In 2009, Federico Ferrandina and Stefano Torossi released Guitarra: Acoustic – World Music – Folk for Primrose Music, a library music album intended for use in TV, film, and other commercial productions. Ferrandina, a composer, arranger, and conductor, plays guitar on the twenty-one original compositions. Other musicians on the CD and digital album include Alessandro Marzi on drums and Francesco Ponticelli and Alessandro Belli on double bass.

Tracks on the album include “Django Festival,” “Mexican Mariachi,” “Torrid Flamenco,” “Sweet Tropics,” “Sun and Fun,” “Afro Paradise,” “Moon On Ipanema,” “Tango Mayor,” “Caribe Girl,” “Manouche Swing,” “Tangoland,” “Celtic Theme,” “Dream Island,” “Gypsy Passion,” “Paraguay,” “Latin Milonga,” “Gypsy Waltz,” “Manouche Waltz,” “Spanish Melancholy,” “Voice of Cuba,” and “Bluegrass,” plus sixty alternative versions.

“Django Festival,” the opening track, is also used in director Jennifer Westfeldt’s 2011 debut film Friends With Kids.

A clip from the film that includes director-star Jennifer Westfeldt, Jon Hamm, and Maya Rudolph and uses Federico Ferrandina and Stefano Torossi’s “Django Festival” is on YouTube:

“Mexican Mariachi,” the second cut on Guitarra was used in another major film, director Jean-Marc Vallee’s Dallas Buyers Club from 2013.

Matthew McConaughey, who won an Oscar for Best Actor for the performance, is featured in a clip from the movie that also includes Federico Ferrandina and Stefano Torossi’s “Mexican Mariachi”:

Alternatively, auto-generated videos for each cut on Guitarra, including Federico Ferrandina and Stefano Torossi’s “Mexican Mariachi,” are online. Note that due to YouTube’s geographical limitations, these videos may not be available in all regions. “Mexican Mariachi” is HERE.

Since the release of the Guitarra in CD and digital format in 2009, the album continues to have selections licensed on a regular basis by labels like ExtraBall Records, GB Music, and Lounge Music Cocktail. Recent examples include “Manouche Swing” and “Django Festival” on Happy Sensations: Feeling the Springtime Swing (2015) ExtraBall Records and “Sweet Tropics” and “Moon on Ipanema” on Hotel Bossa: Brazilian Instrumental Music for Hotel Halls (2015), both digital-only compilations on ExtraBall Records.

GB Music used Federico Ferrandina and Stefano Torossi’s “Sun and Fun” and “Moon On Ipanema” on Acoustic Brazil, Vol. 2: The Best of Acoustic Bossa Melodies (2015), and “Torrid Flamenco” and “Spanish Melancholy” on Spanish Memories: The Best Of Flamenco & Mediterranean Guitar Compositions (2015), while Lounge Music Cocktail licensed Federico Ferrandina and Stefano Torossi’s “Bluegrass” for their Ticket To Nashville: Bourbon, Boots & Blues (2015) compilation.

Federico Ferrandina and Stefano Torossi’s “Sun and Fun” was also used in an episode of the HBO series Big Love in 2011. The composition is performed by Alessandro Marzi on drums and percussion, Francesco Ponticelli on double bass, and Ferrandina on guitars:

In April and May of 2016, at least three album cuts from Federico Ferrandina and Stefano Torossi’s Guitarra were licensed for digital-only compilations including “Celtic Theme” by Jay-Beleen Music for their Celtic Folk Survivors.

“Voice of Cuba” was used on Latin Persuasion: Passionate Salsa and Merengue and “Spanish Melancholy” on Mediterranean Dream: Music and Sounds from Spain, both from ExtraBall Records.

Federico Ferrandina and Stefano Torossi’s “Celtic Theme” is on YouTube (in most markets):

Federico Ferrandina on Making Guitarra with Stefano Torossi

Federico Ferrandina commented on working with Stefano Torossi on Guitarra in an interview that was published on this site in 2014. The complete piece, which includes a number of videos, audio files, and live clips from Federico Ferrandina’s award-winning musical career, is HERE.

> on first meeting with Stefano Torossi:

In 2009, he came to listen to some gigs of mine. I was playing with songwriter Chiara Morucci, a close friend of Stefano. She persuaded him to listen to some of my compositions and he contacted me, proposing some projects in the soundtrack field.

> on the origin of the album:

Stefano knew me above all as a guitar player, so the first thing he planned was a guitar-focused album, a kind of 6-string travel around the world, flipping through different styles and colors.

> on the creative process:

Stefano suggested the style to me and the kind of sound we needed and I came up with some ideas which we then discussed. He played a guiding role and I composed, arranged, and performed everything under his precious supervision. It was so important that I feel we really co-composed each of our works.

> on his favorite tracks:

I love the Manouche jazz style and the Latin American tracks, that’s where my expressive world is more able to be revealed.

Federico Ferrandina and Stefano Torossi’s “Paraguay (Alternate Version, Pt. 1)” is online (in most markets):

Guitarra is the first of two albums Federico Ferrandina and Stefano Torossi made for Italy’s Flippermusic including their follow-up collaboration Fabulous Sixties: Make Love Not War, released on Deneb Records in 2010.

Both albums as well as many of the compilations using their tracks are currently available from digital retailers like iTunes and Amazon, as well as from Flippermusic directly.

In April 2016, Fabulous Sixties: Make Love Not War was reissued by Flippermusic under the title The 60’s Experience. The digital release retains the original song titles and track order.

More Music from Federico Ferrandina

After making the pair of albums with Stefano Torossi, Federico Ferrandina released four more for Flippermusic/Deneb Records: Green Horizon: Pop – Lifestyle – Environmental, Kiss & Pop: Contemporary – Uplifting – Pop Rock, What We Are: Vocal – Smooth – Pop – Jazz, and Ask The Stars: Contemporary – Pop – Rock. The vocalists on the latter three include Nicoletta Nardi and Mia Schettino.

Ferrandina also worked on a number of albums and projects by other vocalists in this period, including Chiara Morucci, Ana Karina Rossi, Marcela Szurkalo, and Jasmine Tommaso–Green Horizon is one of his albums to feature instrumentals exclusively.

Federico Ferrandina’s compositions have been used in TV shows including several Polish programs and American productions such as USA Network’s Royal Pains in 2009, HBO’s Big Love and Lifetime’s Roseanne’s Nuts in 2010, NBC’s Friday Night Lives in 2011, and ABC’s Twisted in 2013.

In 2013, Federico Ferrandina released Ask The Stars on Deneb, the third consecutive collection of original pop songs he did for the Italian library music label that showcase some exceptional vocal performances–following those found on Kiss & Pop and What We Are one year earlier.

A video from each of the five albums Federico Ferrandina made for Flippermusic between 2010 and 2013 have been collected in an online sampler that includes:

• “Make Love, Not War” from Fabulous Sixties: Make Love Not War (2010) with Stefano Torossi (album reissued in 2016 as The 60’s Experience)
• “What We Are” from What We Are (2012), featuring Nicoletta Nardi on vocals
• “Stains” from Kiss & Pop (2012) featuring Mia Schettino on vocals
• “Meant For Two” from Ask The Stars (2013) with Nardi on vocals, and
• “Green Power” from Green Horizon (2011)

Federico Ferrandina in 2015 and 2016

In 2015, Federico Ferrandina worked on a new recording of The Grateful Dead’s “Ripple,” part of a 50th anniversary celebration of the famed Bay Area band. The song, in support of the Playing For Change Foundation’s music schools and programs for children worldwide, uses a string arrangement by Ferrandina.

A video for this latest project that includes a large cast of artists from around the world, is online:

On the performing side, Federico Ferrandina plays guitar for Pilar’s “En Confidence,” a song he also wrote, with lyrics by French lyricist Pierre Ruiz. The track appears on Pilar’s L’amore è dove vivo (2015) album, released on Esordisco.

This is the latest collaboration between vocalist Pilar and Ferrandina. Several of this correspondent’s personal favorites are included in their inspired series of Live Cover in Bath videos made in various countries in Europe and around the world. In 2014, Pilar sang with Orchestra Operia, conducted by Federico Ferrandina. Many of these videos and more musical highlights are found in an interview with Ferrandina on this site. Their take on “Moon River” is HERE.

A video for Pilar’s “En Confidence” was uploaded to the Web at the beginning of 2016:

Trio of New Singles feature Federico Ferrandina

In the first third of 2016, Federico Ferrandina has worked on several projects including singles with singers from America, Italy, and Norway. He is also in the midst of an untitled documentary produced in the United States.

“Shot Of Your Love,” a single from American artist Sirsa Shekim’s Black Into My Life album, was co-written and arranged by Federico Ferrandina. The album is scheduled for release on iTunes this summer.

An animated video for Sirsa Shekim’s “Shot Of Your Love” is on YouTube:

Federico Ferrandina also co-wrote and arranged “Before Your Lies,” a single released at the beginning of the year by Azzurra, a Berlin-based artist from Italy.

Azzurra’s “Before Your Lies” is on SoundCloud:

In the past couple of years, Federico Ferrandina has spent an increased amount of time behind the podium conducting. This includes on Norwegian singer Anna Rebekka’s “Mørke Fristelser,” a single released in February 2016 that Ferrandina both arranged and conducted the music for.

A video for Anna Rebekka’s “Mørke Fristelser” is online:

More information and music is found at:

The Internet Movie Database

SoundCloud

YouTube

Federico Ferrandina’s website

Five years before appearing in Jennifer Westfeldt’s Friends With Kids, Maya Rudolph acted in a musical spoof of holiday gift giving that originally aired on American comedy show Saturday Night Live in 2006. The band, which evolved into The Lonely Island, features the guest that week, Justine Timberlake (Rudolph is the daughter of singer Minnie Riperton.)

HERE or HERE.

Piano Music Playlist includes Five Ferrandina Compositions

A new playlist of piano music composed by Federico Ferrandina was uploaded to SoundCloud in 2016. The pianist is Mario Montore: