The origin of the name Woodstore derives from the unusual place that, in Sardinia (Italy) in late 2000, has seen the first rehearsals of this jazz ensemble: a very big craftstore ideal to create together in perfect isolation.
Woodstore Quintet is a kind of musical workshop, where, besides the tribute to the afro- american tradition, much space is left to both other styles and musical background of each component.
The ensemble has rapidly gained public and critic support: just a few months after its birth, WQ have been awarded the first prize of the international competition BargaJazz 2001 . In the same year Woodstore Quintet recorded its first studio work named " Distanza " ( Splasc( h) records, 2002)
Since then Woodstore Quintet has performed its music in many jazz festival (Time in Jazz, Barga Jazz, IJF London, April Jazz, Terni Jazz Fest, Musica sulle Bocche, To Be in Jazz, Animanera Jazz&Soul, Celimontana Jazz Festival-Rome, Viggiano Jazz etc. ) hosting in the ensemble fine musicans like Flavio Boltro, Maria Pia De Vito, Tom Kirkpatrick, Eric Vloeimans, Andy Gravish. In august 2002 the band (together with the cello player Ernst Reijseger ), joined also the Orchestra Jazz della Sardegna to perform the music for Buster Keaton's movie "Steamboat Bill Jr", composed and conducted by Bruno Tommaso .
Later, the Woodstore Quintet started to work to two new projects: in the first one WQ hosted the world-class singer Maria Pia De Vito to perform a new project called "Roads Under Construction" (that shows the band facing pop and rock compositions from '70 and '80), while the second one featured a trumpet master like Tim Hagans for the second studio work of Woodstore Quintet.
Mixing these two settings ( Tim Hagans , trumpet - Massimo Carboni , tenor sax, Mariano Tedde , piano - Paolo Spanu , bass - Gianni Filindeu, drums and the guest Maria Pia De Vito , vocals), Woodstore has recorded "41st Parallel" , published in fall 2005 by the German jazz label Nagel Heyer Records and has gained very good support worldwide, being also selected as "Album of the Week" on "The Independent" in january 2006.
“41st Parallelâ€, shows how the distances between Sardinia, Naples and New York (curiously, the musicians' place of origin are aligned on the same geographical parallel) are closed by the artistic affinity of the players.In 2006 the title of this work by Woodstore Quintet (“41 st Parallel†is translated in Italian as “Parallelo 41â€) has become the name of a new white wine by the International Wine Company “Sella & Moscaâ€.
This, beside the great honour for the Woodstore Quintet, is also the very first time for a jazz ensemble.