Walter Martino

Italian drummer Walter Martino was born in Milan on April 18th, 1953. His father Bruno is a singer, pianist and composer well-known both in Italy and abroad. When he was 10, he started his relation with music studying classical piano. Soon he devoted himself to drums, too, which became, at the age of 14, his main instrument. Between 1968 and 1974 he collaborated with many bands and artists like: Il Ritratto di Dorian Gray, Raccomandata con Ricevuta di Ritorno, Reale Accademia di Musica, Tito Schipa Jr., Giovanni Ullu, Paolo Rustichelli, Enrico Simonetti, Severino Gazzelloni, etc. 1975 marked two fundamental steps for his career and experience: after forming the band GOBLIN together with Claudio Simonetti, Fabio Pignatelli e Massimo Morante, he composed, arranged and played with them the soundtrack for Dario Argento's movie "Deep Red", a great world-famous recording success. At the half of 1975, Walter left Goblin to join another historical Italian rock band: LIBRA, the only Italian band which had recorded two albums for the renowned American recording label Motown Records. With Libra he realized the dream of a lot of european musicians: to play one's own music in the U.S.A. In fact the band made a tour which started in Detroit and then reached a great many towns. Libra played as supporters of bands and famous artists like Savoy Brown, Steppenwolf, Tubes, Frank Zappa, Image, Argent, etc. At the end of the tour the band got in the studio in L.A. to record their second LP: "Winter Day's Nightmare". In 1976 Walter came back to Italy and became immediately one of the drummers much in demand in recording studios and in various tour of great Italian and foreign artists like Alan Sorrenti, Antonello Venditti, Mia Martini, Claudio Baglioni, Loredana Bertè, Mina, James Senese, Tony Esposito, Carnascialia, Amii Stewart, Gary Low, Jeanne Mas, Mike Francis, Moses, Massimo Ranieri, Rodolfo Maltese, Amedeo Minghi, Vivien Vee, Easy Going, Riviera, Kasso, Program Two, etc. He took part to many recording sessions and TV shows with the conductors Enrico Simonetti, Franco Cerri, Vito Tommaso, Pippo Caruso, Gianni Mazza, etc. In 1980 he moved to Milan where he collaborated with several musicians and artists like Mauro Paoluzzi, Mario Lavezzi, Simon Luca, Tony Mims, Alberto Radius, etc. Since 1985 he has dedicated himself also to Jazz and Fusion taking part to Umbria Jazz's 1986 Edition, too. In 1988 he played drums during the Italian Tour of Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, in 1989 he was on tour in U.R.S.S. with Roberto Ciotti and in 1990 he collaborated to the live recording of Renato Zero's "Prometeo" double CD. In the same period he collaborated with Jazz-Latin-Fusion band Samambaya, with Irio De Paula and Karl Potter, after what he created his own band named Percussion System, a sextet based on percussions joined by many young musicians (Giovanni Imparato, Arnaldo Vacca, Umberto Vitiello, Claudio Colasazza, Pippo Matino, Rocco Zifarelli, Pino Iodice, Francesco Marini, Massimo Carrano, etc.) with which he played all original pieces that he composed for the occasion. As a composer and arranger, during his career, he saw his pieces at the first places in the hit parades in Italy and abroad, among these: "Brazilian Dancer" (Kasso, '81), "Sahara Woman" (Kazino, '85), "Tell me Bonita" (Dana Dowson, '91). Apart from "Deep Red" he composed soundtracks for movies like "Shock" by Mario Bava in 1978, together with Libra, and "Nervi a pezzi" by the French Bernard Doubois in 1980, musics for theater and ballets (Occasi, '83) and many commercials (Alemagna, Beghelli, Arquati, Riello, "Alta velocità" for Ferrovie dello Stato, etc). Together with Roberto Gatto and Agostino Marangolo in 1988 and '89 he collaborated to a drum course joined by a great many lads coming from all over Italy. In 1990 he found PERCUSSION SYSTEM SCHOOL, a school exclusively dedicated to the study of drums. Every year, between 1992 and 1997, he organized the “CONCORSO NAZIONALE PER BATTERISTI E PERCUSSIONISTI NON PROFESSIONISTI”, assigning very much professional prizes to young promises of Italian drumming. Walter Martino is also author of the first video-method for drums realized in Italy and published in 1993, entitled: LA BATTERIA MODERNA. Since 1994 has been the president of B.I.A. (Batteristi e Percussionisti Italiani Associati), an association founded together with the most famous Italian drummers: Ellade Bandini, Giulio Capiozzo, Alfredo Golino and many others, which turns its attention to both the professional and the amateurs. In 1996, '97 and '98 he also organized “Vacanze-studio per batteristi all'Isola d'Elba”, joined by some of the best Italian drummers like Maurizio Dei Lazzaretti, Pierfoschi, Agostino Marangolo, Walter Calloni, Christian Meyer, Ellade Bandini, Roberto Gatto, Daniele Tedeschi, Davide Ragazzoni, etc. At present Walter dedicates himself to the didactics and the composition of many kinds of music, without neglecting the great care during live concerts and in the recording studio.

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