Fanfara Station | ArnoVivo // Pisa Jazz 2023

Marzouk Mejri: vocals, percussion, Tunisian wind instruments, loop station Charles
Ferris: trumpet, trombone, loop station
Ghiaccioli e Branzini: electronics and programming

Fanfara Station is a live looping trio project that blends the power of a wind orchestra, electronics, and the rhythms and songs of the Maghreb.

Fanfara Station won the 12th Andrea Parodi Prize (2019), the most important contest in Italy dedicated to world music. The group also received the critics’ choice award and the award for best arrangement.

Inspired by the memory of Marzouk’s father’s band, Fanfara Station celebrates the epic journey of the Migrant Peoples of the Mediterranean, the musical cultures of the African diaspora, and the flows that have always connected the Middle East to the Maghreb, Europe, and the Americas.

A live dance party created by just three musicians and two loop stations used to layer tracks and manipulate acoustic and electronic sounds. There are numerous instruments on stage: scascika, tar, bendir, darbuka, and tabla percussion intertwining with trumpet, trombone, clarinet, and the three Tunisian wind instruments: nay, mizued, and zocra.

In 2018, the documentary “Vita di Marzouk” was released, directed by Naples-based filmmaker Ernesto Pagano, who previously directed “Napolislam” and immediately won the “Racism is a Bad Story” award at the African, Asian, and Latin American Film Festival in Milan.