New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ Gino Federici official website) After a seven-year hiatus, international recording star and Italian crooner-turned-jazz-singer Gino Federici - now known as Don Gino - has reinvented himself. With 43 total years of entertaining under his belt, Federici's life has been anything but predictable. Now, with his new stage persona, Federici is utilizing a Kickstarter campaign ending April 17 to launch the music video, EP, and graphic novel of his new single, Kriminal Tango.
When Federici retired in 2007, ending a 23-year stage career in Las Vegas, he intended to live a quiet life. Instead, the real estate crisis hit his finances hard, and Federici began to dream of returning to the stage. "When you reach 74 years of age, having lost it all - including two wives to cancer - you realize life has not been as glamorous as some may think," said Federici. Rather than calling his dream "impossible," he adopted the motto "I'm possible" and has not looked back.
The Kickstarter campaign is hoping to raise $25,000 to help fund Federici's comeback - not as the romantic Italian crooner of his past recordings but as a totally reinvented persona, a retired Godfather of sorts. The stage persona of Don Gino has a whole backstory of trying to find a more honorable undertaking than the cement-and-seafood-business of his past.
Federici's innovative idea of a wise guy stage presence has its roots in the music of an Italian jazz composer and singer from the 1950s who happens to be from Gino's hometown of Turin, Italy. Fred Buscaglione, an icon of Italian music and films, donned a romantic wise guy persona inspired by the New York and
Chicago crime fiction stories of Damon Runyon and characters like Nathan
Detroit played by
Frank Sinatra in Guys and Dolls.
Some of Buscaglione's most popular songs, now adapted by Federici into English, are part of Federici's new album aptly called Women, Whiskey, and Wiseguys. Kriminal Tango is the first single off the album, seeking funding for a music video to be filmed in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Funding will also help produce a graphic novel to go along with the album. "This project is truly a new kickstart to my career," said Federici.
