Musicians

Line-Up

 

Michael Fleiner

Composer and Arranger for various Bands, Film and Theater – Switzerland

Michael Fleiner studied classical music for 4 years in Bogotá, Colombia, at the University “Pontificia UniversidadJaveriana” (1989-1993). In 1994 he returned to Switzerland and studied at the Swiss Jazz School in Bern. In 2000 he obtained his diploma in Jazz Piano. Since 1999 he has been teaching piano and ensemble workshops at the Jazz School of Lausanne and since 2008, also at the Jazz School Lugano and Bellinzona.For seven years (1998-2004) he performed with the jazz Band “No Square” in Switzerland, Europe, Asia and South America: “Festival Internacional Jazz Plaza” in Havana, Cuba; Nancy Jazzpulsation, France; “Y4Y-Music-Festival” Pattaya-Bangkok” Thailand, “Miedzynarodowy Festiwal Filmowy Mlode Kino Europejski” Polen, “Rhino-Jazz Festival” France, Schaffhauser-, Cully- and Montreux Jazzfestivals, Switzerland.In 1999 he founded his afro-Cuban Combo “Fiebre Latina” that eventually became “Septet Internacional,” doing tours in Spain, France, Switzerland, Cuba, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary and Italy. CDs with various ensembles: Septeto Internacional, Fiebre Latina, No Square, Bitzius with Beat Sterchi, Corazón de Aldea. Girasol. Aline Sumi.

Juan Munguia

Trumpet – Cuba

1968 He started his studies at „Conservatorio Amadeo Roldán“ in Havana, Cuba. He began his career with the orchestra „Estado Mayor General de La Habana“. He played with world-famous musicians from Cuba and Spain, and records also with them: Silvio Rodríguez, Pablo Milanés, Orquesta “NG la Banda”, Isaac Delgado, “Irakere”, Celia Cruz, Francisco, Carlos Cano, José Mercé, Martirio, Manu Carrasco. He played during 15 years (1980-1995) first trumpet in the world-famous afro-Cuban Band “Irakere” from Chucho Valdés. With this Band he played over 50 countries all over the world, for ex.: North Sea Jazz Festival, Nice Jazz Festival, Festival de Jazz de Vitoria y San Sebastián, Antibe JazzFest., Umbria Jazz Fest., Chicago Jazz Fest., Aruba, Martinique, Puerto Rico.

  • Two Grammy-Nominationen.1990 he played with „Dizzy Gillespie & United Nations Band“ together with Paquito D’Rivera, Claudio Roditti, Slide Haptom, Steve Turrey, Danilo Pérez.
  • 1992 he played with Irakere at the „New Port Jazz Festival“, he is also member of the „All Stars Big Band“ together with Jon Fadis, Tom Harrel, Joe Henderson, Lew Tabackin, Chucho Valdés and others.
  • 1995 he came to Switzerland and taught in Zurich at the „Akademie für zeitgenössische Musik“ and at the „Swiss Jazz School“ in Bern.
  • 1997 he goes to Spain. He is during 10 years artistic director of the „Benidorm Palace“. In Spain he performed with Perico Sambeat, Matthew Simons, Patxi Urchegui, Eduardo Leiva, Norman Hogue, Bob Sam, Ovidio López, Eddy Guerín , Ramón Cardo, Big Band de Terrassa, David Bisbal.
  • In 2012 he played with the „Cuban All Stars“ and recorded two CDs, together with musicians from „Los Van Van“, Alexander Abreu, Adalberto Alvares, Tiburón Morales, Isaac Delgado, Haila Mompie.

Dudu Penz

Electric bass – Brazil

At the age of 9 he started to play guitar and at age 14 he knew his instrument: El bajo. In 1986 he moved to Switzerland and continued his career playing with various groups in countless festivals, jazz clubs and theaters around the world, such as: Montreux Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz, Bern Jazz Festival, Ronnie Scotts London, Queen Elisabeth Hall London , New Jazz Festival, Paris Jazz Festival, Paris Jazz Festival, Jazz Jazz Festival, Paris Jazz Festival, Paris Jazz Festival, Paris Jazz Festival, Paris Jazz Festival.

He has played and recorded with well known musicians such as: Julio Barretto, Latin world Quartet, “Celia Cruz” tour Europe, Luciano Pavarotti in “Pavarotti and friends 2007”, Cheo Feliciano, Ademir Cândido quintet, Rodrigo Botter Maio & Jazz via Brasil Group, Leny Andrade, Bossa Legends, Chico Freeman, Tony Martinez & Cuban Power along with Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Mercadonegro, Alfredo de la Fé, Brazilian trombone legend “Raul de Sousa”, New York Salsa All Stars, Jimmy Bosch, David Valentin, Giovanni Hidalgo, Different Moods, José Alberto “El Canario”, Tito Nieves, Michael Mossman-Kim Barth.

Stéphane Jöerg “El niño”

Congas – Switzerland

He took classes with Jean Roachat and Marcel Papaux at the “EJMA” Jazz School in Lausanne, Switzerland. His passion for Afro-Cuban music led him to Cuba to study percussion intensively for five years. He studied the congas with Thomas Ramos Ortiz “El Panga”, folklore and drums batá with Roman Díaz Anaya and the timbales and the battery with Calixto Oviedo.

He has played with renowned musicians such as Juan Munguía, Calixto Oviedo (former drummer of NG La Banda) and Tony Martínez, with “Almendra”, “Solarside”, “Juancyto Martinez”, “Solo Dos” and various Afro- And international tours at the Montreal Jazz Festival (Canada), Shanghai World Expo (China), among others. Currently, apart from the “Septeto Internacinal” he works with “Mi Tumbao”, “Tony Martinez & the Cuban Power” and “Espacio Infinito”. For four years he has also worked with Christophe Calpini in his electro-pop group “Dog Almond” and with the funk music group “A few good men”

Daniel Bagutti

Drums – Switzerland

Daniel Bagutti, born in February 1991, is a drummer – percussionist from Switzerland.
He discovered the drums at the age of 5 and he started a local school thanks to his parents support.
However, he will soon meet the jazz musician Silvano Borzacchiello, with whom he took drums lessons from 2003 – 2009, to make Daniel realize that playing the drums, will not longer be only a hobby, but a profession.
His very first musical appearance, was with the Desamper and La Bottega of the notorious jazz musician Claudio Pontiggia.
Throughout the years, Daniel played with various Swiss bands and thankfully, he had the chance to perform in differents rock festivals (Roncaglia Rock Festivals, Palagnedra, TBB), jazz festivals (aspettando Estival Jazz, Arogno Music Night), blues festivals (Blues to Bop, Lugano Music Night, Tenero Music Night, Coopaso).
​In 2011 Daniel moves to New York City, where immediately jumps into the New York music scene.
He performs at the Music under the stars Festival and in various clubs in Manhattan such as Zinc Bar, Blue Note, in Brooklyn and Queens where he soon will meet John Lander and Dylan Kaminkow, which they were going to be part of Daniel’s album “Interweave” (2015).
In 2018 Daniel records his second album “Thinking” with Alex Wilson on piano (UK), Dudu Penz on bass (Brazil) and Lolo Garcia on sax (Spain).
​Daniel has also shared the stage with great musicians such as: Juan Munguia, Dudu Penz, Thierno Camara, Gerry Lopez, Chip Crawford, Pasquale Grasso, The Red Hot Blues Sisters and many others…
He’s currently teaching at TASIS (The American School In Switzerland) and he is participating in the GOS project (Guitar of Stones) with the band Make Plain.

Bernhard Bamert

Trombone – Switzerland

  • 1970 born in Wettingen
  • 1981 begins with trombone playing in the youth orchestra from Spiez.
  • 1987-1993 Workshops with Ray Anderson and Vinnie Golia. Bernhard plays with different bands of Salsa, Afro, FreeFunk.
  • 1994-1999 He studies at the professional Swiss Jazz School at Berne and get his diploma. His teachers were: Robert Morgenthaler, Stanley Clark, Dave Bargeron, John Allred, Malte Burba and Andy Scherrer. Different tours and concerts in Switzerland and abroad with Grand Mother’s Funck
  • 2000-2013 Concerts with the Zurich Jazz Orchestra, Martin Streule Jazz Orchestra, Kaspar Ewald’s Exorbitantes Kabinett, Joe Haider Jazz Orchestra, Dave Regan Jazz Orchestra, Willy Schnyder’s Jazzhorchester, Quintetto Illegale, Mats-up, Swinging Europe 2000, Generations Big Band 2002, Grand Mother’s Funck, Herbie Kopf’s UFO, Adrian Frey Septet, Convergencia, Tré, Swiss Jazz Orchestra, Lucerne Jazz Orchestra, Koj, Vertigo Trombone Quartet, Jürg Wickihalder´s Narziss and Echo, Stephan Eicher, Marcel Oettiker, Soweto Kinch, Christoph Grab´s Raw Vision, Pius Baschnagel´s Latin World, and others. Bernhard teaches at the University of arts from Zurich and Berne.

“Lolo” García

Alto saxophone – Spain

Saxophonist with Honorable Mention in Superior Degree, studied modern harmony, arrangements and jazz saxophone and improvisation in the “Workshop of Musicians “of Barcelona and in the Superior Conservatory” Joaquin Rodrigo “of Valencia.

He was welcomed by Paquito D’Rivera at his home in New York, which presents famous musicians from the Latin-jazz world scene, such as Horacio Hernández “El Negro”, Anthony Jackson, Michel Camilo. He attended master classes with Phil Woods, Jerry Bergonzi, Grant Stewart, Bill McHenry, Jerry Gonzalez and has shared stage with musicians like Jim Rotondi, Chris Kase, Jeff Jerolamon, Perico Sambeat, Ramón Cardo, Jesús Santadreu and Patxi Urchegui, among others. He has played with various jazz groups and big bands. Among his recent projects as a leader are the Charlie Parker tribute “Bird Lives” with string orchestra, with own arrangements and the “Jazz Suite” composed for saxophone and jazz trio plus Symphonic Band. He has also published several books related to modern music, “Technical Exercises for Saxophone”, “Warm Up Exercises” and Recently with the publishing house “Rivera Editores”, a methodology of books for the teaching of modern music under the title “Learning to play Jazz, Blues, Funky, Rock …”, which are in the programming of several schools of modern music.

Currently he combines his work as a teacher with several musical projects including “Cotijazz Bigband”, “Chatanooga Bigband”, the tour of the musical “History of Rock” and his own training “Lolo García Quartet” and “Septeto Internacional”

Jonas Macullo

Sound Engineer – SWITZERLAND

He studied piano and keyboard at SMUM schools in Lugano (Switzerland) and HMI (Helvetic Music Institut) in Bellinzona (Switzerland). At the same time he studied sound engineering at the SAE school in Milan (Italy).

Jonas is an ACAD “qualified designer and manufacturer of acoustic and electroacoustic sound systems” (a qualified designer and builder for acoustic and electroacoustic systems). In 2007 he created his own JDM studio (www.jdmstudio.ch). Since 2013 he is the director of “Swiss Audio Consult”, a company for media services. He has worked as a sound engineer for various projects, live events and studios, among others: the K-Sound label, Massive Arts in Milan (Italy), Le cave di Registrazione (Milano, Italy), Midiwave Studios in Lausanne, Switzerland), Freelance in New York in the studio Robert Honablue Studio, engineer in the studio of George Benson and live engineer for the concerts of George Benson in Switzerland.

He is a recording engineer for Sugar Rolling Stones with whom he recorded the album “Raw Sugar”, live sound and technical director of Sinplus, Francesco Tricarico, “Space Infinito” by Cuban Vladimir Napoli, he is also a musician, sound engineer and technical director of “Sebalter” and since 2011 is the engineer of live sound and recordings, as well as technical director of SEPTETO INTERNACIONAL.