About Gino Vannelli

FRANÇAIS | ITALIANO

	DISCOGRAPHY
1973	Crazy Life A&M
1974	Powerful People A&M
1975	Storm at Sunup A&M
1976	The Gist of the Gemini A&M
1977	A Pauper in Paradise A&M
1978	Brother to Brother A&M
1981	Nightwaker Arista
1985	Black Cars One Way
1987	Big Dreamers Never Sleep Epic
1990	Inconsolable Man Vie
1991	Live In Montreal Vie
1995	Yonder Tree Verve
1998	Slow Love Verve
2003	Canto ViK. Recordings/BMG Canada Inc.






Gino Vannelli Management: McLachlan-Berry International DJ McLachlan New York 845 634 4443 Nashville 615 292 0099 W. Tom Berry Toronto 416 364 4200 Gino Vannelli Booking (Canada): S.L. Feldman and Associates Vinny Cinquemani Toronto 416 598 0067

Gino Vannelli – Canto

căn’tō = n. (It., = song, f. L cantus)

From the moment he emerged on the international stage with his debut album "Crazy Life" Gino Vannelli has been an iconoclast and an innovator –a risk taker with his own unique, defined musical direction and a commitment to his truthful artistic vision. There is no sound quite like that of Gino Vannelli. With the release of Canto, Gino takes another turn in his remarkable career and creates an unexpected, rich and gorgeous fusion of musical depth and mastery, passion, heart and soul. Canto is a grand sweep of music – lush, symphonic and contemporary, spanning and combining musical styles as diverse as pop, classical, Celtic and flamenco for a work that defies categorization. In composing this CD, Vannelli let go of his own preconceptions, and let the music take him in new directions. It led him to not only sing in English, but in Italian, French and Spanish - languages he says opened up his already impressive vocal range and allowed him to explore and express new lyrical, emotional and spiritual territory. At the same time he used state of the art technology combined with carefully selected international translators, orchestrators and musicians from the worlds of pop, opera, flamenco and more to create the arrangements and tone of the CD.

"Maurice Ravel, one of the fathers of modern music, said the most interesting music fuses at least two elements together" says Vannelli, "to me all exciting works of music were, in their beginning, considered hybrids and there’s no doubt this defines Canto. It’s an orchestral album that’s vocally driven."Vannelli has recorded 14 albums since his debut in 1973; all of them marked by poetic lyrics, unique vocal style and beautiful production. In the 90’s Vannelli released three CDs: a live compilation on his own Vie label and two more experimental hybrids on the prestigious Verve jazz label: "Yonder Tree" and the more mainstream "Slow Love". The Verve CDs were well received by a loyal audience, especially in Europe, yet Vannelli was discouraged by the response to what he felt was some of his best work. ""Slow Love" really wasn’t truly appreciated for as good an album as it was. It was very poetic and willing to break out of all of the ‘isms’ of music". He decided to let go of a part of his career. "I was burnt. I said that’s it. I’ll produce some people. I’ll do some live gigs. I thought there was no possibility of me ever recording another contemporary or pop album". Then, Vannelli produced a CD for a Danish jazz pianist named Niels Lan Doky. Lan Doky fell in love with a song Vannelli had written about his late father called "Parole Per Mio Padre"("A Word to My Father"), and included the song, along with Gino’s vocals, on the CD "Haitek Haiku". The two performed the piece for Pope John Paul II’s Christmas concert in 2000. This song found its way to the offices of BMG Canada and the hands of President Lisa Zbitnew and Vice-President, A&R Keith Porteous. "They were genuinely inspired to hear music like this." Vannelli explains with obvious delight. "They wanted to hear more…to make an investment in me and my music. I said oh gladly! And the next day I wrote "Una Sola Voce" ("One Voice"). Two days later I wrote "Il Viaggio" ("The Journey")."With BMG Canada’s full support, Vannelli says the songs for the album poured out. "Oh the floodgates opened up for me. No more constraints of pop music. No more constraints of so many bars, you must go into your chorus and what’s radio going to think? The music was writing itself. I never, never, never labored over it. "The Last Days of Summer" was written in a day and a half. "Dea Speranza", the eight minute song was written in a day, day and half. "Mala Luna", the ten minute song was written absolutely in one day. It just kept moving, moving, moving. I really couldn’t hold it back. I was so excited and inspired because of it." "The hardest part of the project," says Vannelli "was to map out how it could best be done. This is brand new material - I didn’t even know what it was supposed to sound like. It was a process of self discovery and learning."Vannelli, who recorded Canto in a west coast studio, brought in musician, arranger and collaborator Glenn Morley to help create the orchestral soundscape. They worked with the talented players of the Northwest Orchestral Assembly to lay down the tracks using state of the art computer technology. "I ultimately found myself conducting the damned computer. Saying no, no, no - this way! This way! This part needs to be subtle! We don’t need anything more than just one oboe here! And all of a sudden - we had a song done. Then I decided to hire some additional live musicians and see what that would sound like. We hired 25 or 30 musicians and put them where we wanted them. And there it was. There it was exactly as I envisioned the feeling. It was as if they had known the songs forever."With the orchestral tracks complete, Vannelli turned his attention to his vocals. The songs on Canto are in four languages: Italian, French, Spanish and English. Wanting to make sure his pronunciation was flawless; he used a vocal coach and worked with his collaborators until his accents were perfect. There was another dimension to singing in other languages. Emotion. Vannelli says he discovered this early on, when he wrote the song that would ultimately set the tone for this project "Parole Per Mio Padre" ("A Word to My Father"). "Something happened when I started singing in Italian and I wasn’t using English phrasing and vocabulary. The phonetic phenomenon about Mediterranean languages is that they allow the voice to reach passionate heights that are oftimes considered melodramatic or in just plain bad taste in English, particularly in contemporary music. I started singing these words and found myself totally unguarded, no sentinels at the gate. I started feeling things that I would have otherwise not felt and it was a cathartic experience - I thought to myself - this is for me!" Vannelli, already famous for his soaring voice and his vocal range, sings with breathtaking grace. "If anybody singing in English started to sing that way, you’d just want to slap him right?" He says laughing, "You wanna just say, "What are you on?" The English songs do not have that kind of intensity for a reason - whether it is " The Last Days of Summer" or "Wayward Lover". There is a reserved-ness. That’s the way we hear things in English. They were tender songs about introspective feelings. Whereas in "Dea Speranza" when I’m saying at the end "Tell me there’s no truth in what my eyes see, tell me that life is sacred...da da da da"! It’s like all of a sudden you feel yourself standing at this mountain top saying "Lady Hope hear me!"," he laughs again, "and boom! You find yourself crying out to the heavens and the notes come very easily." For Vannelli, who is equal parts philosopher and musician, creating this music was liberating: "When the songs came out I felt myself a different person in the sense that: You see? This can be done. You can be inspired. You can love music in a different way; you can love life in a different way. You can actually put your spiritual knowledge into practice. And that’s really what this was. It was a spiritual knowing-ness that became a practice." There’s little doubt that Canto, with its depth of musicality and sung in four languages, will take some listeners by surprise. But Gino Vannelli is hoping that people will connect with the same things that excited him as he was making the CD: "Maybe it really is a question of following your bliss. There’s power and truth in what you’ve laid down that is a result following your bliss. And the power is that there’s a genuineness to it. A lasting authenticity."

.. Terms of Use & Privacy Policy .. Site by Oceano