The Golden Guys
Directed by Paola Milzani with Sarah Jane Morris
Luciana Vaona, Luisa Belleri, first tenors
Simona Allegro, Anna Cortesi, second sopranos
Giovanna Mariani, Albina Doninelli, Simona Zambetti, Giulia Picco, Giulia Spallino, mezzosopranos
M.Grazia De Angelis, Paola Ferraresi, contraltos
Savino Serafino, Francesco Di Sanzo, Fabio Pozzoni, first tenors
Gianluigi Mor, Guido Cremonino, Matteo Cervi, Marco Biasi, second tenors
Fabio Vitto, Massimo Guerini, Guido Milanesi, Ubaldo Busco, baritones
Michele Denaro, Paolo Di Pietro, basses
Giovanni Colombo, piano
Michele Gentilini, guitar and arrangements
Marco Esposito, bass
Matteo Milesi, drums

Gospel is one of the deepest and most genuine espressive and artistic forms of the African Americans spirituality in the USA. It is a medium of elevation and at the same time of collective involvement in the joy of pray. But it represents the effort, deeply human, of the search for our own identity through the voice, the first expression instrument, in a dialectic relation with the group that it underlines, sustains and shares.

“Call and response”, individual and community, “sacred” and “human”, are just a few of the facets of the gospel universe to which Paola Milzani has for long been dedicating her search and improvement either as refined interpreter and practised teacher caring for the weave of relations between vocal expressivity and social, historical and spiritual contest.

The Golden Guys choir comes indeed from all of that, putting together the best solo artists of the Lombardy area having in common yet the great passion for gospel but also a deep respect for that art form in a very tight-knit collective.

On the wave of these emotions the meeting with Sarah Jane Morris couldn’t be inevitable.

The Scottish singer, well-known to the audience for her victory at San Remo Festival with Riccardo Cocciante and for her extraordinary interpretation of Me and Mrs. Jones – one of the most important songs ever – combines an extraordinary versatility and black American vocal nimbleness, in spite of her red hair that immediately reveal her origins, to a deep knowledge of the gospel genre that she has always loved and studied, but never really performed. This is right the reason why the concert in Bergamo is a extraordinary preview and an additional novelty for the audience of Notti di Luce.