Italian artist with a heart for west coast folk…
Stefano Frollano was born in Rome on 26th July 1962. He began playing classical guitar at the age of 13 and after two years left school to devote his time to rock music. He first performed in public on 24th April 1978.
Following his first “teenage” band called “Simbiosi”, and a series of performances with Fabio Landi, in 1983 he started playing at the same time with both Karma, a Roman Sixties Revival Group as well as a rock-cover blues group Skydog (Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, SRV,R.Cray, Dire Straits, N.Young etc.). The group was made up of Giancarlo Guidoni on drums, already a session-player and musician with numerous Italian artists; Pino Casale on base and Gianfranco Orlandi on guitar.
With Karma (Emilio Staiola drums, Agostino Falciatori keyboards, Sandro Conti guitar, singer and percussion, Joe Ranucci bass, Roberta Del Sole singer and Giulio De Iacovo saxophone and clarinet), concerts were mainly staged in the summer, peaking between 1989 and 1993 with more than 250 dates. This group then had three tracks included in a Kyan Records compilation called “Sotto La Cresta dell’Onda” issued in 1992.
With Skydog, whose line-up changed a few times from the end of the ‘80s to the beginning of the ’90s (Sandro Conti, who had played in the ‘70s with “Corvi” and “Samadhi” as well as with Karma, took over on drums), Stefano Frollano took on the capital’s rock-blues and other musical scenes over the next few years with some noteworthy success. With Skydog he has a CD of the same name under his belt which came out in 1996 with one of its tracks included in an anthology on Blues in Italy. A track written also by Frollano, “Drifting Mine”, in 1977 became the opening signature tune for the programme “Medicina…non solo”.
Frollano has to his credit played with other Italian musicians including vocalist Andrea Satta and pianist Angelo Pelini (who founded the “Tetes de Bois” in the early ‘90s) in the group called “Charleston”; moreover he was the opening act for concerts of U.S. Singer-songwriters (Joe Henry) and sang and played live with Crosby, Stills and Nash in 1992.
His love for West Coast music led him in the mid ‘80s to found the “Blue Flares”, a group in which, among others, also played Joe Slomp (vocalist and keyboard), Marco Martella (vocalist and writer of lyrics for some of Frollano’s songs) and Francesco Lucarelli (guitar and vocalist). With Lucarelli, he performed on a host of occasions in Rome clubs.
After having left Skydog and Karma in 1997, Frollano founded The Wave together with Romanian drummer Sorin Piciorea, guitarist Roberto Pezzuoli (ex-Redwood) and Pino Casale on bass (ex-Skydog). The four-man band after having cut a demo-tape, found success in Romania, where they feature weekly in various national newspapers. Their music is also regularily broadcast on Romanian National Radio.
Following also the break-up of “The Wave”, along with Roberto Pezzuoli and Francesca Fagioli, in 1999 he set up The “Merli Rossi”, an all-acoustic cover band which was joined by Gianni Badaracchi, later to be replaced Alessandro Mazzetta on the double bass in 2001. He moreover worked, together with composer and producer Tony Carnevale, with psychiatric Massimo Fagioli to cut a number of tracks which are to be included in some videos and in the 2002 DVD Film “La psichiatria esiste?”.
Furthermore, along with the actress Emma Marconcini, a product of the Gigi Proietti workshop, he has played in a series of theatres, presenting Giuseppe Lago’s book “Sogni da Navigare”. He is also working, once again with Marconcini, following a string of successful performances in cultural circles, on putting a soundtrack to Nazim Hikmet’s poems, which are recited by the actress herself.
As well as actually playing music, Frollano has also worked for some private radio stations in Rome (Radio Macondo, Radio Blu, Radio Centro Musica and TRC); written numerous articles and reports for the musical press (Raro, Ciao 2001, Satisfaction, Mucchio Selvaggio). He penned for the Arcana Publishing House an essay on Neil Young and for Gopher Publications, a Dutch publisher, he printed a three-volume encylopaedia on Crosby Stills Nash and Young in September 2002.
In 2002, with the “Capital Soul” Band, along with his old friends Joe Slomp and Giulio De Iacovo, he embarked on another musical soul-funky adventure, becoming the guitarist for one the rare tribute-bands in the world of Tower Of Power, a legendary horn-driven funk outfit.
At the same time he also continued to pursue his musical career through 2003. Young and Old was in fact the other group set up together with Pezzuoli. Playing with the two guitarists are Mauro Lopez on drums and Gabriele Correddu on base. It is the Italian Neil Young tribute band. Meanwhile in Romania , two tracks by the old 1998 Group The Wave are released by a local label as part of an anthology dedicated to the old Romanian Band Trafic.
Frollano also played the electric guitar and lap steel guitar on solo artist Andrea Luciani’s debut disc.
From March 2005 he then started performing with the band Déjà Vu, playing David Crosby’s music. The group was made up of leader Claudio Maffei (guitar and singer), Walter Detond (drummer with Roberto Ciotti, Tiromancino and others), Fabio Fraschini (bass guitar) and Riccardo Zannelli (keyboard and singer), the last two being experienced live and studio musicians, playing with both Italian and foreign artists.
Frollano organised and starred in Neil Young Day, which was held in Jailbreak in Rome on 20th November 2005. He has played with the New-Look Young and Old band (Andrea Bisogno took over from Lopez on drums) and played lap steel guitar on several of Billy Talbot’s numbers, the celebrated Crazy Horse bassist, who was the evening’s special guest. Young and Old will tour clubs on next season with a new drummer.
On June 2006 Stefano has released his own first cd with original numbers for the American and Italian market. Among those who have so far played in the recordings, which were made in both Italy and the United States, are Jeff Pevar (guitar, lap steel, mandolin, currently with CPR and previously with Ray Charles, Rickie Lee Jones, Crosby and Nash, Joe Cocker, Marc Cohn, CSN and several others), James Raymond from CPR and CSN bands on keyboards, while Italian guests include Ada Montellanico (unique jazz singer/song writer), Marco Vannozzi (former bass guitar player with Strada Aperta and Antonello Venditti), Marco Campanari (bass player with “Latte e I Suoi Derivati), Ruggero Artale from World Percussion (percussionist), Francesco Lo Cascio on vibraphone, Walter Detond on drums from Roberto Ciotti Blues Band. Other female singers appearing on these tracks are Gabriella Paravati (outstanding performer of a number of Italian singer/songwriter works, live and in the studio) Francesca Mora who today plays on keyboard and sings with Waterfall, an Italian West Coast music cover group and Francesca Fagioli with her own celestial voice.
Indeed, in October 2006 Coniglio Editore released a great volume dedicated to Neil Young discography and written entirely by Stefano, one of the most expertise in the world for CSNY saga.
Next: another book about CS&N on next February for a different company and a special guesting on a Italian tribute cd dedicated to Bob Dylan music.
Words and pictures from the official website.
Discography
Sense Of You
SF Records 2011
Tracks: Intro: Hello!, (She Won´t) Fly Away, Believe, Chagall´s Song, The Dance, Northern Lights, Your Eyes, Fallin´ Apart, Memory Of Your Love, Sense Of You, Outro: Hello! & The Dance (Radio Edit).
Musicians on the Sense Of You album: Stefano Frollano, James Raymond, Jeff Pevar, Marco Vannozzi, Francesco Isola, Franco Piana, Luca Scorziello, Massimo Cusato, Pierluigi Campili, Giuliana De Doono, Paolo Casella, Chiara De Nardis, Gabriella Paravato, Daria Venuto & Laura Visconti.
Sense Of You
SIAE Records 2006
Tracks: Intro: Hello!, (She Won´t) Fly Away, Believe, Chagall´s Song, The Dance, Northern Lights, Your Eyes, Fallin´ Apart, Memory Of Your Love, Sense Of You, Outro: Hello! & The Dance (Radio Edit).
Musicians on the Sense Of You album: Stefano Frollano, James Raymond, Jeff Pevar, Marco Vannozzi, Francesco Isola, Franco Piana, Luca Scorziello, Massimo Cusato, Pierluigi Campili, Giuliana De Doono, Paolo Casella, Chiara De Nardis, Gabriella Paravato, Daria Venuto & Laura Visconti.
SF
SF Records 2006
Tracks: Autumn Fields, Higher & Higher, Shadows And Stone, Drifting Mine, Just For A While, How I Chose To Be A Singer, Two Clouds, Bluemarine, Across The Border & Further Tonight.
Musicians on the Stefano Frollano album: Stefano Frollano, Ruggero Artale, Stefano Baldasseroni, Federico Brucato, Mario Campanari, Walter Detond, Francesco La Cascio, Francesco Lucarelli, Andrea Luciani, Mauro Matteucci, Jeff Pevar, Marco Polizzi, James Raymond, Joe Slomp, Marco Vannozzi, Roberto Pezzuoli, Sorin Piciorea, Francesca Fagioli, Ada Montellanico, Francesaca Mora & Gabriella Paravati.