PAOLO RUSTICHELLI - FUNKY LOVE

Acclaimed eclectic music composer and instrumentalist, Paolo Rustichelli’s soulful new single “Funky Love,” is a cinematic, joyful, smooth and seductive, innovative musical celebration. “Funky Love” is his 2nd single from the soon to be released album Soul Italiano. Paolo is the son of three-time Oscar nominee, movie soundtrack composer, Carlo Rustichelli, known as the creator of spaghetti western music. Paolo studied composition and orchestra conducting at Accademia Chigiana, as well as classical piano studies. He started his career at age 16 simultaneously as a soundtrack composer and as a rock keyboard player with the album Opera Prima released on RCA Records, considered by critics a Rock progressive masterpiece.

As a teenage prodigy, Paolo pioneered the use of the mono synth ARP 2600 in Dino Risi's "In Nome del Popolo Italiano", and followed with a subsequent score for the Italian cult film Fernando Di Leo's "Razza Violenta". Both scores were entirely made with both the Yamaha CS80 polysynth and with the first sampler machine of the world, the Fairlight CMI, making Paolo one of the first composers to produce a soundtrack entirely with synths. In 1991, Paolo moved from Rome to Los Angeles, and in 1995 he released the solo album Mystic Jazz (known as Capri in the US, by PolyGram records) which was the first Italian jazz-rock album released worldwide by PolyGram records. As a pioneer musical attempt it achieved chill out music genre success (via the Buddha Bar compilations) and proved extremely influential for future smooth jazz progressive styles.

Among his other album projects, Paolo recorded, performed and produced for rock-jazz superstars like Carlos Santana and Miles Davis. In 1997 he released the album Mystic Man in the U.S. through the Island Records label, which featured the legendary Miles Davis, Carlos Santana, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Andy Summers and the disco diva Jill Jones. In that same year, Gavin and Radio & Records (Billboard) reported the song "Paisa" from Paolo's album Mystic Man had reached the Top 10 on the U.S. NAC Smooth Jazz charts.

In 2002 Paolo composed, arranged and produced the song "Kyrie" for Placido Domingo's Sacred Songs album. The album Neopagan, completely made with state-of-the-art plug-in technology, charted in the U.S. Radio charts in 2006 with the song "My Geisha". His latest single "Soul Italiano" (2011) has been at the Top Ten radio charts for seven weeks.