Sting Quartet was born in Reggio Emilia, Italy, in the early spring in 2003. Initially it was not a band. It was a project.At the beginning a lot of musicians joined this project. There was not a fixed line-up. There was not a work plan. It was a kind of musical lab in which anyone could get in and freely express his talent. The result of this work has been transmissed to the audience by a lot of live-shows. Twenty musicians joined this project. They came from several music genres, from jazz, from classical , from etno music, from rock, from funky. Basic idea was to trouble deeply the “cover-band†concept. The attempt was to remove from this project the “Any-famous-singer-photocopy-band†idea . The quartet sound, seeing the different musical backgrounds of the musicians, is a miscellany of different styles, anyway close to jazz, acid jazz, funky-pop atmospheres. The choice of performing Sting’s songs is not arrived by accident. His songs are right to be re-arranged in so many ways. The big work on the arrangements brings the songs to be something new and the result is often very distant from the original versions. But the group sound is very effective and easy recognizable. â€Roxanne†becomes a slow piano,flute,voice ballad. “Moon over Bourbon Street†and “Consider me Gone†become a sort of new jazz-standards. “If You Love Somebody set Them Free†and “Another Day†becomes “rough†acid-jazz songs. Just some examples…The Sting Quartet line up now is:Giacomo Baldelli (lead vocals and electric bass), Paolo Pattini (flute and saxophone), Domenico Mirra (keyboards,organ), Daniele Gallinari ( drums and percussions).This is a new line-up born in 2005 and it played in a lot of clubs ( Reggio Emilia, Modena, Parma, Bologna).Sting Quartet played also in the traditional concert on May, 1, 2005 at Piazza della Vittoria in Reggio Emilia as special guest for the Tullio de Piscopo Band concert.They have been included in musical festivals sponsored by “I Teatri†foundation,â€Comune and Provincia di Reggio Emiliaâ€.They reached the final at the National Music Competition “Festival delle Arti 2005â€, Bologna. (art direction Andrea Mingardi)On October,22 in 2005 they opened the important jazz festival “Jazz in Blu 2006†.They played before the great jazz piano player Enrico Pieranunzi and the famous jazz singer Ada Montellanico.On November,5 in 2005 they presented at the Radio Musichiere Scandiano (RE) studios their first CD “Somewhere over the Shadowsâ€.On december 2005 Sting Quartet becomes an official Italian Sting Cover-Band ( the Sting Italian Fan Club “Illegal Tales†appreciates their original sound)
