VINTAGE REVISITED
The recording of the new album gave me the chance to team up once again with two of my dearest friends and musical partners, Silvano Lobina e Claudio Corona.
The three of us, together with drummer Giovanni Collu, were a band in the nineties. We were called Vintage and together we'd travel on an old blue Ford Transit van up and down Sardinia, carrying a vanful of gear. In details, our usual set up consisted in: 1) one Hammond Organ + an old Italian Lombardi leslie amp, big as a wardrobe. 2) One or two bass amps. 3) One Fender head + x12 Marshall cabinet 4) One Marshall amp for my slide guitar. 5) Two or three guitars. 6) One bass 7) Master keyboard. 8) PA system + 3 speakers. 9) All kinds of cases and boxes. Pink Floyd Live at Pompei probably needed less equipment and I suspect my back-ache might be a legacy of those gigs! But how great it was!
One problem we had was that for some reason the best jokes were always told whilst we were carrying the Hammond. Ever seen 3 fools and an organ zigzagging around a van on a busy road?
Our drummer, I should mention, lived in a different town and could never share the fun of carrying such heavy goods up and down the hill. Mind you, he had his drum-kit and monitor speaker to care about.
Unfortunately this time around it wasn't possible to have Giovanni in the project. Hopefully it'll happen some time soon!
The reason why I'm telling you all these personal stories is is that, twelve years later it's a joy to be recording an album with my old mates.
Speaking of this new album, Silvano has been great since day one, giving his availability and rehearsing with me in the Sardinian heat during my last visit to my folks.
In the last months I've kept him up to date with the progress and sent him rough mixes for him to add his bass lines.
He's a top bass player and always seems to come up with the right note at the right time. Opening my email account to find the link to the most beautiful bass is a great feeling. I feel honoured and blessed to be given the chance to work with such great musos.
I've known Claudio Corona for over 30 years. Together we played football and tennis, went camping and cycling, travelled across Europe, shared the same flat and had our hearts broken ...occasionally by the same girl!
Musically we shared the stage or the rehearsal room with many a band, including a short-lived Deep Purple tribute combo in which I played bass!!!
Getting him to play on the album was slightly easier than with Silvano as he lives only a few miles from me.
One night in January he came to my place with his accordion and vibrandoneon and recorded some great parts on three tracks. We also had the chance to experiment with my Busilacchio reed organ as we were looking for what I call 'that lovely ignorant tone'. On one particular track we felt the accordion sounded a bit too hi-fi, so we opted for this unusual organ.
The vibrandoneon is a rare instrument that Claudio bought directly at the factory in central Italy. The serial number on his specimen is 00018 or thereabouts. Follow this link if you want to know more about the instrument. If instead you would also like to hear it in action, well, just pre-order a copy of my album.
Claudio Corona and Silvano Lobina are both composers, and very good too!
More to come soon!
