Popular Saxophonist and Band Plays Branford Jazz Series Thursday

BRANFORD, CT - Electrifying audiences across the United States with its instantly recognizable blend of virtuosity and originality in the vein of legendary guitarist Django Reinhardt, the group known as “Anouman” will spotlight the Branford Jazz Series on July 26th on the Branford Town Green starting at 6:30 p.m.

Based out of Brooklyn, New York, Anouman has most recently performed their original music at the Winter Jazz Festival in New York City, the Midwest Gypsy Swing Fest, Charm City Django Fest, the Music Mountain Festival, the Django by the Sea Jazz Festival, and the Cornelia St. Django Fest. The group consisting of Peter Sparacino (saxophone and woodwinds), Koran Agan (lead guitar), Eduardo Bel (bass) and Josh Kaye (rhythm guitar), has taken the gypsy jazz scene to soring heights.

Peter Sparacino is an in-demand saxophonist and doubler, multi-faceted musician, bandleader, composer, and arranger based out of New York City since 2008, Peter is lucky enough to perform in some of New York City’s premier venues and with some of the best musicians. Known for his fluency on the saxophones, as well as clarinet and flute, he appears regularly in New York at the Highline Ballroom, Smalls, Brooklyn Bowl, BB Kings, Zinc Bar, NuBlu, Littlefield, Madson Square Garden, Showman’s, Le Poisson Rouge, the Blue Note as well as many other venues across the United States and Europe.

Peter’s debut album, “The Straphanger’s Playlist” was released on March 31st, 2015. The album features a sextet at its core, with additional percussion and strings featured on individual tracks. To round out the album, Peter took a cue from legendary composer Steve Reich and in the manner of Reich’s Counterpoint pieces recorded the last track on the album, a saxophone quintet, by overdubbing himself playing all parts on the four members of the saxophone family. He called on some of the most incredible musicians in New York City to realize this project: Jay Jennings, Isamu MacGregor, Panagiotis Andreou, Aki Ishguro, and Mauricio Zottarelli.

A saxophonist, multi-faceted musician, bandleader, composer, and arranger based out of New York City, Peter has built a varied career spanning music styles, including co-founding the virtuosic gypsy jazz quartet Anouman, leading his supergroove band Orkestra Eustoria as well performing with a wide variety of artists including Big Daddy Kane, Nick Waterhouse, Easy Star All-Stars, Ikebe Shakedown, and Lee Fields. Known for his fluency on the saxophones as well as clarinet and flute, he appears regularly at the premier venues in NYC as well as many other performance commitments across the United States and Europe at venues such as the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Rochester Jazz Festival, the Quebec International Jazz Festival and many, many more. He has toured the United States, Canada, and Europe.

Eduardo Belo is a young bass player and composer from Brazil that has a unique sound and musical taste. Being fluent in both jazz and Brazilian music, Eduardo plays on a regular basis as a sideman for many great artists/musicians from the scene. Among those artists there are names like Duduka Da Fonseca, Helio Alves, Claudio Roditi, Kevin Hays, Gabriel Grossi, Koran Agan, Ari Hoenig, Cyro Batista and many others. He has many recordings with groups and artists in New York City and in Brazil.

Koran Agan has performed at the: Montreal Jazz Festival, Atlanta Jazz Festival, Rochester International Jazz Festival, Burlington Jazz Festival, Django Reinhardt Northwest Fest, Bowery Ballroom, and Smalls Jazz Club. His music has taken him all over the United States, South America and Europe.

In addition to recording and touring as a sideman, Koran released four recordings. 'One For The Road' 'Hot Club of New York' and 'Keep Cool', which paid tribute to guitarist Django Reinhardt, and his trio recording 'Placed We've Been Before' which represents more of an exploratory take on the similar repertoire. He also published collection of etudes for pick style guitar and an instructional book Jazz Manouche - building a language, which covers this particular style.

Josh Kaye is a NYC based guitarist known mostly for his skill as an accompanist, primarily in the musical tradition of Django Reinhardt. A standing member of the group, Anouman, Josh has also performed with Ryhthm Future, Stephane Wrembel, and Stochelo Rosenberg.

“The Branford Jazz Series is a great music series that produces exceptional concerts in a beautiful outdoor setting,” said Sparacino. “We are excited and honored to be part of this concert series that features so many renowned artists for such an appreciative audience.”