Parallel Dimensions Giuseppe Paradiso & Meridian 71

• 1Kaizen05:32
• 2Memories of the Future06:24
• 3Joriki04:53
• 4It's Only the Beginning04:51
• 5Parallel Dimensions08:48
• 6Tony05:22
• Total Runtime35:50

Info for Parallel Dimensions

Meridian 71 is a cross-cultural music project created and led by Giuseppe since 2012. The project name comes from Boston's longitude: the 71st meridian that passes precisely through the eastern part of the city. Their third album features original compositions by Giuseppe who performs with an eclectic and multicultural ensemble of well-established Boston-based musicians.

“Boston is the location where I met musicians from different parts of the globe. We are deeply connected and spoke the common language of music together”, reflects Paradiso. “It felt like I had known for a long time that at some point in my life I would have met musicians just like them, way before moving across the Atlantic in 2008. Meridian 71 became the creative laboratory and space to develop this music.”

Meridian 71 is more than a conceptual band…it's a dynamic and ever-changing musical project with a revolving lineup and a driving vision to use music and sound to inspire, bridge cultures and create links within different traditions.

Blending music genres that range from jazz and improvised music to Mediterranean and West African styles, the Parallel Dimensions album features Giuseppe on drums, percussion, electronics & vocals; Mark Zaleski on alto & soprano sax/clarinet; Utar Artun on piano & keys; Phil Sargent on electric guitar; James Hazlewood-Dale on upright, electric and fretless bass; Malick Ngom on West African sabar drums, percussion and vocals.

Giuseppe provides his thinking behind the project: “I began composing the Parallel Dimensions album during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic in April 2020. This was a time when, on a personal level as well as in the World, many events were unfolding uninterruptedly almost on a daily basis. Music, creative development and art were my medicine and my life’s purpose that guided me through and kept inspiring me to continue a search for deeper layers and to stay focused on my life’s purpose. This album is an attempt to describe the different and parallel realities that each one of us experience even living the same event, at the same time and in the same place. Different perceptions, beliefs, ideologies and interpretations can make a singular event be a completely different story and experience for each one of us, sometimes based also on equivocacy.”

Giuseppe explains further: “These original compositions represent my extensive and ongoing research into multiculturalism and the different traditions and cultures to which I have been exposed musically and personally. Indeed, my experience performing as a sideman with hundreds of international musicians and artists across genres and continents has undoubtedly shaped my own identity and voice as a musician and brought me to create an eclectic and international ensemble in which I could blend all of these different experiences that have enriched my life both on a professional level as a performer and a composer, as well as on a personal level.”

Concerning his signing with Ubuntu Music, Giuseppe elaborates: “I am very excited and honored to be included in the Ubuntu Music Family. I look forward to a new chapter for this project in working with such a great record label and team. Since the very beginning I fell in love for the work that the Ubuntu label was putting out in the world. Working with Martin Hummel, I realized how much love and respect he has for musicians and their work. This alone makes me feel at home and glad to be working with such a label. It has been a unique and very enriching experience. It’s not easy to meet people in the industry who respect and fully understand the musicians’ work. Martin’s sensitivity in this regard has blown me away. He is undoubtedly one of a kind, and I am so glad we crossed paths. The support of Ubuntu Music will definitely help take this project to the next level in so many different ways, thanks to their expertise in the field and marketing strategies, as well as network and distribution. The Meridian 71’s ensemble and I are thrilled to be a part of their roster as we expand our family across the Atlantic.”

Martin Hummel, Director of Ubuntu Music, concludes: “Meeting Giuseppe and hearing his project was an immediate joy for the head, heart and the ears. We have a strong affinity for jazz music that transcends cultures and defies genres. ‘Parallel Dimensions’ does just that, from the genesis of the band’s formation through to the compositions and the musicians who made this possible. It is fantastic to welcome Giuseppe and Meridian 71 to the Ubuntu Music Family.”

Giuseppe Paradiso, drums, electronics
Mark Zaleski, alto & soprano saxophone, flute, clarinet
Utar Artun, piano & keyboards
Phil Sargent, guitar
James Hazlewood-Dale, double bass, electric bass
Malick Ngom, Sabar & West African drums

Giuseppe Paradiso
is a drummer, recording artist and composer active both as a bandleader of MERIDIAN 71, a world-jazz music project based in Boston, as well as a freelance recording and live musician across different music genres.

As a leader, Giuseppe has released two albums: Otherness Collection in 2012 and Metropolitan Sketches in 2020, both featuring his original music and the Meridian 71 project.

His third album Parallel Dimensions (release in Spring 2022) has received support by a LIVE ARTS BOSTON 2020 grant from THE BOSTON FOUNDATION, a grant from the MAYOR’S OFFICE OF ARTS & CULTURE AND THE CITY OF BOSTON, and support by ROBERT DAVOLI & EILEEN MCDONAGH. Featuring original and very innovative works, this album includes also a multi-disciplinary collaboration with choreographer/dancer Wendy Jehlen (director and founder of ANIKAYA international dance company) and NYC-based art director Adrien H. Tillmann. Since 2021, Giuseppe joined The Recording Academy as a voting member.

Born in Santeramo in Colle (Bari, Italy) in 1983, Giuseppe started his musical studies on drums at the age of five years old. In 2007, he graduated with full marks and honors from the Italian conservatory of music N. Piccinni in Percussion Instruments, where he also studied mallets, classical piano for eight years and the Contemporary & Experimental Composition program (five years); successively, in 2011 he graduated with magna cum laude from Berklee College of Music (Boston, MA) in Performance, drum set.

Having the opportunity to study with some of the finest musicians and educators in the world, such as Grammy-award Terri Lyne Carrington, Antonio Sanchez, Jamey Haddad, “Ra-Kalam” Bob Moses, Mark Walker, Ian Froman, Ralph Peterson, Evelyn Glennie, Ed Saindon, Victor Mendoza and Dave Samuels (to name a few), Giuseppe continued to develop his versatility as a musician and composer.

At Berklee, he has also worked as a drummer for the Strings Department, Guitar Department, Voice Department, Piano Department, Ensemble Department and Special Programs in 2010 and 2011. He attended lectures by Herbie Hancock at Harvard University, the Siena Jazz and Umbria Jazz workshops in Italy, where he studied with Massimo Manzi and Ettore Fioravanti.

His international collaborations across a wide variety of music genres include seven-time Latin Grammy-award Javier Limón; Grammy-award Arto Tuncboyaciyan (Peter Gabriel, Chet Baker, Joe Zawinul); pioneer guitarist David Fiuczynski (Jack Dejohnette, Jo Jo Mayer); Orchestra Sinfonica della Provincia di Bari; jazz trumpeter Phil Grenadier (John Scofield, Kenny Barron, Steve Swallow); Marco Pignataro (Director of the Global Jazz Institute at Berklee College); four-time Grammy-award Oscar Stagnaro; jazz bassist John Lockwood (Gary Burton, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard); award-winning Syrian clarinetist Kinan Azmeh (Yo Yo Ma) and Chinese virtuoso Yazhi Guo; British songwriter William Topley; gospel artist Gabriel Eziashi; Italian artists Cettina Donato, Vince Abbracciante, Mario Rosini, Vito Di Modugno, Daniele Sepe.

Over the past two decades, Giuseppe has performed at major international venues, festivals and institutions such as Panama Jazz Festival (Panama City); Newport Jazz Festival (Newport, RI); as a soloist at Les Journee de la Percussion at Conservatoire Superior de Paris (France) and the Equinox Music Festival at Berklee College, where he premiered his composition, commissioned for the same festival. Other performances include Festival Duni (Matera, Italy), Teatro Piccinni and Stadium San Nicola (Bari, Italy); Percussion Days at the Conservatory G.B. Pergolesi (Fermo, Italy); Museum of Fine Arts, Northeastern University, Harvard University and Agganis Arena at Boston University; Public Theater (New York City, NY); Turkish Embassy of Washington D.C.; Regatta Bar Jazz Club (Cambridge, MA), Gregory’s Jazz Club (Rome, Italy), to name a few.

Appearances on radio and television include Spanish TVE LA2 Entre Dos Aguas, a documentary produced by seven-time Latin Grammy-award Javier Limón; Full Circle, UK radio show (London); Paradigms podcast (USA); feature on a “Boston Strong” video campaign on NECN (USA); The New Edge radio show at MIT University (Cambridge, MA Public Radio), amongst many other international radio air-playing and appearances on local Italian and New England TV shows.

Discography as a drummer and percussionist involves several productions between the United States and Europe, covering a wide diversity of genres and styles, ranging from jazz and world music to pop. One of his latest recordings with Neotolia - Neotolian Song (Interrobang Records), features a roster of internationally renowned musicians, such as Dave Weckl, Grammy-award Arto Tuncboyaciyan, David Fiuczynski, Joey Blake and Bassam Saba, amongst others. Other works include “Octave” by Jazz Revelation Records (2011, Berklee) and Crescendo with the Cettina Donato Jazz Orchestra (Jazzy Records).

This album contains no booklet.