Jazz / Jazz-Pop; Singer; Songwriter; Italian Pop
Recorded: Fonoprint Studio, Bologna, Italy
"Imagine Randy Newman on a Fellini soundtrack. Imagine Sade or David Bowie crooning Nepolitan folk songs. Imagine gutbucket New Orleans jazz crossing with the tarantella. At different moments, Mr. Conte's music suggests each of these things."
---The New York Times
Nearly five years have passed since Paolo Conte's first U.S. release, but the enthusiasm for his work has remained strong. Following on the heels of two highly successful U.S. tours supporting The Best of Paolo Conte, he returns to the U.S. market next month with Reveries. The new CD features 16 brand-new recordings of Conte classics, including four tracks drawn from earlier European-only releases.
Voted Best of the Year by both The New Yorker and Rolling Stone - which dubbed him "Italian by birth, singular in cool" - Paolo Conte's 1998 "Best Of" collection was his first U.S. release after nearly two decades as a best-selling artist throughout Europe. His nearly 25 years of songwriting, characterized by an amalgam of styles and influences, has found an ever-growing legion of fans in the U.S.
The new album, Reveries, features Conte's trademark smoky voice, a piano style that wanders from jazz to honky-tonk to cabaret, his weathered Romantic's view of the world, and lyrics that mix seduction and nostalgia in ever-unique ways. On Reveries, there are fresh versions of older songs with different-and typically canny - arrangements featuring Conte in front of his virtuosic sidemen on accordian, sax, guitar, bass and drums.
As The New York Times has said, "...Mr. Conte both embodies Italy and transcends it. His songs, redolent of vintage American jazz and South American tangos, German cabaret and French chanson, conjure voices from all over the map as channeled through the ancient soul of an Italian poet... Mr. Conte's music is his own."
Paolo Conte - vocals, arranger, kazoo, piano, synthesizer
Daniele Dall'Omo - guitar, ukulele, trumpet
Alessio Menconi - guitar
Marco "Jimmy" Villotti - guitar
Massimo Pitzianti - bandoneon, clarinet, accordion, baritone saxophone
Simona Cazzulani - violin
Alessia De Filippo - violin
Federica Michelon - viola
Francesca Ruffilli - cello
Claudio Chiara - flute, alto saxophone
Lucio Caliendo - oboe
Luca Velotti - soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone
James Thompson - alto saxophone
Claudio Chiara - alto saxophone
Alberto Mandarini - trumpet
Luigi Abenante - French horn
Rudy Miglaiardi - trombone
Daniele Di Gregorio - piano, drums, percussion
Leo Martini - synthesizer
Antonio Marangolo - synthesizer
Jino Touche - bass
Daniela Panetta - background vocals
Laura Conti - background vocals |
