Artist
TOTO TORQUATI
An excellent keyboardist, blind from his birth, Antonio "Toto" Torquati had a very promising career as a session musician, first in the jazz circuit, playing with the likes of Bill Coleman, Billy Smith, Gato Barbieri, Earl Hines, Toots Thielemans and Joe Morello, and subsequently in the pop field, playing with Claudio Baglioni, Lucio Dalla, Gianni Morandi, Mina, and later in Gepy & Gepy group (the nickname of Giampiero Scalamoglia, a prolific composer during the 70's, that also sang in the Gli occhi di un bambino album).
A little-known first solo album appeared in 1972,
simply titled with his real name Antonio Torquati; this was a
ten-track
instrumental moog and keyboards album including cover versions of 60's hits,
like Oh! Happy day or Aquarius.
A second one, Gli occhi di un bambino came out on RCA
in 1973 and went totally unnoticed at the time, being discovered by many after
the recent Akarma reissue. Described by some dealers as a good example of
symphonic prog, the album is in fact heavily orchestrated and mainly falls into
the pop field, but it contains some classical and light progressive elements.
Torquati has totally disappeared as a solo artist after
a commercial single in 1977, Tenero al cioccolato (with which he won the
Disco Mare contest), but he kept collaborating with many popular artists and
still has a recording studio in Rome.
His return to a record release was in 2007 with a new CD entitled Vita, amore
e musica.
| LP | |||
| Antonio Torquati | Cetra (LPP 179) | 1972 | front laminated single cover |
| Gli occhi di un bambino | RCA (DPSL 10573) | 1973 | gatefold cover |
| Akarma (AK 1012) | 1999 | as above | |
CD |
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| Gli occhi di un bambino | Akarma (AK 1012) | 1999 | reissue of 1973 album with mini gatefold cover |
| BMG (82876-54411-2) | 2003 | as above | |
| Vita, amore e musica | Heristal/Poliedizioni (80329 09411 2 14) | 2007 | new studio recordings |
SINGLES (with picture covers) |
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| Tenero al cioccolato La ragazza del piano di sopra |
Vanilla (VA 013) | 1977 | |
PROMOTIONAL AND JUKEBOX SINGLES |
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| Tenero al cioccolato La ragazza del piano di sopra |
Vanilla (VA 013) | 1977 | jukebox single - same as standard issue, but with different picture cover |
Both the Torquati albums are rare, the second can be easily found in the recent CD reissues on Akarma (also on vinyl) and BMG.
Gli occhi di un bambino had a Venezuelan issue
with gatefold sleeve (RCA).
No counterfeits exist.
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|
Antonio Torquati - LP |
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|
Gli occhi di un bambino - LP |
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|
Tenero al cioccolato - 7" single cover |
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La ragazza del piano di sopra - jukebox 7" single cover |
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|
Vita, amore e musica - CD |
Toto Torquati's own website is www.tototorquati.com
Thanks to Carmine Musella, John Elvis Gualtieri and Andrea Salvador for scans and information in this page
