Steve Piccolo. Lounge Lizard, Secret Rose

Ieri ho avuto il piacere di incontrare Steve Piccolo all'Auditorium di Roma, durante le prove della prima europea di A Secret Rose, opera di Rhys Chatham per cento chitarre elettriche, basso elettrico (Steve Piccolo) e batteria (Jonathan Kane). “Una jam session immaginaria tra John Cale, Tony Conrad e i Ramones” in tre sezioni diretta da David Daniell, Bernardo Nardini, Luca Nostro con i migliori chitarristi e i migliori allievi delle scuole di musica romane in sintonia con le immagini “ritmiche”, del video realizzato per l’occasione da Robert Longo.

Steve Piccolo è musicista, co-fondatore dei Lounge Lizards, autore di opere sonore (Domestic Exile, Adaptation) e canzoni di successo tra cui il testo di "Self-Control" di Raf nel 1984. L'artista di origini americane ha prodotto e collaborato con band italiane Massimo Volume, Afterhours, Rosso Maltese, e artisti di calibro come Elliott Sharp, Zeena Parkins.


Steve Piccolo - Born in USA. School and college in New York (Bard College, New York University). Began professional career in early 1970s playing standup bass in jazz groups. Toward the end of the Seventies, in parallel with his activity as a performance and sound artist, together with John and Evan Lurie, Arto Lindsay and Tony Fier he founded the group The Lounge Lizards. For five years or so they performed all over the world, including international festivals and important venues. Their first LP (now CD, Virgin), published in 1981, continues to sell quite a few copies each year. In parallel with these activities Steve worked in the world of pop music, writing songs and lyrics. He published two LPs under his name (Domestic Exile, Adaptation) in the early 1980s, and began working with songwriters and producers on an international level. “Self Control” written by Bigazzi-Riefoli-Piccolo (1984) with lyrics by Steve sold many millions of copies, reaching number one on charts all over the world. Second half of 1980s in New York, writing songs and music for theater and films. In the 1990s he moved to Milan and published two CDs with the collaboration of Italian and American musicians: “Hilarity Workshop” (Underground Records, Bologna, 1997) and “Bitter Pill”(Cox 18 Music, Milan, 1999-2000). His songs were included in compilations published by Sony and EMI, and a number of compilations in the United States (see the CD page on this site for DISCOGRAPHY).

Starting in 1995 he returned to frequent live concert activity, playing festivals and theaters in Italy and around Europe with different line-ups, including Italian musicians (jazzmen Giancarlo Locatelli and Filippo Monico), members of new ‘rock’ groups (Massimo Volume, Afterhours, Rosso Maltese) and friends from New York (Elliott Sharp, Zeena Parkins). From 1999 to 2004 his research focused on the major project The Expedition, a narrative-musical work specifically developed for each city or situation in which it was performed. For the whole story see the Expedition History on this website.
Five years of work on this project led to the Expedition CD released in 2004. The Expedition project is now officially complete. Over the last few years Steve’s activities have become too numerous, frequent and varied for a quick summary in these biographical notes. For a detailed listing of projects, events, dates over the last few years see the EVENTS DIARIES at the LIVE section of this website. Work with artists and designers: recent projects with Luca Pancrazzi (DE-ABC), Adrian Paci, Gabriele Di Matteo, A Constructed World, Ivo Bonacorsi, Isola Art Center (Bert Theis) and many others.

New record releases (2006):
1. vocals on new CD Spirits Up Above, Splasch Records, by Tiziano Tononi and Daniele Cavallanti with William Parker and friends.
2. compositions on new CD Informed Consent by Gak Sato (Temposphere)
3. voice and bass on new CD by Simone Massaron entitled Breaking News, feat. Elliott Sharp
4. Concentrate, CD included in catalogue of exhibition by Nathalie Du Pasquier, limited edition, pub. Corraini.

New record releases (2007):
1. track on Bit Beat, part of our low-fi videogame 8-bit explorations involving many very young musicians in Europe.
2. finally released, the CD of the live performance of The Box Man by Crowd of One, on the Tracce series by RAI Trade.