Index

Soliloquy Music, EDT, Mela Music, and Pizzicato. His most recent books—such as the instant best-selling method Jazz Piano: The Left Hand and the miscellaneous collection Jazz Piano: Pieces To Grow On—have been released as part of the prestigious Steinway Library of Piano Music line published by Ekay Music/Steinway & Sons. (More details in MUSIC BOOKS) He has also translated and edited all the thirty-four Italian volumes of the Bastien pedagogical piano series (Neil A. Kjos Music Company/Italian distribution Rugginenti Editore).

Some of Riccardo's "Classic Latin" originals have been often performed in concert programs along with works by Piazzolla, Ginastera, de Falla, Rodrigo, Ponce, Gardel, Ellington, Gershwin, J.S. Bach, Schubert, etc. Click here

He is keyboardist and composer of his own progressive rock band Quanah Parker, first active in 1982-1985 and re-formed in 2006 along with Giovanni Pirrotta (electric guitar), Andrea Cuzzolin (lead vocals and rhythm guitar), Giorgio Salvadego (bass), and Paolo Ongaro or Massimiliano Conti (drums). With this band, he performs his own originals and covers by Yes and Jethro Tull (More details and DOWNLOADS at www.quanahparker.it).

Riccardo was born in Venezia (Italy) and currently resides in the nearby town of Musile di Piave. He studied classical piano, percussion and music theory with Giuseppe Marotta, then classical piano with Giovanni Ferrari and jazz piano with Marcello Tonolo, also attending the courses on analysis of jazz music held by Marcello Piras at the “Seminari Senesi di Musica Jazz”. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Venezia with a degree in Music History discussing a thesis on the Harlem Stride Piano style.

He is the author of several jazz, Latin and Progressive Rock piano transcriptions, studies, arrangements and original pieces published in the prestigious US music magazines Piano Today, Sheet Music Magazine, Keyboard Classics, and The Piano Stylist & Jazz Workshop. He is a regular contributor to Piano Today magazine and serves as a consulting editor of both Piano Today and Sheet Music Magazine. Many of his stride piano transcriptions have been recorded and/or performed in concert programs by such specialists as Marco Fumo, Alan Feinberg (Fascinatin’ Rhythm, Argo 444 457-2), Meral Guneyman (Nostalgia, Allegro, G&T Records), Donna Coleman (Havana To Harlem, ABC Classics 476 7743), Massimiliano Damerini (George Gershwin – The Complete Piano Works,Musiksträsse MC 2106.2; Agorà AG 235.2), Sue Keller, Giannantonio Mutto, Cesare Poggi, Carlo Magni, and John Roache. Several transcriptions (Dick Wellstood, Fats Waller, Willie “The Lion” Smith, James P. Johnson, Cliff Jackson, and Donald Lambert) from his books Harlem Stride Piano Solos and Dick Wellstood Jazz Piano Solos can be heard at Irwin’s Ragtime/Stride/Swing/Novelty MIDI and John Roache’s Ragtime MIDI Library websites.
(More details in PIANO TODAY, TRANSCRIPTIONS, and COMPOSITIONS)

As arranged by tango pianist and arranger Giannantonio Mutto, many of Riccardo’s Latin compositions are performed by the classical chamber ensembles “Quartetto Note Insolite”, “Duo Giannantonio Mutto-Leonardo Sapere”, and “Quintetto Pianoforte e Archi”. Other piano originals by him are performed by Giannantonio Mutto and by the “Marguerite Faulds-Diane Köenig” piano duo. Click here

Riccardo is the author of the music books Jazz Piano: The Left Hand (Ekay Music/Steinway & Sons), Harlem Stride Piano Solos, Learn To Play Latin Piano, The Right Hand According To Tatum and The Soul of Blues, Stride & Swing Piano (all published by Ekay Music), Southern-Fried Blues, Echoes of Venice, Dick Wellstood Jazz Piano Solos, Famous Italian Songs and Famous Italian Opera Arias (all by Neil A. Kjos Music Company, San Diego, California), and Dick Wellstood: The Art of Jazz and Blues Piano, Vol. 1 (Soliloquy Music, London, England). He contributed to the collections Play Like A Pro, Keyboard Workshop and 505 Great Piano Intros (all by Ekay Music), Gershwin (edited by G. Vinay, EDT, Torino, Italy), and 500 Intros For The Great Standards, Jazz Piano: Pieces To Grow On, Piano Stylings of the Great Standards–Volume IV, Volume V, and Volume VI (all by Ekay Music/Steinway & Sons). With Giannantonio Mutto, he co-authored the collections Blues Piano and Jazz Blues & Ragtime Piano (Mela Music, Bussolengo, Italy). His most forthcoming book is a Latin piano method that will be released by Ekay Music in its Steinway Piano Library series. (More details in MUSIC BOOKS)

Riccardo taught the “Laboratorio di Improvvisazione e Composizione” of the Corso Biennale di Specializzazione in Letteratura Pianistica Afroamericana directed by Marco Fumo at the Conservatorio “A. Steffani” of Castelfranco Veneto (Italy). He also teaches Modern Piano and Keyboards at some music schools, like the Scuola Comunale di Musica “Monteverdi” of Musile di Piave (Venezia) and the Istituto Musicale “Celleghin” of Chiarano (Treviso). He has given lectures and master classes in various conservatories and music schools—among them the CDpM-Centro Didattico produzione Musica directed by Claudio Angeleri in Bergamo—within didactical cycles taught by well-known musicians and musicologists such as Franco D’Andrea, Enrico Pieranunzi, Claudio Angeleri, Marco Fumo, Hugo Aisemberg, Luis Agudo, Marcello Piras, Stefano Zenni, Angelo Zaniol, Maurizio Franco, and Luca Bragalini. Click here

He was pianist/keyboardist and composer of his above-mentioned progressive rock band Quanah Parker (formerly active in 1982-1985) and of his own Mi Ritmo Afro-Cuban band (active in 1995-2004). With both these bands he has played several live performances and recorded many of his own compositions, also recording the promotional CD Mi Ritmo: Guajira (Real Sound RS 051-0300, available through this site). He was pianist at the Gran Caffè Chioggia in Venezia’s St. Mark’s Square for many years. (More details in DOWNLOAD-VIDEOS) With a Latin quintet including singer Elena Camerin and percussionist Antonio Marotta, he recorded four of his own originals for the miscellaneous tape Beach Volley Glamour & Show, conceived by the noted speaker Andrea Piovan for the purpose of the Beach Volley Italian championship.

He contributed to the orchestration of the Italian premiere of George Gershwin’s musical, Lady, Be Good! (as revised by K. Cazan, K. Farrell and D. Sturrock, Venezia, PalaFenice, 2000). Click here

As a pianist and composer, he has worked for various stage productions. Over the years, he has collaborated with various musicians of the Venetian scene, such as Donella Del Monaco, Roberto Rusconi, Francesco Sartori, Alex Masi, Antonio Marotta, Elena Camerin, Nicola Gabrielli, Giuliano and Raffaele Bianco, Alessandro Monti, Giorgio Salvadego, Roberto Noè, Roberto Veronese, Franco Moruzzi, Alessandro Bedendo, Alessandro “Pixel” Pizzin, Bruno Gennaro, Ezio Casalini, Stefano Marchiori, Fabio Dalla Vedova, Luigi Podda, Massimo Donà, Ale Pasqual, Moreno Marchesin, Edu Hebling, and Francesco Clera.

Riccardo teaches the history of jazz and Latin Music at TARS (formerly DUTARS) of the University of Venezia. He has written about three hundreds of radio programs on jazz for RadioTre of RAI-Radiotelevisione Italiana. Several of his essays, articles, and reviews on jazz and Afro-Cuban music have been published in important music magazines such as Musica Jazz, Ring Shout, Musica Oggi, Jazz, Blu Jazz, Rassegna Veneta di Studi Musicali, Venezia Arti, Il Sismografo, and Il Giornale della Musica. He also wrote the liner-notes for the booklets of the CDs George Gershwin—The Complete Piano Works (Musiksträsse MC 2106.2; Agorà AG 235.2) by Massimiliano Damerini and Manantiales (Circuito Creativo CC 001) by the Latin Jazz quartet “Manantiales”, as well as the sleeve notes to the LP L’arte di interpretare Thomas “Fats” Waller (DIRE FO 389) by Cesare Poggi.

Riccardo’s foremost sources of inspiration are Rick Wakeman and other prog rock keyboard giants (notably Keith Emerson, Tony Banks, Rick Van Der Linden and Jordan Rudess), the classical works by Domenico Scarlatti, Musorgskij, Ravel, Stravinskij and Bartók, Alan Stivell and Celtic harp music, Mario Bauzá and the other “Mambo Kings”, the great stride pianists (James P. Johnson, Willie “The Lion” Smith, Fats Waller, Cliff Jackson and Donald Lambert), and jazz and Latin piano masters like Duke Ellington, Art Tatum, Thelonious Monk, Erroll Garner, Dave Brubeck, Dick Hyman, Dick Wellstood, Oscar Peterson, Chick Corea, Rubén González, Eddie and Charlie Palmieri, Michel Camilo, Santos Chillemi, and Alex Wilson.

(More details in CONTACT-LINKS)

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