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Artist
Biba Band
10+ albums
Italian JazzFusion
about
The Biba Band was born as a bit of a joke, but also a bit because of these musicians' common love for the songs of Weather Report, the band who, throughout the Seventies, experimented a contamination of jazz with ethno-black influences by incorporating a mix of sounds that today we would probably call World Music, or Acid Jazz, or perhaps even Electronic Music. It was the summer of 1992 when Picosta, Faso, Maxx Furian and Alex Baroni emerged from Elba Island's sea like modern-day mermaids but male and with extremely refined musical tastes, and proceeded to sing and play (beating their hands on the water) some of Weather Report's songs which they had previously memorized just out of listening to them so, so much. That was when the idea of Biba Band was born: to get some other musicians, choose their favourite songs, and play a couple of nights at the Tangram, a classic Milan music-club, possibly with non-liquid instruments. And with their clothes on. That last idea didn't convince them much at first, but eventually caught on. They quickly contacted some friends, just for the fun of playing some of WR's songs, but the enthusiasm from colleagues was so great that it was eventually over 20 musicians who played on stage those nights, and such was the fun they had that they kept on playing together as the Biba Band, when and where possible, for over a decade. As time went by, the Biba Band became more of a "musical laboratory": new arrangements were attempted, new and original m
why this is interesting
# On Biba Band This ensemble warrants attention for its thoughtful approach to sonic fusion. Rather than merely pastiche Weather Report's innovations, these musicians absorb the pioneering spirit of Seventies fusion—that willingness to dissolve boundaries between jazz, world music, and electronic exploration—and extend it into their own territory. What emerges is neither nostalgia nor imitation, but genuine creative dialogue: they ask what happens when refined musicianship meets cross-cultural curiosity, when disciplined improvisation encounters percussive spontaneity. The project's origins as both homage and jest suggest something unusual beneath the surface—musicians unafraid to play seriously while remaining unselfconscious. This balance
