Welcome to my website!
Benvenuti! Per gli appunti in italiano, cercate l’apposito pulsante di collegamento. Inoltre, sotto l’area “News”, troverete diversi articoli di giornali scritti in italiano. Grazie della visita!
Bienvenues ! Il n’y a que une chanson en français sur Feed the Illusion (On Dit). Pardonnez-moi, mais il n’y a pas du temps pour traduire tout ça ! De toute façon, j’aime bien la culture française e je serais heureux di savoir que quelqu’un m’écoute dans un pays francophone. Vous pouvez quand même m’écrire en français sans problème! Merci !
As you can see, I am an internationalist. I love languages and my favourite sports event, besides the Olympics, is the World Cup (soccer!). I am also a teacher at an international school in Parma, Italy, called Scuola per l’Europa (School for Europe).
What I really love, however, is making music. I write the words to most of my songs in English. There’s one in French on Feed the Illusion called On Dit (They Say). I don’t write in Italian because it’s just not a good language for the kind of music I do.
People often ask what kind of music I write and I never know how to answer, except to say it’s a mixture of stuff I’ve accumulated over the years: blues, rhythm & blues, pop, rock, country and jazz. Have a listen and tell me what you think!
There are so many musicians who have inspired me and most of them are attracted to different genres, including: Joni Mitchell (the ultimate artist), John Hiatt, Anggun, Van Morrison, Krall & Costello, Tom Waits, Etta James, Dave Matthews, Joss Stone, James Taylor, Alanis Morissette, Tom Petty, Susan Tedeschi, Crosby & Nash, Amy Winehouse… So much talent and so little time!
It’s the groove, not the technique, that counts for me, and I’ve been fortunate to have worked with some very talented musicians and technicians to elaborate on that groove and make it work.
I also enjoy writing English lyrics for Italian artists, including Paola Folli, Danilo Minotti, Silvio Piccioni and Alessandro Bertozzi. I wish I could make a job of it, but English lyrics do not always work for Italian artists...
I originally came here with the idea of making films. In 1983, I wrote, produced and directed “Quelli delle Voci” (Where the Voices Come From), shot in 16mm and shown at the Montecatini Film Festival. Maurizio Zaccaro, now a successful Italian director, was my director of photography. A lot of people associated with Ermanno Olmi were involved with that project but Olmi never gave his support to have the film shown on TV and it was never distributed.
The only thing I had left after more than 20 years and a lot of work and money spent was a copy in 3/4” video (I had finished the film in video to save on costs; unfortunately, the work copy in 16mm was lost and Cinecittà does not keep your originals forever unless you pay…). Fortunately, the Cineclub di Piacenza, a group of people dedicated to making films and restoring and cataloguing old ones, transferred my video copy to DVD, virtually saving it since the videotape was rotting. My thanks to them for that. I don’t think the film will attract much interest or attention but I do like the music I wrote for it and the general structure.
Under the “News” section of this site, you will find newspaper articles in Italian about my film and CD reviews, as well as reportage of alternate activities I’ve had while living in Italy, including teaching, cultural projects and serving as personal interpreter for two American ambassadors during their visits to Piacenza (thanks to the Banca di Piacenza for that!).
Thanks for visiting my site! Peace, love and the best to all of you, wherever you are!
contact: e-mail
