller, Billy Strayhorn, and makes incursions in territories like the American and Brazilian songbooks, with the occasional tribute to the great Italian songwriters of the past.

In 2021 they released the EP “Aparttogetherapart”, this time exploring a different palette of sounds, that includes electronics and field recordings.

From 2021 they started a collaboration with Sam Comerford (saxophones and clarinet), an improviser and composer from Dublin, active on the European scene in the field of creative improvised music.