Gino Sitson
Song Zin'... Piranha

A Cameroonian singer with an instinct for jazz, folk and all manner of experimental vices offers a vocal recording of unusual character

Listen!
(Real Audio, courtesy of Piranha Records, Germany)

"... the meditative virtuosity of Sitson's solo (multi-tracking) work is clear, and his voice conveys a pristine, complex instrumental tonality with his backing quartet... Song Zin' means literally (in Medumba) "I'm going to tell you." Figuratively, however, the phrase can also be interpreted as "a walking song," a reference to the traveling Ntonah (horn players and storytellers) of his home region. Combining connotations, the title becomes a metaphor of the inventive perambulation of world-jazz-as-human-narrative that inspires this arresting recording, revealing Sitson as a musical raconteur and sonic border-crosser of the first degree". - Michael Stone, RootsWorld "Gino Sitson is a real vocal acrobat: he sings with fabulous ease and obvious humor developing a register where African traditions come across jazz and blues. As a distinguished ethnomusicologist, Sitson has a rich and varied musical culture, as can be heard on his last album, "Song Zin'…". This musician from Cameroon has already been remarked with the famous Manu Dibango, Ray Lema, Papa Wemba, Steve Potts…" - Le Monde, France "If you need an American frame of reference to understand what musician Gino Sitson is up to, you might try out Bobby McFerrin. But Sitson's music is about more than vocal acrobatics. It's about where he's from, and where he's going. The World's Stephen Snyder has today's musical closer." - The World

the record label sez:
Gino Sitson dazzles listeners with fabulous ease, obvious humor and an amazing register, while deftly blending African polyphonic traditions with jazz and blues. Song Zin'... is a rousing contemporary Afro-Jazz album in addition to being a vocal tour de force.

The artist' own bio:
Once upon a time, there was Gino Sitson, an unidentified vocal object, as he likes to define himself with a touch of humor. Gino Sitson comes from a family of musicians. Early in his life he was introduced to blues, jazz and African traditional music, both by listening to records which his parents played and by practicing it, right from the age of 10. Before he started a career with his own group, he shared his time between music academies and university (at the Sorbonne in Paris), where he studied languages and ethnomusicology.

Little by little Gino Sitson entered the professional musical world, first as a drummer, then as a singer. On scene or in recording studios, his voice was requested by Manu Dibango, Papa Wemba, Wally Badarou, Ray Léma, Jorge Ben, John William, Brice Wassy, Exile One, Craig Harris, Antoine Roney, Nia Love and the blacksmith's daughter dance theater company, La Compagnie Créole, Oliver N'Goma, Steve Potts, Claudine François, Antoinette Konan, "So Why ?" (Youssou N'Dour, Papa Wemba, Wally Badarou, Jabu Khanyile & Bayete, Lourdes Van-Dunem, Lagbaja, Lucky Dube) and by many other artists. Since his first album, called Vocal Deliria, Gino Sitson has toured in France and abroad, with his vocal-afro-jazz group. He has appeared in well-known Parisian stages such as the New Morning, the Petit Journal Montparnasse, the Duc des Lombards, the Sunset and the All Jazz Club. He has also given concerts in the Hot Brass and the Divan du Monde which were recorded for Radio France Internationale and filmed for a television program called Africa Live, broadcasted by MCM and Canal France International, two cable channels.

Gino Sitson has performed in various music festivals abroad : the Open PROMO (Locle, Swizerland); the Musica Dei Popoli (Merate, Italy) ;the Palermo di Scena (Sicilia, Italy) ; also in Lecco (Italy), where he opened for the Brazilian singer João Bosco ; in Düsseldorf (Germany) and in the well-known New York club Knitting Factory. His unusual vocal tone and his talent as a composer, interpreter and arranger make him very much in demand for albums, advertising (Danone yogurt, Dim stokings, Peugeot cars...), radio and television jingles. He has sung and performed in a musical in whose composition he took part (Jeanne et le garçon formidable - first shown in 1998). Gino Sitson has released his second solo album, called Song zin'... - which means "I'm gonna tell you...", in Médumba, one of the numerous languages of Cameroon.

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