Patrizio - The Italian

Ciao a tutti,

About a year and a half ago I was putting together the Italian Music Store Page on our Filippo and the Chef Show website before we officially released the website.

In so doing I came across a singer I had never heard of so I browsed his website, listened to the sound clips and liked it so much that I bought his CD. The CD I bought was simply titled "Patrizio - The Italian."

From what I gathered it was his debut CD and he was just starting out. I remember commenting to Chef Richard that I thought he would go far, and I wished that on him, in my mind. Little did I know that a year and a half later I would be wishing him the same in person.

Skipping back a few months to this past September, I had a friend say to me that she had seen and heard an Italian singer at the Los Angeles Italian Festival and that I had to interview him for our radio show.

I remember the exact word she used to describe him was "Dreamy." I was not I able to be at the Italian Festival because I was performing in concert in Long Island at the exact same time.

I remember she also called him "Fabrizio." Every few months she would ask me if I had contacted "Fabrizio" and if I was going to interview him soon. I was getting the hint that this was not about her thinking I should interview "Fabrizio," but that she wanted to meet him.

Well, all these stories come together when I found out that a singer named Patrizio Buanne was going to be singing in Los Angeles. The singer who's CD I bought and enjoyed and put on my web page.

I made contact with his management team and secured myself great tickets to the concert as well as a backstage pass and an interview that same night for both our show producer Laura and myself.

The show was great and Patrizio did a great job entertaining the audience mixed with Italians, Americans, Russians, Persians, Iranians, you name it, everyone was getting into it.

I even saw some friends there who came from as far as San Diego as well as Marcella Leonetti Tyler the Los Angeles Area Coordinator for NIAF with her whole family and some guests she had invited. It was a really fun evening of entertainment including the opening act, Patrizio's friend Matt Dusk.

When the show ended and we got backstage the first person I saw, even before seeing Patrizio was Tony Renis. Immediately afterwards, I saw the funniest thing happen right before my eyes.

Some of you may remember that I posted a picture of Tony Renis and I at an event about a year or so ago. In the post I mention how a friend of Tony's took my debut CD to him and asked him if he would be interested in working with me.

The story goes that Tony looked at all the popular Italian songs I sang covers for on the CD and said, "He sang the most popular Italian songs except my 'Quando, Quando, Quando.'" And that was that.

Well, right before my eyes, I watched Patrizio approach Tony and give him a hug and then apologize for not singing "Quando, Quando, Quando," on his debut CD. Right away, I knew I would like Patrizio as a person too, not just as a personality, because he was so sincere and that was a very sweet gesture.

I just had to get in on that moment because it was a moment we shared in common that I would later tell him about in the interview, but for now, I had to have a picture of the three of us which you will see as the first picture posted above.

While Patrizio continued entertaining his audience off stage, Laura and I stepped aside knowing we would have time with him later and mingled with some of Patrizio's other guests, like Doug DeLuca, Producer of ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Show, who Laura had not met yet, and so we took the above picture of them.

Part of entertaining his adoring fans backstage included a special moment wherein he sang Happy Birthday in Italian to a fan who was very young at heart. I had to capture that moment in the picture you see above.

When we finally got around to the interview, we tried to do it in the main room but we kept getting interrupted because people just couldn't get enough of him.

So we went to his dressing room and his Manager stood guard behind the door to make sure we were not disturbed. He came in a couple times when he heard us laughing like crazy, and then another time when he heard Patrizio break out into a song.

You will have to hear the interview on our show when it airs on the radio, and if you miss it, do go to www.FilippoandtheChef.com and visit our archives to hear it there after it airs in a few weeks.

In case you are curious, he sang "'O Marinariello," a traditional Neapolitan Song.

So, here we were having a good time talking as if we had known each other for years. Being a singer, and singing some of the same songs he does, we certainly had many levels we connected on and we could have gone on for hours. In fact we went on pretty long.

I felt bad afterwards because I knew how tight his schedule was, yet he was the one that kept up some of the bantering and some of the joking around, so I know he was having fun too.

Right in the middle of all of this I remembered my friend who kept telling me that I had to interview this Italian singer she referred to as "Dreamy." I hadn't made the connection up until then. Then all of a sudden he said something about having sung a song at the Italian Festival here in Los Angeles, and without skipping a beat I said, "'Fabrizio,' you're the guy."

He looked at me with surprise and said, "PATRIZIO." I said, "of course, I am so sorry, I mean Patrizio." And I went on to tell him the story. He laughed and didn't mind it one bit. Which lead us to a conversation about his name, especially his last name as to how many people mispronounce it and the many ways they do.

We concluded that part of the conversation with the correct pronunciation of Patrizio Buanne, but he went on to say that his fans better know him as simply, "Patrizio."

Patrizio it is, and Patrizio he was indeed!

I again reiterate how I think he will go far, I wish him the best and I look forward to seeing him again on his next trip to the States.

A presto,

Filippo

P.S. Here is a video cut off his debut CD "Patrizio - The Italian," that I found on Youtube.com of him singing "Il Mondo," (In English and Italian)

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)