Toni Verde

Toni Verde started his musical career early, in 1966 when he was just 12 years old; he studied classic piano and guitar as well as harmony and composition.

In 1969 he met Jenny Sorrenti and with musicians of the calibre of Robert Fix and the support of Tony Esposito, he founded the “Saint Just”, a folk-rock-progressive group that came out in 1973 with its first album.The music for the pieces contained in this album was all composed by Toni Verde while the lyrics were written by Jenny Sorrenti. The songs represent a sort of folk updated with classic inserts which delve into the Italian (and foreign) culture of the previous centuries, with an eye to the Middle Ages, and they relate somewhat to those of English artistes such as Pentangle, Third Ear Band and Steeleye Span. The esoteric atmospheres and the guileful instrumental touches create fascinating listening. Saint Just is considered one of the most interesting arrivals on the Italian scene of that period.The album went on sale with the historic English label Harvest – the same label as the Pink Floyd.

All the pieces of the second album, “The House on the Lake”, were also composed by Toni Verde, and as before Jenny Sorrenti wrote the lyrics. This album introduces serious classical elements, in fact the piece “Nella vita, un pianto” utilizes a full orchestra. The arrangements for strings and brass were made by Vince Tempera. This second album too was issued by EMI-Harvest,

During their career the Saint Just have appeared in very many rock concerts, the most notable being the concert at the Overseas Exhibition at Naples and the historic “Re Nudo” event in 1975 at the Lambro Park in Milan. Both had enormous success before a crowd of thousands of persons. The group also gave countless concerts all over Italy with political parties to support various causes, these were the days of the divorce referendum.

After playing in the Saint Just for some years and then collaborating with Alan Sorrenti and Pino Daniele, Toni Verde moved to London to record the solo album “Calypso”, which came out in 1977. Flanked by excellent musicians such as the famous jazzman Lol Coxhill, the pianist Vincent Crane (Atomic Rooster) and David Vorhaus (White Noise and also sound engineer on the Virgin staff), Toni produced a completely instrumental album, a mix of various styles – experts in the sector still remember it as one of the first examples of acid jazz fusion between progressive, electronic, soul, jazz and Central-American rhythms. It was published under the EMI – Harvest label and still arouses interest in the Far-Eastern market.

Subsequently, Toni went through a period when he divided his life between Rome, London and Los Angeles. At this time there was an artistic encounter with the theatre world and he made friends with Giorgio Albertazzi. Toni collaborated on numerous occasions, composing music for some of the most notable theatrical events in Italy.

Toni Verde then decided to remain in the U.S. for several years to complete his studies in Los Angeles, where with Penny Brown he wrote various pop tunes for the international market. During his long stay in America, apart from attending advanced courses in harmony and composition, he made the first steps as a record producer, learning how to supervise recording sessions, preparation and guidance of the musicians and supervision of the mixage and masterization processes.

In the early 1980s Verde returned to Italy where with Andy Luotto he took part in the cult transmission “Quelli della Notte“ of Renzo Arbore. He wrote and sang the song “Eat la pizza pie” which was included in the CD compilation of the broadcast. Following this TV broadcast, he wrote the background music for a satirical and ironical comedy by Andy Luotto which toured Italy.

He then wrote for RAI (Italian state television) the sound track for a film in the series “Che fai ridi?....” with Andy Luotto as actor.

In the late 1980s he founded with his brother Ciro Verde the record label ACV, for the production of dance music, then called “Dance Made in Italy”, and subsequently joined the team of Daniela Fusco, a successful graphic artist. Daniela created the graphics for the label, whose covers attracted the attention of important newspapers in Europe. The creation of completely new electronic sounds, often with hard house rhythms, and the search for sound as an artistic experiment quickly put ACV Records into a leading position both in Italy and abroad. And thus Toni Verde as a producer came to dominate the world market for electronic music, bringing success to artistes such as Robert Armani, Dave Clarke, Steve Poindexter, Paul Johnson and K-Alexi. He worked with the top European DJ such as Dave Angel, Joe Beltram and Sven Vath. Very many artistes in Europe, America and Japan owe their success to him. Numerous reviews, articles and special features have been dedicated to Toni Verde in all the most important European publications. The English television ITV broadcast a special dedicated to the Cult label of the moment and the “DJ Magazine” in London described ACV as “the most ambitious label since the time of Motown”. It was the first electronic dance label to appear in Russia, organizing an event inside the Sports Palace at Moscow and taking part in the Love Parade in Germany, besides numerous events in the most important Clubs throughout the world.

In 1994 a personal challenge led him to produce pop-dance music with great success and he gained very quickly the top spots in the lists with productions such as Blackwood, Chase and Gate. In the record market he is noted for his melodies, unique of their type, which created a new era for pop dance with the launch of the “Romantic Dance” style.

In 2000 Toni founded the satellite musical station named Count Down Television for which he received in 2001 the prize “Hot Bird TV Awards” as the best European musical channel. After this a long series of collaborations followed, as Art Director, with various national television stations.

Today Toni Verde has returned to composing and, today as in the past, brings some innovations into the musical panorama. In the 1970s he was the pioneer first of progressive rock and then of acid jazz; in the 1990s precursor of electronic music; at the end of the decade trailblazer for the romantic dance style; and today his new production is “Class Music” .

In his forthcoming album Toni Verde has united very contrasting experiences; when assimilated and renewed, they amalgamate in a style where love, passion and sentiment predominate. They blend together admirably: the melodies, harmonies and symphonic allusions, all of them breathing life into a totally instrumental project where there is a simple, free expression of one’s emotions.

Hearing a tune from the album is like breathing a whiff of sentiment full of romanticism and love: in the melodies you can catch the hints of a tale of life which expresses joy and passion linked with a secret melancholy. The flow of notes is like a dialogue, a description of a slice of life gone by, which immediately sparks off emotional sensations.

External links

* [http://www.toniverde.it official web site]
* [http://www.myspace.com/toniverde myspace eng]