Musical Style

Ionesco has written an estimated 3,000 compositions, always following his muse in an honest, never calculating, fashion.

 

To Gia, musical expression means creating new repertoire, as opposed to reworking existing material. “I’m afraid of being traditionally swing or be-bop,” he once explained. “Everything was done so well in those eras. What can you add to it? I can’t do what Chick Webb or Miles Davis did. I want and need to do things I can feel from the heart. Nothing gets done without love and heart.”

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“I don’t intend to do covers, though one day I’d love to record a tribute to Jobim, or take the compositions of Frank Zappa and add my arrangements to his instrumentals. He had such great motifs that you could do a lot with. I know Chick Corea and his music, and I’d love to write something that encompasses certain themes of his and do it in a different way. He is curious also, what might come out of it ! ”
Defining the free-wheeling and eclectic musical style of a musician equally inspired by Bela Bartok, Frank Zappa, Jobim, Weather Report and Pink Floyd is virtually impossible. When pressed, Ionesco calls it “jazz meets symphonic meets rock meets world music, with a lot of volcanic polyrhythms. “I was trained in classical music and composition, in forms like the sonata, rondo or lied. As a composer, though, I believe you need the versatility to work in any kind of music -symphony, avant-garde, free jazz, progressive rock, film scores, bluegrass, hip hop, latin music like samba, salsa, merengue and bossa nova. Actually this is GIA’s GIAZZ.