Thursday, 8 October 2009

Andrea Marchesini - Back To Europe (1989)

01.Son of war
02.Lifting weights
03.Remembering
04.Back to europe
05.Bootie blue
06.Just desserts
07.Jet-ski
08.Never give up.

Recorded in New York, 1988
"Back To Europe" by Andrea Marchesini, with Matt Balitsaris, Mark Gatz, Tom De Petris, Paul Adamy, Gerardo Velez, Mike Stern, Jonas Hellborg.

Born in Alassio - Italy in 1960, drummer Andrea Marchesini was exposed to instruments and bands in his early days at his father's nightclub (called Tabù, almost like the famous Paris jazz dive of the 50s), never imagining that years later music would be the central element of his life.

A school mate in the early 70s passed him records of Genesis and EL&P, and this special progressive wave gave a boost to his taste for melody and rhythms, which had started earlier with The Beatles and great italian songwriters such as Lucio Battisti.

Druming came at age 14, just a few friends who decided to try emulating the brits. And it was immediately love, and good music too, originals with highly developed structures.
Progressive brought Fusion: Brand X, Weather Report, Metheny, Steps Ahead, tons of the best electric jazz of the late 70s and 80s.
Slowly the urgency to improve drumming came in. No teachers were available in the area, and only by accident Andrea discovered tecnique books and the fab "Modern Drummer" magazine. A few months with teacher Paolo Pellegatti in Milan but mostly self taught, Andrea moved on, and due to short talks with jazz drummers at the local festival in Alassio (Andrew Cyrille and Tommy Campbell), the idea of moving to NYC slowly grew in his mind.

And so he did, in 1984 Andrea moved to the Big Apple, with little experience but lots of ambition and determination.
He studied at Drummer's Collective with Kim Plainfield, Kenwood Dennard, Robbie Gonzales, Steve Gadd, and Frankie Malabe, and joined dozens of bands in order to accumulate knowledge and musicality.
Grey Zone, Steven Antonelli, Round Trip, Robert Secret, Loose Shoes, were some of the acts he performed with, in all the hot spots of New York (including CBGBs, The Bitter End, Mikell's, The Vilage Gate, La Mama, Ryle's in Cambridge-Mass).

In 1987 Andrea developed his solo project and played great concerts with his Minu One group throughout the East Coast, and recorded his first CD: Back To Europe (Album: Teldeck-Day Eight Music 1989; CD Nowo-New Sound Planet 1990) is released worldwide, with the partecipation of Hiram Bullock, Jonas Hellborg, Mike Stern, Gerardo Velez (Spyro Gyra), and the great sounds of his long-time friends.

Record company problems and personal matters led him to a long pause, after having given a try to Germany (a rock EP with All Tigers Bite) and once again New York in 1990 (latin-fusion concerts with Matt Balitsaris's and Billy Martin's Loose Shoes; vocals sessions on a new age with Mino Cinelu; a second "solo" project).

Drumming and music resurfaced in the late 90s (after a 7 years break..), and slowly Andrea started playing cover bands again, recovering his chops, and getting deeper into jazz. Local musicians at first, then nationally renown players like Enrico Pinna, Antonio Faraò, and Alessio Menconi contributed to a fast comeback.

2003 was a late but important turning point: Jonas Hellborg called for a tour in India with Shawn Lane, and the exposure to such great musicians and music really meant a change in playing, musicality, attitude.

In 2004 Andrea formed his Dif-Fusion project, went back to India for a 3 week tour, and released his second CD, "Concert in Shillong" a live recording in Meghalaya - India, with his great friend-musician Alessio Menconi and fab bassist Pippo Matino from Neaples. A great CD with positive reviews and a new great number of followers.

Andrea has also played with Emanuele Cisi, Claudio Capurro, Stefano Guazzo, Bob Bonisolo, Luca Pasqua, Stefano Calcagno, V. Selvaganesh, Andrea Pozza, and jammed with Jaco Pastorius, Riccardo Zegna, Dado Moroni, Flavio Boltro.

Among his up and coming projects: festivals and tours in Italy, Germany, and extra european continents with Dif-Fusion; re-mixing "Back To Europe"; a new Dif-Fusion recording in late 2005; Jazz playing and touring projects with his "Jazz-Pot"; and more unpredictable developements!.
www.andreamarchesini.com

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