I am class of '61, born on January the 20th in Rome, Italy. Raised mostly by my mother, grandmother, and aunt, my predisposition for music, and particularly for singing, became pretty much unavoidable for everyone who was around me, as I was singing at the top of my voice all the time, particularly when I was home.
I was maybe 12 or 13 when I first learned some guitar, from Susanna, older sister of my then best friend Leonardo: she taught me CS&N's Teach Your Children and Young's The Needle And The Damage Done. I was learning quickly, my voice helped a lot where my guitar technique failed me. I was about 15 years old when a true passion and drive towards jazz started: I took some jazz piano, theory and history of jazz classes, with Nino De Rose (a great teacher). A whole new world disclosed before my eyes: I was out to jazz clubs pretty much every night. I saw so many great jazz artists, and the memory of those gigs is still with me: Gerry Mulligan, Kenny Clarke, Elvin Jones, Chet Baker, Pepper Adams, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae, Ray Charles, Bill Evans and Weather Report, Chick Corea, among many others.
My interest in all kinds of music broadened, in my own gigs I was mixing jazz and funk with rock and west coast songs, playing with different groups, solo, simple duos and trios to quintets and sextets. The band I still am most proud of, from my younger days, had vibes, me on piano and vocals, guitar, bass, drums and saxophone. Musically, it was a very intense period of my life, inputs coming from all over the place: as if my interests alone were not enough, to keep me busy I had friends, more focused on folk, rock, west coast, soul, to prod me with so many stimulating artists discoveries; a constant stream of new music that I devoured, and still do, with great pleasure.
My life, after school and the compulsory military service, was and still is split between computers and music. I continued to play over the years, even when my main job lead me to move out of Italy, first three years in Cambridge, UK, then in Copenhagen, Denmark, where between December 1999 and July 2000 I worked on my first CD, introducing joe slomp. It contains songs from many great musicians and lyricists, and nothing written by myself, the simple reason being that I love the music I grew up with, more than I love what I write. The new cd, "New Move", has been published on River Nile in 2009, and you can hear some song previews on this space.
