Snappy Suits

“A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way” Mark Twain

Twain has a way with words, expressing a truth these three musicians found out – that getting together in the studio was the only way to learn that they are a perfect match. Even for experienced cats like themselves this was an extraordinary musical day in the studio. Some say they could feel the hidden shaman inside…

Yes, there are good days in the studio and there are bad days in the studio, but when tracks get composed and recorded in one take, with integrity and almost absolute intuition, when there is no need for talk, explanations, agreements and group planning, then you can really say it’s one of those rare times you got the cat by its tail.

Their story started a couple of years ago over fine French vine and some Calvados cognac. Toni visited Normandy for the first time and was introduced to Antoine by a mutual friend who had the vision to get the two of his favorite musicians to play together. They haven’t looked back since.

Both of them enjoy the privilege of being on the “A” list as performers, composers and even educators in their own scenes on the opposite sides of continental Europe.

Antoine Simoni is a bassist from Normandy, whose diverse interests in music led to his involvement in groups which stylistically cover the ground somewhere between rock/pop, progressive and experimental jazz and African music. His latest musical association is with a quartet featuring the master of African balafon Lansine Kouyate.

Toni Kitanovski likes to describe himself as a composer who plays the guitar. The ten years spent in Boston, thanks to a full Berklee scholarship, were filled with unique and extreme musical discoveries that now shape the color in his musical voice. He has worked and appeared with jazz legends like Charlie Mariano, Greg Hopkins among others, joined Derek Trucks and Steve Bernstein’s Jazz Mob on stage, but lately he’s best known for his ongoing collaboration with the gypsy brass band Cherkezi from his native Macedonia.

Toni’s lifelong drummer, his right hand and left hand man Alek Sekulovski completes this trio. He has been at the heart of all Toni’s projects for many years. A triple exposure of their individual musical biographies will, by screening, uncover a match of three genomes associated with extreme musical interests in: African, experimental and jazz traditions. Experimental and tradition in the same sentence? Let’s just say these three musicians belong to a group believing that all good and solid traditions survive through constant evolution through experimentation. Snappy Suits – ‘cause we all need one.