FURIO CHIRICO
Drummer
Educator
Academy Master of AMM Piedmont Region
(Torino, Nichelino,Villar Dora, Cuneo, Novara)
one of the greatest of all drummers with a worldwide recognition
Furio Chirico is a leading drummer in Italy. He applies his unique style, using his original “SPECULARE set up” to: progressive, jazz/salsa, jazz/rock, R&B, pop/song and ballet & drums, etc”. - Paolo Sburlati (drum journalist, author, Italian Manager of Ian Paice/etc)
Furio’s playing is extraordinary. - Bill Bruford
Furio is very original. Not only are you amazed by his abilities and powers when seeing him play, but his approach as a left-handed traditional grip drummer playing open-handed on a right-handed kit is exceedingly rare. – Kelly King (writer, authour)
Chirico – a passional drummer
The drums conceived under a passional point of view, not as a mere rhythmic instrument, but rather as a melodic and virtuous way of expression.
Developed an interest in percussion at a very early age: he recorded his first album at the age of fifteen, after working as a session player with many Italian pop singers. Only seventeen-years-old, he joined one of Europe’s finest progressive rock bands, The Trip (which featured the famous British guitarist Ritchie Blackmore in its first line-up ) and in 1974 he was one of the founding members of Arti & Mestieri, one of the historical band in the Italian progressive rock scene. There he found his natural habitat: a band that allowed him to express his astonishing style, full of explosive rolls and mind-blowing fills.
The line-up recorded various albums. Among them “Giro di valzer per domani” and “Tilt”, which were very successful, even in Japan. Over the years, Furio has earned a reputation as one of the best Italian drummers and he became involved with every musical style.
But what makes him so special is the development of a symmetric drum-kit “Speculare set-up”, where the high-pitched toms find place in the center of the set, while the low-pitched ones are positioned on both sides, allowing him to exploit his total ambidexterity and independence. Furio’s first experimentation with that set-up date back to the middle Seventies. In the same years, he opened his drumming school in Turin, the “ACCADEMIA MUSICA MODERNA” one of the most renowned schools in Italy. And even one of the most innovative ones, since aside from covering every area of drumming, it offers harmony training and English courses. The association has organized clinics with players such as Billy Cobham, Terry Bozzio, Gary Chaffee, David Garibaldi and Ian Paice and many others.
On December 8th, 1998 he performs at “Batnight”, an important event organized by “Batteur Magazine”, where he plays with artists such as Dom Famularo, Mel Gaynor, Steve Ferrone, Neil Conti and many others. A CD featuring recordings of the event, called “Batnight: dix des meilleurs batteurs du monde”, is available for sale.
Two instructional videos published by Electromantic Music show Furio’s incredible drumming. “Passional Drumming” and “Singin’ Drums” still are the best selling instructional videos in Italy.
The year 2001 saw the release of Arti & Mestieri’s new CD “Murales”; the English version of “Singin’ Drums”, and of Furio’s first solo CD, “Furiosamente”. Furio can also be heard on Arti’s newest release “Articollezione”.
Furio then performed at the Modern Drummer Festival 2002, in the US, where he shared the stage with artists like Jimmy DeGrasso, Thomas Lang and many others; first Italian ever to play at the prestigious festival, he delighted the audience with a performance full of passion, feeling and musicality; going against the trend, instead of ending his show with a demonstration of speed or technique, he played notes at a low volume, getting lower and lower; after a moment of silence, the audience welcomed him with a long applause.
Year 2003 saw the release of “Arti & Mestieri – live 1974-2000”.
In the meanwhile, Arti & Mestieri restarted playing live quite often, and in August 2003 with arti&mestieri Furio made it overseas to perform at the ProgDay, in North Carolina. A special CD was put out as a celebration of the event.
Furio then played with the band at the BajaProg “, in Mexicali, Mexico, where they headlined the 2004 edition; according to many reviews, their show was the best of the festival, and Furio was voted as the best drummer ever to perform at the BajaProg. The gig was such a success that they headlined the 2005 edition, too, playing, even a better performance. On June 2004, Furio made a fisrt performance with Arti & Mestieri in Japan, realized the band’s desire for the first time in 33 years. Japan were fascinated by Furio’s drumming, then his drum clinic was a great success quite with those Japanese enthusiasts.
In 2006 Furio focused his effort more into an new experimental activities related to an academy expansion, as a representative director of Accademia Musica Moderna in Piedmont, supervising other professors at the academies in Turin, directly involved in nationwide organization for the whole Accademia Musica Moderna in Italy.
Also in 2006 Furio made his return to Japan with C3, a new trio(jazz rock/jam band) formed with the founder Beppe Crovella, Furio Chirico and Roberto Cassetta.
Year 2007 saw the release of 2 CDs, which of great significance for Furio, Arti & Mestieri’s “First Live in Japan” and furthermore, in the name of his, Furio Chirico & Friends’s “Father to Son” which dedicated to his beloved son “Stravos”. Numerous musicians formed the early era of Arti & Mestieri, appeared for this album creation.
In 2008, Furio was praised as “Superdrummers” featuring in one of America’s finest drummers magazines [Drumhead], among other 5 best modern drummers of the world, Mike Mangini, Virgil Donati, Marco Minnemann, Thomas Lang, Grant Collins.
In the spring of 2009, the new EP "Il Grande Belzoni" of Arti & Mestieri was released worldwide. "Il Grande Belzoni" is a genuine progressive rock mini - album, featuring 1 instrumental piece and 3 vocal pieces with Arti & Mestieri’s characteristic sound, artistic direction by Furio Chirico. The lyrics totally written by the Italian prominent journalist and author, Marco Zatterin. "Il Grande Belzoni" is based on the story of Giovanni Belzoni, an Italian explorer, a sort of Indiana Jones, who began as strong man in a circus, then became an archeologist, a famous Egyptologist.
In the summer of 2010, one of the Furio’s initial bands, The Trip made their historical reunion of three original members of, Joe Vescovi, Furio Chirico, Arvid Wegg Andersen, and finally performed together after 36 years interval at the Prog Exibition in Rome, the grand stage dedicated to the 40th years anniversary of Italian Progressive Rock Music.
Furio Chirico plays with TAMA, UFiP, VATER, EVANS
Projects:
THE TRIP (progressive rock) 1972-1973, 2010 - 2014
ARTI&MESTIERI - Arti e Mestieri (progressive rock, jazz rock) 1974 - present
Furio Chirico’s THE TRIP (progressive rock) 2022 - present
Chirico Camarca Projetcs (latin jazz/funk)
Furio Chirico & Friends (power jazz rock, theatrical music)
C3 (jazz rock)
Videos & DVDs:
Furio Chirico "Passional Drumming"1994 Synergy Recrds/Electromantic Music
Furio Chirico "Singin Drums" 1996 Synergy Records/Electromantic Music
Furio Chirico "Singin Drums" DVD English version2001 Electromantic Music