Rock and Jazz fusion, funk, ambient, essentially orchestral

7 MP3 Songs
JAZZ: Jazz-Funk, BLUES: Acoustic Blues

Show all album songs: Dance... till the sun rises Songs


Details:
NOTES ON TRACKS


1. JITTERBUG BOOGIE SLAM I imagine a maverick chaotic musician living at the margins of society and who drops in, uninvited, to recording sessions, annoying eberybody with his exaggerated showoff of musicianship.
2. LONDON DAYS, ORIENTAL NIGHTS A picture of certain sites of London town, where the ethnics of Indian or Pakistani origine have set up market places in their typical fashion: you'll find the flavour and the smells of their merchandise as well as their endearingly smiling character.
3. FRENCH MONTAGE Here I was inspired by the famous Bolero by Maurice Ravel. It has for me the same mood, ...
4. SPIN, DOCTOR, SPIN Quoting from the Webster dictionary, "SPIN: to stretch out or fabricate by processes of mind or imagination" That's what the bass guitar does in this tune, where the strings are sometimes divided by 5ths. Rhythm and effects underline the action.
5. COOL MOOD SHMOO Picture here a trendy guy, cigarette in his mouth, drinking large quantities of Wild Turkey bourbon in a smoky bar where a friendly barman keeps filling up his glass, while a great jazz band hotly cooks away.
6. PHEE PHAA PHAA PHOOM I play my trumpet in this very atmospheric track which was inspired by the soft mood rendered by Johnny Cole in Gil Evan's "La Nevada".
7. GOOD HEAVENS! I had this strange picture in my mind: Mr Yamaha, the owner of the mighty Japonese empire, coming home after a hard day work and being surprised by his young son playing a loud guitar.

BIO

THE BEGINNINGS - Venice, Milan

I was born in Italy, the 13 September 1938, in a small town called Vittorio Veneto. Then the family moved to Venice, some 50 kms away, and, at the age of 4, I started my musical education care of a kind nun... my mother kept my hair long, like a little girl, and dressed me up with frills and jabots, so that I looked like a little Mozart... talking of Mozart, by the way, my father fancied himself to be an opera singer, and would ask me again and again to accompany him on the piano while he sang the famous Leporello's aria from Don Giovanni: "Madamina, il catalogo è questo..." which bored me to death.

I was 13 when a friend of my father brought to us what was then a novelty for Italy: Gershwin's RHAPSODY IN BLUE. It was a 78 vinyl disc, and rather scratchy at that, but to me was a revelation: I was shocked by the power of American music, I immediately tried to discover more about the roots of jazz, I saw all the musical films I could, (we had moved to Milan by then) I was hooked on Oscar Levant's piano playing and Gene Kelly's tap dancing... until a friend introduced me to more advanced jazz music, and I got to know Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown, Louis Armstrong, Parker, Gillespie, Bud Powell... and all that bunch of great musicians who courageously created a new form of inspired music. Of course, my parents were not happy with the course of life I was taking, so they sent me to an hotel school on the lake of Como, and then to Bournemouth, England, to learn the language. I was 17, first time abroad, all seemed so fabulous, the girls were smiling at me, one took me to a concert of STAN KENTON's big band, and... wooww! ... that was it! From then on, there was only one thought in my mind: I dropped anything else and I tought myself arranging and composing through several very good textbooks: Walter Piston, Henry Mancini, Bill Russo... and, of course, all the jazz records I could come across. It has to be said that in those years jazz was generally frawned upon in Italian ballrooms and only known by a small elite - if a band of jazz enthusiasts like ours wanted to perform in public, it had to go through hours of boring slows, and only in the small hours, when almost everybody had gone home, was allowed to... just ROCK AND ROLL a bit: can you imagine!

In the 50s (I was living in Milan by then) I found employment at the record company HMV, in the sales department, but I soon was promoted to the graphics, in charge of promotion and record sleevs making and, of course, I could listen to ALL the discs that were sent to HMV - EMI, including the latest jazz releases. Best music school ever! Our band, where I played the baritone sax and for whom I composed all arrangements, well... the components (3 saxes, 2 trumpets, one trombone, bass, drums) were, shall we say, well intentioned, but, by hell, they did not have a bit of swing! and you know how the song goes... so, the logical sequence was to form a pianoless quartet in the style of Gerry Mulligan (another great influence of mine). Still, I managed to have a few jingles approved and performed by Italian radio and television, and I also composed the music (songs and orchestral score) for an avant-garde stage play, Tarfante. There should be a CD of it, somewhere, but I never bothered to check. Sorry!
Then, I was spotted by a group of experimental theatre (those were the 60s, when the Living Theatre and other workshop-type groups were touring Europe). These guys, though amateurs, had great progressive ideas and they asked me to compose some commenting music to their play (an extract of The Seventh Seal by the Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman). I was playing live on stage, doubling myself within percussion, baritone, and piano. The play was rather boring, but... through it I encountered the future companion of my life, so I reckon in the end was a good thing!

STOCKHOLM, HAMBURG, COPENHAGEN

1968 (great year!) We left Italy for good, and courageously headed for SWEDEN, where we knocked at several doors. Got more than one interesting propositions, always turned out by the unions, so, to earn some dough we resorted to copying music for the biggest publisher in Stockholm. For those of you who have no experience of pre-computer years, imagine having in front of you a hand-written score of a modern opera (Lars Johan Werle's "Die Reise", in our case) and copying, always by hand, all orchestral parts (first violins, second violins, violas, cellos,... and so on and on... ). The good thing about it: you learn more and more about the freedom of modern scoring. Of course, after 6 months, the authorities, in their great "wisdom", decided we had to leave the country. A short staying in HAMBURG (where one of my compositions was broadcast on air, and where I left an arrangement of MAME care of the municipal police band), then off to COPENHAGEN, officially employed as music copyists. There I composed and arranged a piece for the DENMARK RADIO JAZZ BAND. Things were not well, though, and this was the worst period of my life for many reasons, least of all, jealousy, so we left the music publisher, and spent the cold winter nights on our bicycles deliverying newspapers (a healthy way of earning a living, though very harsh). Well, things could not continue that way, thought my wife, and she bought a copy of the glorious English newspaper, "The Times", through which she soon found an employment (complete with working permission) as cook/housekeeper in London. We happily took a boat and, when we landed in Harwich, England... I was denied access to the UK (the reason being that I did not have a working permit; you know, the same thing had happened to Henry Miller, the writer, if you remember, but that did not console me much!) So, I had to take the same boat back to Denmark, and wait, in a noisy youth hostel, until my wife could manage to obtain a working permit of sorts. It arrived a month later: Hey, I was being allowed to work as waiter for a big chain of restaurants!

LONDON

1971. I humbly worked my way through that difficult period: with the tips I was making I bought a good piano, and drowned my blues in it. I also did some freelance copying work for the BBC (Robert Simpson's 5th symphony among others) and this kept me in touch with the contemporary music scene. Meanwhile I was taking lessons in trumpet playing... ah, yes, I forgot to tell you that one day that I had to carry my baritone to central London, while waiting, and waiting, for no.13 bus to come, I took a desperate decision; walked into Bill Lewington music shop and exchanged my heavy baritone with a pocket trumpet!
1975, and I was fed up with all the problems and complications of communicating my music to the people. So, I took up painting, figuring that, once a painting is made, everybody can see it, without the need of an interpreter! I painted and painted, feverishly covering anything I could put my hands on: canvas (when I could afford it), wood panels, wallpaper, wrapping paper... I must have created over a thousand works, which are now here and there in the world (yes, I exhibited also in Vienna, Austria), mostly abstract art, sometimes expressionistic, always vividly coloured (somebody found my paintings "violent"...)
In 1995, at a computer show in London, I was introduced to the SIBELIUS SOFTWARE: I saw Jonathan Finn (who, with his brother Ben, had programmed the software) playing on a master keyboard, while, on the screen, the actual score was appearing, complete and perfect with its crochets, quavers, and all. And you could actually play it back from the computer! Wonderful!!! my troubles were over. There and then I bought a computer and started composing again, because finally I had a whole "orchestra" at my disposal, always ready to play whatever I wrote, and always performing perfectly without complaining!

(finally) FRANCE

Since 2003 year ot my retirement, I am leaving in deep France, in a little sleepy village where I can finally be myself and freely create all that has been in my mind for years and years. And there's a lot more to come!



NOTES - HOW I COMPOSE (the technical side)

I have in my small studio some Roland equipment: a Midi Masterboard, a Sound Module Synth, with an amazing number of sounds, a digital studio workstation (8-tracks recorder/mixer) where, thanks to a Creative sound card with great Reverb, and EAX (for deeper sound), I can record and edit all my compositions.
The writing process: I usually start on CUBASE software: I create a basic tune with chord changes, melody and rhythm, I then add a counterpoint to the first line, soon followed by harmony played by, say, strings, or any other instruments I feel right. At this point, one usually needs some "fillers" and for this I just have to search among the vast quantity of sounds in my module or in FRUITY LOOPS - the results are amazingly exciting. You can then edit and mix all sounds, either through Cubase or the Zip disc, until you reach the desired accents. I sometimes use NERO Editing which can be interesting if all goes well - it can also let you down, and then it's hell!
Anyway, that's how I created the music you can hear on this CD