Sarma | it

Composer and pianist Heikki Sarmanto (b. 1939), started playing jazz already in the 1960's. He studied at the Sibelius Academy and Berklee College of Music in Boston. In 1970 he was chosen Jazz Musician of the Year in Finland and the following year he won top prizes at the Montreux Jazz Festival in both piano and combo categories. Sarmanto has more than 30 released recordings, numerous published scores, and songbooks, as well as several film scores to his credit. He has collaborated with jazz-legends such as Sonny Rollins, Art Farmer, Helen Merrill and George Russell in addition to his work...

During their first years of existence, the group did jazz songs (performing adorable musical parodies) under the name "Mioritmics". The band was formed in November 1993, following the call of Florin Dumitrescu, the group's main songwriter. He wanted to create a rock band with a Romanian name, unlike most contemporary groups which had an Anglo-American influence to their names. Florin came with a crazy and funny idea: he wanted a name to indicate that this is not a one-man band (hence the plural of "Sarma" - "Sarmalele") and to suggest that this is a Romanian product; what the Romanian citizen...