Here I am,

I will try to tell you a little about myself and to bring you up to date on what I can remember about myself in these 50 years of my life, 33 spent as a musician.

I was born on the morning of May 25 (without a doubt one of the most beautiful months) in 1955 in Florence and I spent the first year of my life in a house in Piazza S. Croce. If I think of my childhood, I see myself in my grandmother's house in Strada in Chianti. My mother, Anna, loved music and often sang songs and arias from operas. She learned to play the piano from her mother (Grandmother Fiorenza, a fine pianist). My father, Domenico, I remember as a whistler (he whistled very well) and I believe that he played a drum as a boy or in the military. My first encounter with music is recorded on tape. I was 5 years old and sang “ The Little House in Canada” for my Aunt Clara who had gone to live in Lima, Peru. During the same period there is a picture of me in the garden of the house in Strada with a guitar in hand. A few years later I tried to study piano with Aunt Lina, who luckily didn't drive because she had a particularly heavy left foot. My aunt discouraged me because I depended too much on my ear and had no desire to solmizate!! Finally, in my third year of middle school, my good friend Giuseppe Cancellieri (today a great classical guitarist) began playing guitar and I asked him to teach me the beginning chords and for a few years we played together (Donovan is our favorite). On my sixteenth birthday I received a real folk guitar, a Yamaha FG180 (I still have it!) and so West Coast, Beatles, Battisti, and lots of original compositions simply called by my friends Guttalax1, Guttalax 2, etc… followed. In my high school years I played a lot, I was in the same class as Marco Geronimi and together with Carlo Puglielli we went to play for the occupation in the schools and factories, in other words, any occasion would do. Then Stefano Nosei joined our class and with him we played even more (Stefano was unbelievable, he could sing any West Coast song, could imitate Neil Young and James Taylor to perfection and he was even a good guitarist). Some years later I met Massimo Petri, flautist, and Sergio Brandi, violoncellist, and together we did a little busking , and made a little change. Massimo asked me to take part in a group that played traditional Tuscan music. I accepted and learned how to play (badly) the mandolin. The group was called “Cartacanta”, and was made up of Gisella Alberto, Gianfranco Giordo, Massimo Petri, and yours truly. For a couple of years we really played a lot of parties and festivals and then…. Jazz got a hold of me. Thanks to John Coltrane I discovered a music that I never tire of hearing. I bought Eddie Lang's method book and took lessons at C.A.M. from teachers like Maurizio Forti. I tried for a year. In the meantime, the passion that has always been in my heart comes out, percussion, the drums, Indian music. In 1980 I decided to return to India (I had already been in 1976) to learn Indian music. In Dharamsala I met a great tablist, Thunny Lal, and studied with him for some months during the year I spent in that magical country. During my first trip to India, at the end of the 70's, I met a guitarist from Vignola, Pablo Del Carlo (today a fantastic doublebassist), and it was with him and his friend Luca Barbieri that in the early 80's we decided to try and study jazz seriously. From Vignola they moved to my town and lived ( if you could call it that) in the garage of my house in Strada. Luca studied the piano with Francesco Maccianti, Pablo guitar, I don't remember with who, and I took drum lessons from Piero Borri (already great even though still young). In the years immediately following, I had the opportunity to play with many musicians, Florentine and otherwise, and from all of them I surely learned something new every time. The group I played with most in those years was probably with the singer (today also trombonist) Lucia Cappelli. To list the names of all the people I have had the pleasure to play with would be much too long and to forget someone would be unforgivable, but I cannot forget to mention with much affection Fulvio Sisti, who I will always acknowledge for his friendship and the music we have shared. During the same period I met another musician from which I learned a lot, Timothy Kotowich.

Tim lived in Strada, he was the percussionist for the Orchestra Regionale Toscana. He was a fine teacher and the few lessons that I had from him, at his house in a large and beautiful room full of percussion instruments, were very useful to me. At his house I could finally play the vibraphone, marimba, timpani, I corrected my positioning (the grip)

with the mallets and with him I played in a classical orchestra for two lyric operas. Tim is a dear friend, unfortunately, I haven't seen him in a long time but I know that now he is an esteemed musical producer.

In those years I had my first experiences in a recording studio. I was playing often with Alessandro Piccini a great friend , guitarist, and singer who writes beautiful songs. I was able to get a contract with Gianni Vergelli that together with Fabrizio Federighi has an independent label “Kindergarten Records”. Sandro, Gianni and I spent hours and hours in the studio. I bought a Linn 9000, an electronic drum sequencer ( in those days finally a real monster), that I worked with at Kindergarten and other studios. After a lot of work Alessandro Piccini's album entitled “ I Marinai di Odz” came out. It contained beautiful songs, too bad it did not receive the attention it deserved, but we all know this is something that happens often, unfortunately.

After several years of drums and percussive sounds that old desire for melody that never left me began to resurface and so I invested my meager savings (all ) in a Satio vibraphone . I sought out the Florentine vibraphonist, Alessandro Di Puccio, that made me go out of my head when I often went to hear him in clubs. It wasn't easy to convince him but finally he agreed to teach me. The same year ('86) it so happened that in Perugia at the Umbria Jazz Festival the Berklee School of Music in Boston began to hold summer seminars ( they still continue today) and that year there was a class in vibraphone held by none other than the director Gary Burton. That was certainly not an occasion to be missed even though I was a beginner. So, together with my guitarist friend Alessandro Piccini we went to clinics and it was without a doubt a wonderful experience. The lessons by Gary Burton on improvisation were so stimulating that even with my scarse knowledge I always left the school with the desire to listen and play. The next autumn I attended CAM in Scandici where I studied vibraphone and improvisation technique with Alessandro Di Puccio and harmony with a great teacher, Mauro Grossi.

A little later when I was capable of playing decently, Klaus Lessman (a great clarinetist) offered me the opportunity to take part in a group that re-proposed principally the repertory of Benny Goodman. So along with Riccardo Galardini on the guitar, Walter Paoli on the drums, and Lello Pareti on the aucostic bass, we formed the “Stardust Memories”. Afterwards, during the time I taught at CAM, I had the opportunity to play in several large combos directed by Alessandro Di Puccio, all important experiences and truly a lot of fun.

Then there was the trio with Sandro Tognazzo on flute and Gianni Zei on guitar. We played many compositions by Ralph Towner and we participated in the competition”Summertime in Jazz” in Prato in '92. We placed third. It was very gratifying for us.

Subsequently, I attended a course by Fabio Rogai at the Sesto School of Music to better acquaint myself with percussion in the world of classical music. I received a certificate in solfeggio.

Also in 1992 I met Riccardo Tesi who was looking for a percussionist that also played vibraphone and so I became part of the Tesi-Vaillant Quartet with Riccardo on the concertina, Daniel Malavergne on the bass tuba and Patrick Vaillant, on the mandolin (Patrick is an extraordinary musician, one of the best mandolin players in the world as well as being a composer and arranger). Only a few concerts but great experiences. Then Riccardo decided to form a group of Italian musicians because to even see each other, to rehearse, with the two in the group who lived in France was certainly not easy. Shortly after, “Bandaitaliana” was born with Maurizio Geri and Claudio Carboni. Many good musicians have performed with Bandaitaliana, in its various larger combinations (excepting ommisions: Italo Andriani, Paolo Casu, Diego Carraresi, Dario Cecchini, Claudio Fossati, Daniele Mencarelli, Piero Leveratto, Lucilla Galeazzi, Nando Citarella, Gabriele Mirabassi, Daniele Sepe, Ginevra Di Marco, Francesco Magnelli, Marco Fadda, Omino Stanco, Silvano Lobina, Valerio Perla, Alessandro Di Puccio).

Around 1995, Renato Cordovani offered me the opportunity to take part in a fun group called “Dadaida”, composed of Renato on the clarinet, Franco Nesti and Nicola Vernuccio on the acoustic bass and up to that time Stefano Bambini on the drums. Stefano decided to dedicate himself to other interests so I entered the group with the vibraphone and percussion. It was a fun experience and completely new because the concerts besides music (beautiful themes, lots of free improvisation and interplay) we did gags that involved the audience. This was the most difficult part for me (I am not extroverted!) but what a lot of laughs!!! On several occasions we had special guests like Matthias Shubert and Stefano Bartolini.

It was during this period that an old dream began to come true, to form a group of only percussion together with my friend Paolo Casu. Paolo introduced me to Mario Seggio and we formed a trio of percussion called “Fuentes”. It was incredible, great fun but to make it more involving we decided to try adding another instument. First we added Paolo Chiavacci on the violin, then Fabio Galli on the tenor sax, and finally the magical Sergio Gistri on the trumpet. Mario decided to leave the group because he had a commitment to fulfil with “Dirotta su Cuba”. We began to collaborate with Celestine Nguame, an acrobatic dancer from the Ivory Coast that lives in Florence and almost always participates at our concerts. African music started becoming an important part of our repertory. At this point there was a beautiful encounter, Paolo and I met a young musician, Brahima Dembele', who came to Florence with the National Ballet of the Ivory Coast. Brahima plays the jembe divinely, but also the balaphone, the kora, the dun-dun, sings, and is also a very friendly person. I learned from him many things about African rhythms and in the Fuentes repertory there is now a lot of space for African music.

Also playing and dancing with Fuentes, when it's possible, are: Sana Soro, Claudine Zemasa, and other African friends. We decided to make a recording, and thanks above all to the generosity and friendship of Gianluca Sibaldi, we recorded in his studio in Pistoia with the participation of Sana Soro, Antonio Gentile, Alessandro Agostini, Alessandro Fabbri, and Bolivar Miranda. In 1998 the recording came out with the name “Garam Masala” distributed by Materiali Sonori. A short time before we began to record Luca Flores made a terrible decision, to take his own life. We had spoken together about his certain African origins and the possibility to do something together, and about African music. I feel that this recording owes something also to him.

Sergio Gistri slowly began to transfer his magic to the construction of instruments and today he is a well known lute-maker, makes viole da gamba, and luckily still performs every once in a while. Now, for Fuentes, it's Luca Marianini's trumpet that blows the magic breezes.

In 1994, Maurizio Dami, a dj known around the world as Alexander Robotnick, asked me to play the tabla with him and the Indian flautist Bolivar Miranda. It was a dive into Indian music and it's called “Music for Meditation”. Maurizio is someone who listens, grinds up, digests every kind of music and cooks up beautiful projects and recordings. It is mostly thanks to him that the trio continues to play, always with the unmistakable sound of Bolivar's bansuri. In 1994 and in 2000 we released 3 cds. The first takes the same name as the group at the time, “Music for Meditation”, then we changed the name to Masala and we released “Masala” for Materiali Sonori in the series Drop (7) with Stefano Bollani's piano in one of the pieces and then “Lucid Dreams”-Drop (7.3) with among other guests, Ranieri Cerelli on the guitar.

In 1996 Roberto Nannetti, a great friend and guitarist, asked me to take part in the group that accompanies Sergio Caputo. (I was also a guest on Roberto's recording “L'uomo che canta” under the name of Quartetto Acustico Latino. Look for it, it's great!!). Roberto has played with Sergio for many years. They had to find a substitute for Naco who was very busy, so Roberto mentioned me and I obviously was happy to accept. Since then I often play drums with Sergio when he decides to come back to Italy (he lives in the USA) and give some concerts. I collaborated with him on two of his recordings (“I Love Jazz” and “Serenadas”) and we were together at the Festival in San Remo, many television transmissions, and festivals. The most stable formation was with Roberto Nannetti, Giulio Visibelli, who spendidly plays flute and saxophone, and Raffaello Pareti on the bass, but playing with Sergio is an occasion to meet many musicians (Gilson Silveira, Luca Marianini, Stefano Scalzi, Satyamo, Luca Pirozzi, Karl Potter, Bicio Caldura, Marco Micheli, Mauro Beggio, and many more).

Then on January 27,1997 the most beautiful thing that has ever happened to me up to now, my daughter Margherita was born.

In the past few years, the major part of my time has been dedicated to my collaboration with Bandaitaliana. We play a lot and so we travel a lot (we have played all over Europe and in Canada, Japan and Australia). It is a group that asks for commitment but in return there is a lot of satisfaction. Up until now we have recorded three Cds and received several awards (we are always trying to become better and better).

In the last 10 years or so I have had the pleasure to write music and to play it live in various situations with Marinella Salerno (Fabbrica Europa 1995,1996) a talented dancer and choreographer that lives in Florence.

Another collaboration in the dance world has been with Lorella Rapisarda, dancer, choreographer, and expert in analysis of movement. Together we occasionally hold a seminar called “Rhythm and Movement”. (Don't miss the next one!)

From 2002 to 2004 I had the occasion to play in many concerts with “Tamburi del Vesuvio” the combo of the volcanic Nando Citarella. It is a beautiful show with lots of percussion, dance, and a lot of Neopolitan music , obviously, but also music from the entire Mediterranean area. The largest group is with Nando's voice, (what a voice!) guitar, and drums, Gabriella Aiello, voice (wonderful), Valerio Perla on the congas and percussion, Abdalla Mohamed on the darbouka, riq, and naj, and Paolo Cimmino playing tabla, tammorre, and other percussion, Raul Scebba on the drums, Nathalie Leclerc, Valentina Mahira, Mariapia Cammarata, and Stefano Fraschetti as dancers.

Several years ago, at Siena Jazz (where I teach), I met Giulio Stracciati who is a surprising guitarist and I recorded two Cds with him. The first “ Musica con Vista” with Mirco Mariottini on the clarinet and Ferruccio Spinetti on bass, and the second in 2005 called “Migrations” with the combo Nu-trio (with which I toured Italy) made up of Giulio Stracciati on the guitar, Silvia Bolognesi on the bass, and me on my “ethnic drum” set.

At the beginning of 2005 Ezio Guaitamacchi, noted journalist, music critic, and director of Jam magazine asked me to play on a cd of covers from the 60's ( on the Peace and Love Generation of California). Ezio is a good guitarist and a kind person and he wrote a book called Peace and Love (really lovely) to which he added the Cd I spoke about. Then, Ezio and Roberto Monesi, another good musician and dear person, were able to put together a show that told about the psychedelic revolution in California in the 1960's. In the show we played songs from the cd. The beautiful voice is Brunella Boschetti Venturi and the guitar is Ezio's . In the summer of 2005 I participated in the show “Country Joe McDonald”. It was a great experience for me. Joe was one of the myths of my youth. The one in the military uniform who sang songs against the Vietnam war when he inaugurated the Woodstock festival with his group “Country Joe and the Fish” !!!

Recently, I released a recording with a new group (we've been playing for a year) with Anna Granata as the voice, Mino Cavallo on the guitar, Claudio Carboni on the sax, and Amedeo Ronga on the acoustic bass. The group is called “Elianto” and we play acoustic music. We play mostly original compositions and it could be defined as world music. The Cd is called “Danza Libera” and it is distributed by Materiali Sonori. A nice Cd that you absolutely must hear.

Well, you have managed to read this far and it means that you are absolutely tireless so I promise to keep these long pages up to date or even better I will keep you informed about my activities.