I AM VOICE, MUSIC, SOUL

I was born in Parma into a family of jazz musicians. When I was 5 I played the guitar, when I was 10 I taught it to adults. At 11 I entered the Conservatory “A. Boito” in Parma, where I graduated in trumpet with 9.50/10 giving also the eighth of piano. By day I studied Chopin and Vivaldi, by night, with microphone and Real Book in my backpack, I played in the smoky jazz clubs of Emilia.

At the age of 15 I began a long and fruitful collaboration with Luca Savazzi, Morandi’s exceptional pianist and, at the same time, I sang with some sacred monsters such as Gil Coppini, Marco Viggi, Glauco Mosetti, Bruno Aragostini. With some young talents I formed a jazz quintet and, moved by strong enthusiasm and desire to experiment, we started to travel around Italy, absorbing different techniques and genres.

At the age of 20, after playing in the symphonic orchestras of the legendary “Teatro Regio” in Parma and Genoa, I took part in the RAI 3 programme “La fabbrica dei sogni”. In the meantime, at Jackie ‘O, a famous venue in Via Veneto in Rome, I learned a new way of making music: involving the public by making them sing and dance, accompanying them with my very special black voice. In those years I spent the summers playing and singing at “Bagaglino” in Porto Cervo in Sardinia, at “Punta Rossa” in Circeo, while in winter I was at “Jackie ‘O”, “Tartarughino” or “La Cabala” in Rome.

In the summer of 1990 Lello Liguori, patron of the legendary “Covo di Nord Est” of S. Margherita Ligure, dragged me on stage in front of 3,000 people to open the concerts of Gloria Gaynor, Ornella Vanoni, Antonello Venditti, Riccardo Cocciante, James Brown and many others. In the same year I moved to Milan to play in the famous pianobars “Montenapoleone club”, “Sayonara” and “Il Patuscino”.

In 1993 I joined the fantastic Patrizia Rossetti in the program of Network 4 “Good afternoon”. I left for a VIP party in Montecarlo, I stayed until 1997 playing also for Prince Albert II of Monaco and his family, for Riva Yacht and for princes of the Arab Emirates. During that same period I also opened a restaurant in Cap d’Ail called “Le streghe” where, in addition to dinner, people sang and danced on the tables. During a party at the “Grand Hotel Ritz” in Paris, I had the honour, the only Italian, to sing for President Chirac. Here I met the great Rosanna Lambertucci who sent me for an audition in Rome in the presence of Luciano Rispoli, presenter of the television program “The flying carpet”. So my life changed direction again: in 1997 my television adventure began and it brought me, besides singing and playing an increasingly wide repertoire, also to have the fortune and the privilege to meet and interview sacred monsters from the culture of entertainment and sport, first of all Vittorio Gassman.

For a rebel like me, however, the dear “uncle Luciano”, was a bit ‘old: I left for the time of Network 4 where I found the very nice Patrizia Rossetti in the program “Saturday morning”. When I landed in Milan again, I felt the need to finally put down roots, after years spent wandering around the world. I took over the legendary piano bar “Il Patuscino”, in Brera and I transformed it into the nicest, most colorful and cheerful place in the world where people, for years, stood in line to enter. At the end of 2006 I decided that it was time to sleep at least two days a week, so reluctantly I gave up my beloved place.

I’ve had an important and fortunate professional background. Wanting to “resize” myself in a present more suitable to my current needs means for me to be able to bring to my customers an excellent professionalism gained in more complex contexts, such as television or theater, and means for my customers to have a complete artist, who loves music and knows how to convey colors and emotions.

And now here I am for you, with weddings, piano bars, conventions, important events, often in suggestive locations and high level as “Cipriani” in Venice, “CastaDiva” in Como, “Swisse Diamond Hotel”, “Villa Principe Leopoldo” and “Splendide Royal” in Lugano, “Grand Hotel Savoia” in Cortina. I travel all over Italy and abroad, happy to make your event unique and unforgettable.