BRENDAN KELLY The Gazette
Saturday, April 26, 2003
CREDIT: PETER MARTIN, THE GAZETTE

Vannelli, 50, says clinging to history means "you're in a self-constructed prison. So you have to work hard to find the key, and the key is 'Get rid of yourself, move on.' "

CREDIT: THE GAZETTE

Gino Vannelli in 1977: Growing up in Ahuntsic and Anjou, the singer-songwriter would be crooned to sleep by his dad's Italian folk songs.

Gino Vannelli is not big on living in the past. Most middle-age rockers are only too happy to spend most of their time reliving their glory years, and, as acts like the Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney know, that path is often the most lucrative way to go.

Former Montrealer Vannelli could also easily milk the nostalgia circuit, given his hit-heavy catalogue, which includes a series of soul, dance and pop chart-toppers from the 1970s and '80s, notably People Gotta Move, Black Cars, Brother to Brother, Wild Horses, and I Just Wanna Stop.Instead he has just crafted an album, Canto, that exists in a musical universe light years removed from the dance-floor anthems awash with synth riffs that made him one of Canada's biggest pop stars in the '70s.

Canto, due in record stores across Canada May 6, is an unusual collection of songs sung in Italian, French, Spanish and English that fuses classical and pop styles. The lushly orchestrated disc mixes elements from several spheres, including classical, opera, flamenco, Celtic and big old-fashioned pop ballads.

In a recent chat at a chichi downtown hotel, Vannelli started the conversation by admitting he barely remembers what it was like to be at the top of the pops 30 years ago. "It's somewhat of a blur, like when you move a camera real fast," said Vannelli, 50, while chowing down on a hefty tuna-steak sandwich. "I can't locate myself at 21 years old anymore. I had reminders, which I've destroyed. "He's emptied his house in rural Oregon of all the memorabilia from his early career, including his Juno Awards and old photos, in an effort to cleanse himself of the past.

Vannelli, who tends to speak in philosophical terms about most matters, said he simply can't bear to be too attached to his musical past. He had to break with his history because, he said, otherwise "you walk with a crutch. You're not a cripple but you're a cripple. That's the problem. You're limping all the way to the stage because you've got to do those old hits and you gotta be what people thought you were. You're in a self-constructed prison. So you have to work hard to find the key, and the key is 'Get rid of yourself, move on.' "You have to be willing to give it up, against all advice, by the way," he continued. "Most managers, if you have something going, they want you to keep it going. But it will lead you to your grave artistically. I feel like it's another nail in my coffin every time I have to adhere to who I was 25 years ago. "Canto's genre-bending experimentation is actually the culmination of a 10-year musical quest by Vannelli. In the '90s, he surprised many of his longtime fans with a pair of jazz-flavoured albums, Yonder Tree and Slow Love, and his performances in Montreal over the past decade have reflected his changing musical persona. He brought his new jazzy repertoire to the jazz festival on a couple of occasions, and his last major gig here was fronting the Montreal Symphony Orchestra for one of the MSO's pop-crossover shows in December 2000. With the orchestra, Vannelli performed many of his old tunes, including Black Cars and People Gotta Move, but in radically revamped arrangements.

Vannelli's recent performances are short on the sultry, steamy theatrics he practised - usually in ultra-tight pants and shirt unbuttoned down to his navel - back in the day.

When Yonder Tree and Slow Love failed to elicit the sort of reaction he had hoped for, he seriously contemplated ending his career as a recording artist. He figured he'd just produce other artists and, with that in mind, he produced an album for Danish jazz pianist Niels Lan Doky. The pianist fell in love with an Italian song that Vannelli had written for his late father, titled Parole Per Mio Padre, and Lan Doky recorded the song, with vocals from Vannelli, on the Haitek Haiku CD. The two ended up performing the song for Pope John Paul II's Christmas concert two years ago.

Executives at BMG Canada heard the song, loved it and contacted Vannelli with the idea of doing a full album of similar material. Soon enough, his short-lived retirement as a recording artist was over and he was back in the studio in Portland, Ore., working on Canto. He only agreed to do Canto because it's nothing like an ordinary pop album, he said. It had to be a challenge for it to interest the singer-songwriter. "For a mind that wants to remain creative, the biggest enemies are cynicism, boredom, dispassion," Vannelli said. "When you go, 'There's a mountain I want to climb,' that's the whole thing for me. To get interested again.

" The decision to sing in languages other than English came naturally, said Vannelli, who grew up in Ahuntsic and Anjou immersed in English, Italian and French. His father used to sing him to sleep with old Italian folk songs, and Vannelli said he felt a real freedom as a vocalist when belting out numbers in Italian. "I just had a unique sound with this language and it started affecting my voice differently," he said. "I had moments where I really had cathartic experiences. The romantic languages, like Italian and Spanish, were there because I wanted to inflect and really just open my mouth in different ways than I ever did before. I found I was able to reach certain heights vocally and dramatically, which would've been totally melodramatic in English but worked in those languages. With Italian and Spanish, I found the structure really forgiving. As a singer, I was rollicking. "He will soon be bringing this new classical-influenced sound to Montreal for a full concert accompanied by an orchestra, likely during this summer's jazz festival. He will also be performing June 13 at Le Bal Mercedes-Benz, a major social event to be held at Windsor Station during Grand Prix weekend.

Canto is due in stores May 6 - 2003

Profile of Gino Vannelli
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