Renato breaks his silence
I met a 62 year old boy
I was still wearing shorts and the streets were sunny and dusty. The houses didn’t have any plaster and the gardens were filled with wild roses and field flowers. I still had no idea that I would have been part of a generation that would have lived through the miracles of an impatient progress. The radio already existed but the television, the jukebox and the newspapers were making their way very quickly.
Thirty years have passed since then and we all know the history of it. There are plenty of dates and many memories of which the best soundtrack is music. All you need is two notes; a voice and you can relive that instant, that time, that day and that year.
Maybe it for this reason that when I first met Renato Carosone it was as if I had already known him, and an inborn passion for music did the rest. We spent several evenings in front of a lit fireplace, with a good glass of wine, while speaking and remembering and before we knew it, it was already morning.
After having worked with Renato for months in the realization of the “collection” with the enthusiasm and harmony of two lovers as he used to say, I think I finally understood the exact measure of the man and the artist.
A man who is conscious of the real values of life and the artist who knows how to conciliate all these things together. His grandfather often told him: “Renà, light a candle because the procession is very long.” And Renato understood him.
I saw a very nice old boy who gave lessons of courage. I saw him with young musicians; at first he was a bit puzzled and disoriented but however after four notes he was playing a genre which seemed right for them. I saw him explain parts without ever losing control or starting from the beginning or a mix and he always had a smile on his face. I saw him arrive at the studio with swollen eyes after a night of insomnia because he had listened to the work from the previous day. I saw him do the “voice” (as we say in jargon) for a song. He did it all in one breath shocking those at the recording studio, who had been used to putting songs together piece by piece and word for word. They saw him smoke cigarettes as if he were about to become a father; he drank his coffee with the satisfaction of someone who just reached a goal. Above all, I saw him work with enthusiasm while enjoying himself, which is no longer very common.
Renato said that going to the recording studio after so many years was really exciting, he lived his life with anxiety, fear hope and success through his songs an the was able to brush up his repertoire and it is with immense joy that he listens to his voice after it has been “cleaned up” of all the defects with the help of the equipment, which was quite limited at the time.
I don’t think there’s a record needle, which hasn’t cut through his songs or a newspaper which, hasn’t spoken about him; even so, his simplicity was a model. The public loved him and he always knew how to pay them back.
I really don’t know how to draw but I tried to do a charcoal portrait of him; and uncured baldness gives way to a will of happiness, which extends from his forehead to his chin, he always spreads good humor.
His wife knows that he ha a lover and that that lover is music.
He is also a great tamer and the piano is his pure breed.
He carries elegance, as one would wear a Dior outfit.
Sandrino Aquilani
After having worked with Renato for months in the realization of the “collection” with the enthusiasm and harmony of two lovers as he used to say, I think I finally understood the exact measure of the man and the artist.
A man who is conscious of the real values of life and the artist who knows how to conciliate all these things together. His grandfather often told him: “Renà, light a candle because the procession is very long.” And Renato understood him.
I saw a very nice old boy who gave lessons of courage. I saw him with young musicians; at first he was a bit puzzled and disoriented but however after four notes he was playing a genre which seemed right for them. I saw him explain parts without ever losing control or starting from the beginning or a mix and he always had a smile on his face. I saw him arrive at the studio with swollen eyes after a night of insomnia because he had listened to the work from the previous day. I saw him do the “voice” (as we say in jargon) for a song. He did it all in one breath shocking those at the recording studio, who had been used to putting songs together piece by piece and word for word. They saw him smoke cigarettes as if he were about to become a father; he drank his coffee with the satisfaction of someone who just reached a goal. Above all, I saw him work with enthusiasm while enjoying himself, which is no longer very common.
Renato said that going to the recording studio after so many years was really exciting, he lived his life with anxiety, fear hope and success through his songs an the was able to brush up his repertoire and it is with immense joy that he listens to his voice after it has been “cleaned up” of all the defects with the help of the equipment, which was quite limited at the time.
I don’t think there’s a record needle, which hasn’t cut through his songs or a newspaper which, hasn’t spoken about him; even so, his simplicity was a model. The public loved him and he always knew how to pay them back.
I really don’t know how to draw but I tried to do a charcoal portrait of him; and uncured baldness gives way to a will of happiness, which extends from his forehead to his chin, he always spreads good humor.
His wife knows that he ha a lover and that that lover is music.
He is also a great tamer and the piano is his pure breed.
He carries elegance, as one would wear a Dior outfit.
Sandrino Aquilani
