Pino Presti
Pino Presti (pseudonym of Giuseppe Prestipino Giarritta, is an Italian bassist, arranger, composer, conductor, and record producer, born in Milan, August 23, 1943. He is a 5th-dan black belt in Shotokan Karate.
Presti was very young when he first entered the music business. He started as a bass guitar player, than gradually began as an arranger, composer, orchestra conductor, and producer. Among his collaborations in different genres of music like jazz, pop, funk, soul, and Latin music are Mina (the most famous Italian pop singer),Gerry Mulligan, Astor Piazzolla (with whom he has performed on 24 recordings as a sideman, including the well known composition Libertango), Quincy Jones, Wilson Pickett, Shirley Bassey, Franco Cerri, Maynard Ferguson, Stéphane Grappelli, Severino Gazzelloni, Aldemaro Romero, and Tullio De Piscopo among others. He is considered one of the most important Italian arrangers/conductors.
Early life
Son of an accomplished violinist, Arturo Prestipino Giarritta, has been studying piano and music theory since the age of 6. When he was 17, he started his career performing as vocalist and bass guitarist in clubs as well as working in recording studios as an instrumentalist.
Although he had a contract with Durium of Milano as a singer, he decided to concentrate only on performing music. He recorded hundreds of songs with major Italian artists such as: Mina, Giorgio Gaber, Ornella Vanoni, Gino Paoli, Bruno Lauzi, Fabrizio De André, Sergio Endrigo, Mia Martini, Franco Battiato, Adriano Celentano, Milva, Pino Donaggio, Gigliola Cinquetti, Caterina Caselli, Bobby Solo, Fausto Leali, Michele, Ivan Graziani, Loredana Berté and many others.