The Undiscovered: Lelio Padovani

From the small town of Parma, Italy comes the instrumental guitar stylings of Lelio Padovani, who submitted his four CD-R demo for review. Influenced by guitarists such as Vinnie Moore, George Lynch, Eric Johnson and Marty Friedman, Padovani's music doesn't necessarily resemble that of his peers, as he lays out his own sound for the listener to experience. Two of the tracks "Il Soffio Dell'Angelo" and "Ingannevoli Sentine" are energetic numbers that showcase Padovani's hard rock abilities, while the remaining tracks are quieter, reflective pieces that demostrate the Italian's compositional range. Since Padovani is clearly pursuing an original approach, his only job now is to compose and record a lot more material and release a few full length CDs.

Lelio started playing guitar as a child on his elder sister's nylon-string guitar. He then played bass and drums for a while before returning to guitar. Originally self-taught, Lelio later took lessons from a GIT graduate, a pianist (for harmony) and then graduated from the school where he now teaches rock guitar. He has taken courses in sound engineering and has attended the National Guitar Summer Workshop. In November 1993, Lelio was featured in the "Hometown Heroes" column in Guitar World. He currently writes for Italian guitar magazines, and recently interviewed Stef Burns and John Petrucci.

Padovani's goal is to someday make his living being creative, perhaps working as a composer or producer/arranger, or even starting his own record label.

Lelio Padovani
Italy

Web site: www.leliopadovani.com