Jazz, Pop Luminaries Accent Italian Composer’s Solo Debut

Paolo Rustichelli’s new career in America has been a busy one.

He has lived in his new home atop the Hollywood Hills for only three months, and he’s already working on at least one American film score. And his new debut album as a solo recording artist spotlights guest performances by such jazz and pop luminaries as Herbie Hancock, Carlos Santana, Wayne Shorter, Andy Summers and the late Miles Davis.

Rustichelli has already known success in Italy as a movie soundtrack composer. But, he says, he’s hoping to broaden some of that success beyond Europe with the new album, “Capri,” released here on Verve/Polygram. Meanwhile, he is searching for a deal with a major American record label.

“In this project, I imagined ‘Capri’ as an imaginary movie with many stars, like Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, people like this,” says Rustichelli, relaxing last weekend at home. “For me to realize an album like ‘Capri’ was like a rebellious act against the Italian and European recording industry, which has always underestimated its own talent.”

The record, he says, is the first by an Italian pop or jazz artist to be pressed simultaneously in music centers worldwide, rather than being limited to a few discs exported from Italy for international distribution.

Rustichelli financed the entire project, leaving him in complete control over marketing and distribution. And he ignored the advice of Italian label executives who suggested that Davis wouldn’t play with a light-skinned musician.

“People in Europe don’t think universal,” complains Rustichelli, the son of composer Carlo Rustichelli, whose Academy Award nominations include the score for 1962’s “Divorce, Italian Style.” “They think just for the small market, in Italy, in France. And I think there are many good musicians who can break the wall and release albums worldwide,” he says.

The participation of the famed trumpet innovator and other guest players hinged largely on demo tapes of the songs Rustichelli hoped to record with them. For instance, just two months after Rustichelli delivered a demo of the track “Full Moon” to Santana, and before Rustichelli could formally invite him to play on the album, the guitarist had already incorporated the song into his own live set, with plans to record it himself.

And when Rustichelli met with Davis in Rome in 1990 to invite him to play “Capri’s” romantic title song, he says, the jazz veteran at first offered to buy the tune. “I always loved Miles because he always tried not to repeat himself,” Rustichelli says. “And I also loved his open musical mind, completely different from the standard jazz artist mentality.”

Things did grow a little uncomfortable early in the session at Rustichelli’s second-floor sound studio in Rome, he says, after Davis struggled up some stairs on legs injured long before in an auto accident.

“I could tell by the look on his face that this upset him,” Rustichelli remembers. “There was some tension in the first moments of the session. Also the unusual intro to ‘Capri’ made him exclaim: ‘What is this . . . thing?’ ”

But Davis soon warmed up to the song, recording it with and without his usual muted horn.

For Rustichelli, gathering the all-star lineup of mostly jazz artists was crucial to his plans for his debut album. Yet even with all this help, he’s not quick to accept the title of jazz musician. After all, he spent his childhood playing classical works on an acoustic piano, played in a progressive rock act as a teen-ager and has worked as a producer for dance-pop artists.

“I see myself as a very open-minded musician,” says Rustichelli, who hopes to tour the United States. “So I can use ingredients of jazz, pop, rock or rap. I’m free to do what I want to do. I call my style ‘total music.’

“In soundtracks you have to be able to perform in all the styles,” he adds. “And you have great fun in this business because you are free. It’s like a painter, who can paint a city, mountains, a dream, everything.”

CLASSICS AT CSUN: Cellist Tess-A. Remy Shumacher will be joined by pianist Mary Jo Farr and violinist Nancy Roth in a performance March 5 as part of the Cal State Northridge “Guest Performer Series.” The 8 p.m. concert, presented in the campus Recital Hall, is scheduled to include works by Beethoven, Brahms and Lutoslawski.

On March 6, the CSUN New Music Ensemble will perform with guest Max Lifchitz at 8 p.m. March 6. Admission to both concerts is $6.50 general admission, and $3.50 for students. For information, call (818) 885-3093.