Biography
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Born
1952 (age 72)
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Born In
Genova, Genova, Liguria, Italy
It is the smile that is the key for reading the musical universe of Beppe Gambetta. An open and disarming smile that is also the contagious and irresistable smile of a person who invites you to a musical journey with light heart and curiosity. The destination, as for any traveler, is not totally defined because it is beautiful, at the very last, to find ourselves where we never would expected to be.
With the horizon's line as a challenge and attraction, Beppe is continually composing his personal mosaic of sounds and flavors. From his unique roots developing as an Italian musician in love with both American country and bluegrass as well as the music of his native country, Beppe has traveled the world and even crossed the “Iron Curtain” to dazzle and charm music enthusiasts everywhere. After ten CDs, four DVDs, four teaching books, and collaborations with many other top-flight musicians, Gambetta is increasingly known as one of the true live master innovators of the acoustic guitar.
While Beppe still lives in his native Genova, he travels to North America at least twice each year. His reputation in the U.S. and Canada is reinforced by his participation in prestigious festivals like the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas, Merlefest in North Carolina, the Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas and Canadian Folk Festivals in Winnipeg and Edmonton, as well as events like the radio shows “All Things Considered” and “E-Town”. Beppe is also featured in the movie “The Primal Twang” and has performed in prestigious rooms like the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In his career he has performed with some great heroes of the folk scene like David Grisman, Doc Watson, Norman Blake, Gene Parsons, Bela Fleck and, on a regular basis, with Dan Crary and with the band Men Of Steel: an international guitar summit (Dan Crary, Tony McManus and Don Ross) of different guitar schools with complex musical interaction. In a world dominated by the trends and logic of the market Gambetta's playing and singing stand out for their intimate emotions, communication, research in tone, sobriety and humor. An inspired music that modestly avoids relying solely on his high level of technical excellence, but also reveals the innermost feelings of a brilliant, playful mind that is always firmly exploring and innovating while staying firmly routed in tradition.
With America in his heart and his roots in the sun and the olive trees of the Mediterranean sea, he naturally and seamlessly bridges the shores of the two continents, creating in spite of the interposed ocean a musical "koiné" (fusion) where country music and Ligurian tradition, emigration songs and folk ballads, mandolins and harp guitars not only co-exist but interact, weaving a deep dialog unaware of any rigid classification.
Music on its way, proud of the past but looking to the future, able to talk to us in the present because it is rooted in the history of generations of men and women so different but so equal to us. Strolling music, intolerant of frontiers and passports, exclusions and obsessions. Vital music, passionate but sober. It is waving to us. Let's follow it.
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