Guillermo Celano
Unimpeded by clichés or stuffy frames, he absorbs a variety of music styles and then turns it into a quirky sparkling mixture. Jazz, classical, pop, impro, rock: Celano keeps adding new insights. The album title “Fiction and Reality” is melodious; fiction and reality represent concrete and abstract, which also overlap”.
Jazzenzo, Erno Elsinga, august 2020. NL
…”Celano spices his cohesive compositions with stylistic quirks, creating intensely melodic and refreshing frameworks for improvisation – a rare gift…”Amsterdamse Chacarera” mixes chacarera with Dutch new jazz – Argentine melancholy and nuevo tango make for a surging apotheosis of dance”…
The Wire. Andy Hamilton, United Kingdom, july 2015
…..“The aliens seem to have landed in the head of Celano whom thankfully used their influence for he has created a new science. Let’s hope that this ‘new science’ will give us many more splendid albums “.
Jazzenzo. Nederland, 13/1/2011
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Training
Guitarist and composer Guillermo Celano, was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1977. After finishing his musical education at the E.M.P.A. (in Bs.As.) he traveled to Amsterdam where he got his Master degree in music at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam.
During his student period he took lessons with many different musicians: Lee Konitz, Ben Street, Ben Monder, Chris Cheek, Mark Turner, Matt Penman, Peter Bernstein, Nestor Crespo, David Horta, Jesse van Ruller, Arnold Dooyeweerd, Maarten v.d Grinten, John Ruocco and many others.
After finishing his master he followed composition lesson in Amsterdam with master composer Pablo Escande.
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Producer:
Guillermo has produced about 15 cd’s as a band leader and took part in more than 35 albums as a guitarist.
His main projects are:
C.B.G (Celano/Baggiani Group)
This group has meanwhile released 6 CDs already: Michael Moore on alt sax and clarinet, Sven Schuster on Double bass and Marcos Baggiani on drums. On the last two CDs Nothing changes (2008) and Alienology (2010) by Trytone Records Gorka Benitez joins the band with tenor sax.
In october 2011 the band expanded the line up to a sextet for the tour in Holland. The quartet teamed up with tenorist Ellery Eskelin and pianist Sylvie Courvoisier.
In 2012 the band has taken a new form and will be working in quartet with some wonderful young musicians: Joachim Badenhorst on tenor sax, clarinet and bass clarinet and with Clemens van der Feen on double bass. In 2015 the 5th album of the band came out by Trytone records.
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“Knots” (Red Piano Records New york 2014) and “Short Stories” (Red Piano Records New york 2016)
The Band: Chris Cheek on sax, Gerard Kleijn on trompet, voice and effects, Joost Kesselaar on drums and Guillermo Celano on guitar.
Downbeat (USA) editor’s pick January 2017 (CD “Short Stories”)
“Intriguing!…
The band is clearly centered in the present, taking the listener somewhere completely new. All the material reflects an artistic approach that emphasizes
the importance of the collective over individual contributions”…
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Here some of my latest collaborations:
Co-Leader and co producer of LILY’S DÉJÀ VU .
The Band features Ingrid Laubrock on Sax and Jasper Stadhouders on electric bass. In 2012 the frist CD of the band came out and in january 2015 the band presented their second album “Live in Paradox”.
Antimufa
“New ways of Argentinean music”
Natalio Sued on tenor, clarinet and voice, G.Celano on guitar, Adan Mizrahi on double bass and Marcos Baggiani on drums.
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Composer
He wrote during the last years countless compositions, from solo concerts, duos, trios….. up to octets.
-40 years Hothouse
In november 2009 Guillermo was commissioned to write a piece related to the “40th jubileum festival Hot House”. He was chosen as the youngest composer of the pool: Theo Loevendie, Arnold Dooyeweerd and Michiel Braam.
-North Sea Jazz composition assignment 2013
In 2013 Guillermo Celano won de prestigious North Sea Jazz composition assignment .
-“De appel die ver van de boom viel” is the name of his fresh new string quartet plus electronics and voice. The cd will be out in 2016.
-Winner Golden Amsterdam Fringe 2017 with “My father held a gun”.
“Great musicians. The music moved gently from pop to jazz…The music was just right, It supported and added to the theatrical aspect with magic”. Theaterkrant. Mieke Zijlmans gepubliceerd 5 november 2016
-Music production for the Virtual Reality film “Blowing through the curtains”(2019/2020)
The piece is now part of the permanent collection at the art Museum in Arnhem.
Selected for the “Gouden Kalf” Competitie Digitale cultuur van de 41e editie van het Nederlands Film Festival (NFF) in juni 2021.
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Other activities
– Guillermo Celano gives guitar and composition lessons in Amsterdam.
– He did the programming of the BimLabs in het Bimhuis together with Monica Akihari (2016-2020)
– He works for Trytone, a musicians collective with a programming and a record label.
-Between 2017 and 2020 he worked as an adviser for the Nederlandse fonds voor de Podiumkunst. FPK.
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Reviews
The Music of Guillermo Celano has been reviewed internationally, hereby some of the reviews of the last years.
About “Fiction and reality”
“Fiction and Reality” once again shows what a brilliant guitarist Celano is. From finely drawn-out melody lines to nasty improvisations. Celano is a versatile guitarist and composer. Unimpeded by clichés or stuffy frames, he absorbs a variety of music styles and then turns it into a quirky sparkling mixture. Jazz, classical, pop, impro, rock: Celano keeps adding new insights. The album title “Fiction and Reality” is melodious; fiction and reality represent concrete and abstract, which also overlap”.
Jazzenzo, Erno Elsinga, august 2020. NL
…”In this landscape, this world of sound, nothing is as hammock-blissful as it initially seemed. The guitar gets into thin air in its tendon and a light bends and breaks beauty. Celano’s melodiousness, which harvests the heart fibers, is aware of the dissonance between fiction and reality and unleashes reality with Hendrix’s fury”.
Bad Alchemy magazine, Rigobert Dittmann june 2020, Germany.
“A record with far-reaching improvisations, which can not to be described as “free”, but instead show the extensive creative insight and fantasy of the four musicians. Diversity is an asset, based on the deeper intention behind this album: impressions of the most recent trip that Celano made to South America. That makes Fiction and Reality – with titles of pieces such as Los Andes, Peru, Landscape and Precious metals in exchange for contaminated water – a recording as colorful as the countries of this continent”.
Jazznu RINUS VAN DER HEIJDEN, august 2020
“Whereas with the Celano/Baggiani the Amsterdam im-pro, jazz and Argentine roots predominate, the main focus here is on the rock side of Celano’s musical universe. The nice thing about it is that he is a gifted blacksmith melody so that the music on this debut album, “Fiction And Reality”, always remains accessible”.
Jazz Flits, Herman te Loo, july 2020, NL
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C.B.G. (Celano/Baggiani Group) About “Erasing Borders”
“Les Indignés is so beautifully complex that it could be described in language a sommelier may use. There are moments of wistfulness that sit apart from grooves and occasional free blowing and shredding guitar. Five of the eight compositions are quite lengthy and thus open themselves to the patient development of ideas and alternative directions. Some of the ironies that are baked into the composition titles, play themselves out in the paradoxical paths the music follows. As that sommelier might say, the music breathes with life”.
Karl Ackermann, may 2016.
“Erasing Borders, seven Celano compositions reflecting the human and ecological consequences of our lifestyle. Unlike obvious musical propagandists like Phil Ochs or Frederic Rzewski, Celano doesn’t use lyrics or melodrama to make his point. Instead his writing is concerned with nuance and suggestion”.
Ken Waxman, New York City. May 2016
Celano spices his cohesive compositions with stylistic quirks, creating intensely melodic and refreshing frameworks for improvisation – a rare gift…”Amsterdamse Chacarera” mixes chacarera with Dutch new jazz – Argentine melancholy and nuevo tango make for a surging apotheosis of dance”…
The Wire. Andy Hamilton, United Kingdom, july 2015
“STERBEZETTING C.B.G. TEKENT WERELD OM ONS HEEN…Een vulkaan die telkens maar weer uitbarst. En de natuur daardoor voortdurend blootstelt aan nieuwe verschijningsvormen. Vervang de vulkaan door muziek en je krijgt hetzelfde effect, tenminste als je naar C.B.G. luistert: de Celano/Baggiani Group. In zes stukken laten de Argentijnse, in Amsterdam wonende gitarist Guillermo Celano en slagwerker Marcos Baggiani horen hoe de wereld om hen heen verandert en hoe zij daarmee muzikaal omgaan”…
JazzNu, Rinus van der Heijden, Nederland, juny 2015
“Erasing Borders is C.B.G.’s fifth album, and testament to their maturity as a unit”…
Dalston Sound, Tim Owen, United Kingdom, july 2015.
“Impetuous jazz with an statement… Imaginative, with compositions influenced by improv and displaying the individual qualities of the quartet”.
Jazzenzo, Nederlands, june 2015 by Erno Elsinga.
“This is both Argentine and Amsterdam music, that much is clear… “Erasing Borders” is a varied album, with heavy grooves, rough tenor saxophone solos and electronic pedals violence alongside graceful, playful and funny moments”.
Herman te Loo, JazzFlits, Nederland, June 2015.
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About Wild Man Conspiracy
Downbeat (USA) editor’s pick January 2017 (CD “Short Stories”)
“Intriguing!…
The band is clearly centered in the present, taking the listener somewhere completely new. All the material reflects an artistic approach that emphasizes
the importance of the collective over individual contributions”…
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About Lilys Déjà vu:
“This release recorded in the pride of Tilburg, let us hear a band that has embody creativity as its foremost virtue. And as a fine bonus, here and there they burst, crack, shake everything up and then come all neatly together…It’s that balance of freedom, seeming randomness and an impressive solidity which makes this album such a challenge. It allows you to hear in any case that Lily’s Déjà Vu is a band with its own character and style where the possibilities seem almost endless. To be continued. Hopefully.”Guy Peters, 22.3.15 – Draaiomjeoren
….”This is how a “Delirium” sounds like. The music of the quartet is recognisable in the name of the band, mysterious, dreamy and sometimes a bit uncomfortable. The music of the quartet could be use as a soundtrack on a thriller”. Ben Taffijn, Draai om je oren, Live in Paradox. Woensdag 21 januari 2015, Tilburg
“…over the course of seven pieces they shake things up a fair bit. … In Europe the German-born Laubrock has been mining heavier musics with the intriguingly named Lily’s Déjâ Vu.” Kurt Gottschalk, The New York City Jazz Record 1 feb 2014
En alwéér is er een pareltje toegevoegd aan het Nederlandse improvisatiemuzieklandschap. Vrijwel uit het niets is daar een kwartet met de intrigerende naam Lily’s Déjà Vu. Alle vier wortelen ze in de traditie van vrije improvisatie, maar ze doen veel meer dan dat. Hun speelwijze is als de kringloop van de natuur: licht-donker, wind-windstilte, zon-regen. Maar bovenal als de adem van de mens: in en uit, onverstoorbaar met lak aan tijd en plaats. Dat maakt de muziek van Lily’s Déjà Vu tot een uiterst zeldzaam levend fenomeen.
Concertrecensie. Lily’s Déjà Vu. Paradox Tilburg, 2 oktober 2013, Jazzenzo, Rinus van der Heijden
“De thema’s zijn vooral aanzetten voor levendig improvisatiewerk. Het resultaat is een vet, beweeglijk geluid met grote dynamische contrasten en een mooie continuïtet in de solo’s.
KenVos Nov./Dec. 2013 ****1/2. Jazzism
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Contact:
guillermocelano@hotmail.com / 0031-6-2472 1663
Guillermo Celano.
Guillermo Celano 