All In A Days Work - Still Working On It (Part 2)

Ciao a tutti,

This post is a continuation of my previous post of the same title in which I talk about some of the experiences I am starting to have as part of my profession. Or rather, more accurately, these experiences I am experiencing because of a combination of various circumstances including my profession, my ethnicity, my personality, etc.

In the last post I mentioned how I ran into the famous photographer, director, etc., Norman Seeff at after a meeting. This next situation that occurred is still new to me too and something I might be lucky enough to have to get used to. It occurred in the office of the IACCW (Italy American Chamber of Commerce, West) during a meeting with the Executive Director, Paola De Mari.

In the middle of the meeting she told me that she had seen my blog and all the events I had gone to and reported about, and wanted to know why I had not attended a single one of their events and reported on it? I told her that I didn't remember ever having been invited to one. The office manager Lucia Peretti Merritt proceeded to tell me the E-mail address they had listed for me, and indeed it was correct.

I guess I couldn't get out of this one. In all actuality, I think I had assumed that since I also receive many invitations for events in New York and Chicago, etc. that I am an not able to attend at the moment, that the ones coming from the particular E-mail address, were not local events. I told her that I would be happy to attend and report on one or more of their events and post pictures, etc. I promised I would be looking for the next event to attend.

Our meeting continued and something said within the meeting sparked a memory in Paola and she asked me if I had seen the pictures of me in a recently published book. I told her I didn't even know that I was in yet another book. I thought she might be referring to Richard Gruden's Book, The Italian American Crooner - A Bedside Companion," in which the author dedicates a whole chapter on me.

She immediately popped up and went to her office to get it and brought it back into the meeting room and opened up the pages to the pictures of me. It was not that book but another one called "Images of America - Italians in Los Angeles."

I was quite honored I must say, firstly that she thought so much of me to bring it to my attention, and secondly that only a handful of Italian-Americans were listed in the book as representing the next generation of Italian leaders and I was included right along with Jimmy Kimmel, of ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live Show and Doug DeLuca, producer of the show.

Above is a picture of the cover and below that are the pictures used in the book. You see the page listing Jimmy Kimmel and Doug DeLuca. And then here are the pictures with me.

Even though, the captions are incorrect, and I don't wear my hair that way anymore, thankfully, he, he, it was wonderful to be included.

The book is called "Images of America - Italians In Los Angeles," by Marge Bitetti and published by Arcadia Publishing. Thank you Marge for including me in the pictures. Thank you Paola for giving me the book so I could post it on my blog. And thank you Giovanna DiBona of Roman Holiday, with whom I am happily pictured, and Norman Panto.

You know, there used to be a saying amongst musicians, that started up after the accordion had "fallen out of favor" in the recording studio world. The saying was "Play and accordion, go to jail." When I first started to hire bands and asked around for accordion players for the ethnic sound I was looking for at the time, musicians would laugh and tell me those sayings and more. They were funny, but they didn't stop me from hiring accordion players.

It is interesting how now the accordion has come into favor even among some rock bands. Okay, it hasn't taken over the guitar, and you don't always see it in bands, but it is used in recording studios. And this man, Norman Panto, or Nunzio, as I know him has done well with it. Besides the usual Italian weddings and events, he has even been featured playing on TV commercials. Here's one accordion player who not only didn't "go to jail" for playing the accordion, he went to the bank.

Ciao for now,

Filippo

P.S. In my last post, I featured a Cher video and mentioned how I would feature a Sonny Bono video next time, and here it is. Here is a video I found on Youtube.com of Sonny singing his song "Laugh At Me." Like his voice or not, you have to admit the message is timeless. (In English)

Tony Renis, Cambridge Who's Who, Frommer's 2007 - What Could They Possibly Have In Common?

Ciao a tutti,

A few weeks ago I mentioned on one of the radio episodes of the Filippo and the Chef Show that I had started a blog called "Filippo's Italian-American Experience." Though I had actually started it long time ago, as you all know, I had neglected to mention it on our show. So as I mentioned it I thought about asking the fans and listeners to not only check us out but to feel free to send me pictures and stories that I could include in the blog.

What I thought I was asking was for were pictures of our fans across the Country or the world and their personal Italian-American ot Italian Experiences. What I think everyone understood was that I was looking for pictures and stories about me. I had to laugh as soon after the radio show aired and after we posted the show on our archives on the website www.FilippoandtheChef.com, pictures and stories came on my E-mail and they were all about me.

Okay, it wasn't my intention, but I loved it, mainly for two reasons. First of all, I had never seen some of these pictures so I was happy to see them and have them. Second of all, it dawned on me that I barely had time to post and keep up to date on my blog with my own Italian-American experiences much less taking on other people's experiences. Maybe someday we can have someone working for us dedicated to something like that. It could be a fun thing.

In the meantime, I am happy to post some of the pictures and stories here now and maybe as we go along, on slow news days, he, he, I can post others. The pictures above were sent by an artist, actually a sculpture, who I met at an event, Claudio D'Agostino. The first picture is of the famous Italian songwriter Tony Renis and my friend Marco Missinato, who is well on his way to being famous in his own right at an event in Beverly Hills, CA, probably two years ago or so.

Those of you who are die-hard Italian music fans would know Tony Renis because he wrote songs that include the hits "Quando, Quando, Quando" and "Grande, Grande, Grande" which was translated in English to "Never, Never, Never" and sung by such stars as Celine Dion, Pavarotti and Sergio Franchi. Those of you who don't know those songs will definitely know "The Prayer," which was written by Tony and also sung by Celine Dion, Andrea Boccelli and Josh Groban, to name a few. Incidentally, Renis produced Andrea's last CD.

Funny story about Tony. I was singing at an event several years ago, when my first CD, "Reel Italian - Love Songs From The Silver Screen" had just come out and I was approached by a man who was a good friend of Tony's. The man obviously liked my style and told me that he wanted to give Tony my CD and ask him if he would be interested in working with me. I was honored that this gentleman would care so much and gave him my CD and my contact information. I got a call from this gentleman a few days later and he asked me, if I realized that I had some of Italy's greatest hits on my CD? I of course said yes and that it was my intention to do just that.

He went on to say, "Did you know you left out a really important one?" I wasn't sure what he was getting at. You know how Italian men talk sometimes, you have to get around the story before they get around to telling the story? At any rate, the story was that supposedly Tony never listened to my CD because the man said that Tony took one look at the song list on the back of the CD case and said, "He recorded every Italian hit except 'Quando, Quando, Quando'." At least that is the story I got. Of course, I didn't bother to mention this that night the picture was taken.

The truth is I don't know if I had ever sung that song before then. But I tell you what. I have definitely sung it since, just in case, he, he. Come to think of it, I didn't record it on my second CD either "Love In Italiano," oh well. But I wonder if Celine or Josh ever sang that song, and yet he's working with them, he, he. I am sure our paths will cross again, then I will fill you in. Hey, maybe I should interview him on my show. Maybe I can tell him the story then. What do you think?

The picture below that picture is Claudio, his mother and I at that same event. He also sent along this picture of the sculpture that he was just commissioned to make for Jack Valenti and that was dedicated this past month, I believe, at the AFI, or American Film Institute. Go Claudio, and thank you for the pictures.

Now here are some interesting pictures. I got an E-mail from my friend Rachel who must have heard the "shout out" for pictures and stories and she wrote, "I am sure you already know this but since I have never heard you talk about it or seen it on your blog, I just wanted to make sure."

She goes on to tell me that she is working with a tour group in Italy at the moment and was reading the Frommer's Italy book for 2007, arguably the most popular travel book series covering the whole world, and that I am listed as one of Italy's top singing stars.

I immediately wrote back to her telling her that I had no idea what she was talking about. Since she was in Italy, I had to wait until she not only woke up and got to a computer...augh! But she eventually got back to me and sent me all the info including the page number etc., and here it is. Look at that, pretty cool, huh?

Thank you Frommer and thank you Rachel for bringing it to my attention. Hey maybe this idea of people sending me stories and pictures about me isn't such a bad idea after all otherwise I wouldn't know about half of this stuff.

The exact quote in Frommer's is listed under "Current Music Stars" and I am the first one listed saying "Worthy of the "electric" in his name, Filippo Voltaggio is a high-voltage singer and songwriter who records songs Italians and would-be Italians love to listen to." It's page 70 she said, if you want to check it out, or just click on these pictures to make them larger.

Speaking of being listed, I heard from a fan Jennifer just today that I was either listed or being listed in something, I didn't get it exactly, but I was posting this today and I didn't want to wait. That something is really something, it's the "Cambridge Who's Who," only one of the most prestigious Who's Who around.

I haven't been able to verify this yet but I do know that inclusion in this Registry is considered by many as the single highest mark of achievement. This is supposedly the Executive and Professionals Edition, "Honors Edition" or something like that. Whatever it is, I am honored indeed and I will be looking into it, thank you Jennifer and thank you Cambridge.

My friend Giovanna DiBona who I don't think I have posted anywhere on this blog yet sent me a picture of her and I at the Feast of San Gennaro here in Los Angeles at least two years ago or so. That is Giovanna in her Sicilian costume that she made and wore as part of her act with her band Roman Holiday.

This second picture is Norman Panto, or Nunzio as I used to call him. He and I worked together when I first started singing and I was singing for Italian weddings. Yes, you heard it here first, it's true.

There used to be a joke that musicians used to always say around him. It went something like "Play the accordion, go to jail." Well, Norm has not been to jail, at least not that I know of and certianly not because he has played the accordion.

He has however been on several major commercials and TV shows and the like. So, the joke maybe funny, but Norm pay it no mind and play on.

Finally, Mike Marino, a funny, funny guy, award winning comedian and one of the Three Paisans, sent me this clipping that was written and sent to him by a mutual fan of ours who was in the audience that night of our show at the Catalina Jazz Club.

Evidently, she, Annette Zappia, among other things, writes for this Italian Lodge's paper and wrote about our show. Grazie Annette, this was really fun to read.

I understand they want us to perform for some big event that they are having and I am sure that will be fun. Click on the picture below and it will enlarge the image so you can read it if you are interested.

Grazie a tutti and I hope to post other stories like these as they come in so we can have some fun with them.

A presto,

Filippo

P.S. In my last post I posted a video of Laura Fabian, the French Canadian singer born of a Belgian father and an Italian mother. Well, in keeping with this Italian connection with an international flair, I thought it would be interesting to post this next video.

This is a video of one of Latin America's biggest singing stars, Luis Miguel. A very young Luis Miguel I should say singing at Italy's top music festival, San Remo in 1985. If that isn't an Italian connection, he is singing an Italian song, "Noi Ragazzi Di Oggi." Thanks to Youtube.com. (In Italian)