VENEGONI E CO.

Formed by ex-Arti & Mestieri guitarist Luigi "Gigi" Venegoni and taking its name by him, this was an open band which more than twenty musicians collaborated with during the years. A stable nucleus of the six musicians above recorded the band's two LP's on Cramps, being augmented in the studio by guest musicians like sax players Claudio Pascoli and Maurizio Gianotti.

More jazz-rock oriented than Arti & Mestieri, Venegoni & Co. are always ideally close to the old group, as demonstrated by Memoria on their first album, a reworking of the Positivo/Negativo theme from the old band's Tilt album. Their music is instrumental, obviously dominated by Venegoni's fluid guitar playing.

Though definitely less impressive and prog-inspired than the first two Arti & Mestieri albums, both Rumore rosso and Sarabanda can be an interesting listen for jazz-rock fans.

Two later studio albums on CD by Venegoni, Nocturne (as a trio with Marco Cimino from Errata Corrige and Marino Paire) and Mosaico were more in a new-age style, while the recent live CD's Rumore rosso vivo and Live...somewhere in the seventies... feature registrazione lives from different line-ups in 1978 and 1979.

Rumore rosso - LP

Sarabanda - LP

Rumore rosso vivo - CD cover

Live...somewhere in the seventies... - CD cover

Gigi Venegoni (guitar, bass, percussion)
Ludovico Einaudi (keyboards)
Luca Francesconi (keyboards)
Ciro Buttari (percussion, vocals, piano)
Pietro Pirelli (percussion)
Massimo Aimone (drums)