Gianmaria Testa with Paolo Fresu at Joe's Pub

"Gianmaria Testa’s gravelly, nicotine infused voice often reminds listeners of legendary cabarettista Paolo Conte. Both hail from Italy’s northwestern Piedmont region, and both write timeless, bittersweet songs drawing on a sophisticated palette of sounds, including tango blues and bossa nova. But where Conte’s muse is baroque and exuberant, Testa’s work is resolutely intimate, as insidious as a twilight fog and as beguiling as the touch of silk...there’s something about the simplicity of guitar and melodica that best shows off the earthy warmth of this extraordinary artist, whose smoky tones and beautifully crafted melodies always find their way straight to the heart.” - Time Out New York

An extraordinary duo of two great solists. A song writer and a poet that makes the “canzone nuda”, through the essential lines of the melody, harmony and text, his focus and a musician that sings with his trumpet and who knows the value and the importance of words; Gianmaria Testa and Paolo Fresu. Gianmaria and Paolo share the same passion for music and they have many affinities. They currently play together in the Homage to Leo Ferré based on the ideas of the pianist Roberto Cipelli and together they have taken part in a project conceived by Gianni Coscia with The Symphonic Orchestra of Alessandria.

But tonight’s show tells a different story…. a duo so intimate and familiar, full of emotions and unmatched intensity. A concert essentially based on Gianmaria Testa’s songs, the old and the new ones, but also, and above all, based on the pleasure they take in playing together. New arrangements, new suggestions and new emotions.