Jacopo

....I started playing the bass guitar as a coincidence when I was 14 years old. Some friends of mine used to get together in a basement to play covers. I used to go there and listen to them. At some point they decided they needed a bass guitar player. There was an old small wrecked bass guitar in a corner that somebody had left behind. It sounded awful. I loved it immediately. I was pretty bad at playing so I decided to take some lessons. Found a good teacher (Lino Farruggio, an amazing guitar player in his late sixties that was so short and wise that reminded me of Yoda from Star Wars), bought an infamous Rickenbacker bass (my teacher refused to teach me on the other bass..) and ended up studying bass for 5 years. In 1988 I joined a Goth band called "The Shades of Gray" and started performing on Torino's music scene in some dedicated venues. We were gloomy and ominous and dark and I loved the feeling of creating and performing music. In 1991-92, with the intercession of my teacher I got enrolled as the bass player in "Giancarlo Corrente's orchestra", a folk ensemble composed of twelve members. The repertoire included more that a hundred folk songs for which Giancarlo had not written bass line scores at all. I turned to my teacher to ask for his help but he dismissed me saying that I had learnt everything I needed to do that myself and sent me on my way. I never saw him again. I played six hours a day and wrote all the scores. I became really good at reading and playing. We rehearsed in an abandoned barn that a farmer rented to us in the foggy country side of Cuneo. During this year I got to experience a professional musician’s environment, touring Piemonte and making a living out of music. The orchestra dissolved as magically as it had taken form: the manager got caught in a strange cult that was practiced in a commune nearby. One day he decided to take off with all the money that we had earned in a year and left Giancarlo with nothing else but debts and unpaid bills. I had to give my tailored electric blue suit back and that was the end of it. In 1992-93 I decided that I wanted to create something mine. Getting together with my former Goth keyboard player (Paolo "Clean Pee" Pulito) and one of the orchestra's sax players (Ezio Gozzellino) we created "The Spacecakes", an experimental trio that proposed an innovative mix of modern jazz hits arranged on a techno-ambient background. The show, composed of two parts of 45 minutes, ran on a DAT prerecorded base of ambient sounds and drum rhythms on which the band encases the different songs and the impros. The result was impressive and the project very well acclaimed by the public. Once again, at the threshold of the big jump, due to external reasons the band split in 1993. 1993-94 were spent working on a new repertoire with the keyboard player but the feeling is gone and life takes different directions. The years from 1994 to 2003 constitute a long pause in my music career. I had to catch up with all the social, personal and spiritual obligations. During this time I dedicated myself to other activities such as dating seriously, getting a university degree in modern literature, practicing martial arts and Yoga, learning wood sculpture, renovating the house I lived in. practicing meditation and exoteric studies.Then something shifted again and in 2003 I went back to music. It all happened after a three months period in Sharm el Sheik, Egypt, where I worked as a yoga teacher in a sea resort. It must have been the desert. Or the excessive heat. Truth is that when I came back I was not the same as before and I felt the need to start playing again. Picked a guitar that had been sitting untouched in my house for more than a decade and started writing songs. By 2004 I had my first album "Ore minuti secoli". I went to the Docks Dora Studios in Torino and recorded it. In 2005 I decided to take some sing classes and I met Matteo Mugavero, a tenore in the Teatro Regio’s choir in Torino. In a very interesting year together he taught me all I know about singing techniques. I wrote more songs and by the end of the year I had my second album: "Dimmi chi sono", recorded at home with a digital recorder. In 2006 I recorded my third album: "A meta' strada". In September I moved to San Francisco and started working with software editing programs, producing a demo compilation of 10 songs.In 2007 I discovered the amazing live scene of the local "Open mikes”, got addicted to its charm and interesting characters, playing as much as possible, tasting all varieties of ales, chatting with newly met friends, receiving positive feedback from public and hosts.2008 has begun with numerous live performances in SF venues, playing at the open mics nights, projects for recording a new album. [to be continued...] myspaceeditor.it