Demetrio Stratos Demetrio Stratos was born in Alexandria, Egypt on 22 April 1945. He studied the pianoforte and the accordion at the Conservatoire National d'Athenes. In 1962, he moved to Italy, where he enrolled in the Architecture Faculty at the Politecnico di Milano. In 1967, he joined the "Ribelli" rock group as keyboard player; he soon adandoned this to dedicate his activities to voice research. He started to experiment on vocal phenomena. In 1972, he founded the progressive group Area, together with Giulio Capiozzo on drums: the original line-up included Victor Eduard Busnello, Giulio Capiozzo, Yan Patrick Erard Djivas, Patrizio Fariselli, Demetrio Stratos and Gianpaolo Tofam. Later, Busnello left the group and Djivas joined Premiata Forneria Marconi, and his place was taken by Ares Tavolazzi. He recorded with the group and together with Gianni Sassi, for his research work on the Cramps.Records label. (...) In 1978, his international fame grew when he took part in concerts given at the Roundabout Tbeatre in New York. This was the time of "Event" with Merce Cunningham and the Dance Company performed under the artistic direction of Jasper Johns, Cage's musical contribution, with Andy Warhol's costume designs. His research into the field of phonetic and experimental poetry led to his freeing his voice every naturalistic restraint, restoring its depth and dimension. The result of this van be heard in the two recordings of his compositions "Metrodora" and "Cantare la Voce" where what sounds like an instrument is in fact his voice. Daniel Charles has described him as the person who decimated monody by the demultiplication of the acoustic spectrum: he achieved a diplophony which is triplophonic, even quadrophonic. His vocalisation became microorchestrations (voiceinstrument) without any technological amplification. He died in June 1979 at the New York Memorial Hospital. He was admitted the evening before a concert held on his behalf at the Milan Area. Over 100 musicians played in front of an audience of 100,000. Area - Arbeit macht frei (1973) - Luglio, Agosto, Settembre (nero) (mp3) More when I will post on italian progressive rock...
I had the pleasure hearing this man sing at the Greek Theatre in Hollywood. ( Al Bano) and Toto Cutugno who i also saw perform the same night.
Would anyone happen to know a great cd that features the Mandolin (preferably no vocals) ?? or a cd with tracks played with a Accordian?
Not me, sorry. **** Anyone has some info on Tonino Carotone. His song 'mi cago de l'amor' (I sh1t on love) is great.
Al Bano is one of my father's favorites. Also, if this is the thread of the best Italian musicians, you have to include Lucio Battisti. He was one of the greatest. And what about Domenico Modugno? Volare has been remade several times.
Lucio Battisti is awesome I have one of his LP's have not spun it in a while, might have to pull it out tonight, brings back many momories form 70's Also Like Eros Ramazzotti and My Favorite Pavarotti, Love all the different War Child Lp's he made , Umberto Tozzi , I Poo and Cugini DI Campagna all great Italian music.
Off the top of my head, I have CDs by these Italian artists: Almamegretta, Eros Ramozzotti, Laura Pausini, 99 Posse, Casino Royale, Gemelli DiVersi, Shandon, uhhh, and there must be a few more. I usually buy at least a half dozen CDs on every trip I take abroad.
Yeah i also got the cd from Gemelli Diversi but i'm afraid if others listen to it people will think there a italian version of N~sync.
How come no one mentioned this guy The thing is that he was a really good singer, but he got typecast as the Italian-America joke singer. He would often adapt somewhat risque Sicilian songs into English. To get on the radio, he kept the risque portions in Italian. There used to be a lot of Italian-American singers who sang in Italian. Dean Martin and Perry Cuomo used to sing quite a bit in Italian. Sinatra tried, but his Italian was worse than mine, and his voice was wrong for Italian music. As the older generation dies out, the old Italian-American music tradition dies with them. The only one really left is Jimmy Roselli, but I think he is awful (my mom still loves him though). Connie Francis is still around, but she never really was thought of as an "Italian" singer.
In the same vein as Anthony's post, let's not forget Louis Prima, Vic Damone, Sergio Franchi, Jerry Vale, and, especially appropriate on New Year's Eve, Guy Lombardo.
I always liked Damone and Vale. As a kid, I saw both at the Westbury Music Fair and they were fun to watch.. Franchi came across in person as an arrogant jerk (the joke among Italian Americans when I was a kid was "I am Serrrrgio Fraaaaanchi"). Louis Prima I only heard on recordings. For some reason I have been very nostalgic lately, so I ran out and bought a CD of Martin singing italian songs yesterday.
Al Bano... Toto Cutugno... Pupo! Yes... sure... tastes are tastes and my mom also likes Al Bano but I will never dedicate a post to them in this thread. Let's say my opinion on them is not really high... Of course some perverse (joking of course) who likes them can do it if they want. I think much probably Lucio Battisti will be the next...
Very few italians do not love his music... so influential, so important... in his latest years he was creating really good experimental stuff as a preview... I giardini di Marzo (mp3 - 1970's) Mina, Franco Battiato, Vasco Rossi, De Gregori, Fossati etc etc will come soon.