Sandro Zerafa, Yonathan Avishai, Yoni Zelnik, Lukmil Perez Herrera & David Prez
Biography Sandro Zerafa, Yonathan Avishai, Yoni Zelnik, Lukmil Perez Herrera & David Prez
Sandro Zerafa
was born in Malta in 1975. His first guitar teacher was Tony Pace. He pursued classical guitar studies with Charlotte Smith and later enrolled in the music course at the University of Malta, graduating with Honours in 1997. The Malta Jazz Festival, created in 1991 by Charles Gatt, was an important inspiration for Sandro. He started gigging in Malta with Nicky Doublet, Bernard Scerri, Charles Gatt amongst others. Moved to Lyons in 1998 and studied at the Lyons Conservatory with Mario Stantchev and Jean-Louis Almosnino. Graduated with a medaille d’or and DEM in 2000. He moved to Paris in 2000 where he has been living since then. Sandro quickly became active on the Parisian jazz scene.
His first group featured trombone player Sebastien Llado and won 3rd prize at the La Defense National Jazz Contest. With alto saxophone player Olivier Zanot and drummer David Georgelet he formed the group The Jaywalkers (winning a Mention Speciale for Composition at the La Defense Contest). The Jaywalkers was augmented to a quintet with the addition of Yoni Zelnik and David Prez (a companion from the conservatory days). The first recording by the White Russian 5tet was awarded a DISQUE D’EMOI by JazzMagazine.
His second album as a leader, URBAN POETICS (PJU recrds) featured Laurent Coq on piano, Yoni Zelnik on doublebass and Karl Jannuska on drums. Urban Poetics received considerable critical acclaim. In 2014 Sandro released his third album as a leader - THE BIGGER PICTURE (PJU records) featuring Fred Pasqua on drums, Olivier Zanot on alto sax, Yoni Zelnik on bass and Laurent Coq. Critics described this album as a milestone in Sandro’s output. Sandro is a founder member of the jazz collective / record label Paris Jazz Underground, together with guitarist Romain Pilon and saxophone player David Prez. He is also a great lover of Brazilian music and has collaborated with notable Brazilian artists such as Marcia Maria, Catia Werneck, Aline de Lima and Sergio Krakowski. He often collaborates with singer Jiji and has also contributed to the arrangements of her albums.
Sandro has recorded 15 albums as a sideman and his new album ‘More Light’ is scheduled for release in January 2017 on the French label jazz&people. It features Yonathan Avishai on piano, Yoni Zelnik on bass, Lukmil Perez on drums and David Prez on saxophone. He has collaborated with artists as diverse as Nico Gori, Francesco Bearzatti, Chico Buarque, Manu Katché, Stjepko Gut and Laurent Coq. He has performed extensively in Italy, Malta, Belgium, Morocco, Poland, Germany, Switzerland, Brazil, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, S.Korea, Canada, France and the UK. He is artistic director of the Malta Jazz Festival since 2009.
