Biography
ITALIAN MUSIC
Emilio Cantini was born in Naples, Italy, in 1964. He started his guitar studies at the age of 11 with famous Italian guitar player Roberto Murolo as one of his mentors.
FLAMENCO MUSIC
At the age of 16, Emilio fell in love with Flamenco music and, under the influence of Paco de Lucia, he started to mix Flamenco and Jazz Music in a typically acoustic style. Later on, as a self-taught musician, he played with Bruno Pedros ñ a Neapolitan guitar player from "Spain" - and together with him and Oscar Montalbano went on tours around Italy. His work, acclaimed by Italian critics, put him in the theatrical environment where he composed classical music for plays.
JAZZ MUSIC
Cantini started to study jazz music with the great Italian guitar player Tommaso Lama. In 1985, he moved to Florence changing his style completely into Jazz. With the genious German tenor-saxophonist Mathias Schubert, Cantini performed around Italy in a long tour which lasted two years. In 1985 he joined American saxophonist Ben Fajen's band with Walter Paoli and Lello Pareti. The band - STREET RHYTHM (picture)- was a huge success in the Italian Jazz music environment, participating in several festivals. He also studied with MIKE STERN and JOE DIORIO, creating another original style band - GEZZERO (picture). Influenced by the popular Italian music, his melodies were renewed, mixing rock, free-jazz and Italian songs. With GEZZERO, Cantini also made several tours. In 1986, he studied arrangement and regency for Big Bands. In 1988, he formed a quartet along with Italian trumpeter Fabio Morgera (now resident in the USA), Stefano Bollani e Piero Borri with whom he performed in all the Jazz clubs in Florence, Italy, acclaimed by viewers and critics.
BRAZILIAN RHYTHMS
In 1989 Emilio Cantini arrived in Brazil, where he fell in love with the local beats and the Bossa Nova. He formed a band - Cantini Getztrio - and performed at various places: Consulado Italiano, EspaÁo Cultural Sergio Porto, Teatro Afonso Arinos, La Cave de Paris, Lugar Comum, Planet·rio da G·vea, P·tio Havana, Piccadilly Club, Botanic, Sociedade HÌpica Brasileira, Centro Cultural Candido Mendes, HipÛdromo Up, Canec“o, Mistura Fina, MercÌ and others. In Brazil he performed with Adriano Giffoni, Marcelo Camargo Mariano, Idriss Boudrioua, Robertinho Silva, ZÈ Canuto, Milton Banana, Guilherme Dias Gomes, Ricardo Silveira, Victor Biglione, Mauro Senise and others. Brazilian beats, which are the main part, created the musical basis for improvisation that changed his roots in a merge of all the musical styles Cantini had ever tried.
TECHNOLOGY
In 1992, he founded his own studio - O Trilho do Som (The Sound Rail) - of pre audio production in computers (Macintosh). MIDI recording, audio and mix table managing could be done on computers with the help of Samplers. He recorded pre-production audio for bands like Cidade Negra, O Rappa, Claudio Nucci and others.
SONG WRITING
Throughout his career, Cantini composed around 120 songs, which range from classical music, to music for Big Bands, Pop/Rock, Jazz, Jingles to Radio and TV commercials and sound tracks for plays.
HIS CAREER
Throughout his career, Cantini composed, arranged and directed music for a number of big bands and small orchestras. He also directed choirs in Rio and S“o Paulo, the most important ones being Soka Gakkai Choir ñ a religious choir - and Unesa Choir ñ a university choir. From 1990 to 1992 he was the bandleader of Dangerous Music, an american classical big band.
AT THIS MOMENT
He is now living in Nova Friburgo and is the leader of Cantini, Henry & Costa Trio. He is also a teacher of functional Harmony and Improvisation at the two leading music schools in town and teaches music to the most important local musicians. His most recent work is a duo/quartet with Claudio Nucci.
