Pino Presti

Giuseppe Prestipino Giarritta (born 23 August 1943), professionally known by his pseudonym Pino Presti, is an Italian conductor, arranger, bassist, composer and record producer from Milan. He is a 5th-dan black belt in Shotokan Karate.
Presti was very young when he first entered the music business. He started as a bass guitar player, and then gradually began as an arranger, composer, orchestra conductor, and producer. Among his collaborations in different genres of music like jazz, pop, funk, soul, and Latin music are Mina (the most famous Italian pop singer), Gerry Mulligan, Ástor Piazzolla (with whom he has performed on 24 recordings as a sideman, including the well-known composition Libertango), Quincy Jones, Wilson Pickett, Shirley Bassey, Franco Cerri, Maynard Ferguson, Stéphane Grappelli, Severino Gazzelloni, Aldemaro Romero, and Tullio De Piscopo among others.
Son of an accomplished violinist, Arturo Prestipino Giarritta, Presti began studying piano and music theory at the age of six. When he was 17, he started his career performing as a vocalist and bass guitarist in clubs as well as working in recording studios as an instrumentalist.
Although he had a contract with Durium of Milano as a singer, he decided to concentrate only on performing music. He recorded hundreds of songs with major Italian artists such as Mina, Giorgio Gaber, Ornella Vanoni, Gino Paoli, Bruno Lauzi, Fabrizio De André, Sergio Endrigo, Mia Martini, Franco Battiato, Adriano Celentano, Milva, Pino Donaggio, Gigliola Cinquetti, Caterina Caselli, Bobby Solo, Fausto Leali, Michele, Ivan Graziani, Loredana Bertè and many others.
After backing Mina as a bass guitarist in the studio and on tour for many years, Pino Presti arranged and conducted many of her songs. He also backed her as a singer, as in "Flamingo" and other tracks. From 1971 up until her last public appearances at Bussoladomani in 1978, Presti arranged and conducted 86 of Mina's tracks, including the hits "Grande grande grande", "E penso a te", "L'importante è finire", "E poi", "Città vuota", "La pioggia di marzo", "Fiume azzurro", "Domenica sera" and others, and albums such as Mina, Cinquemilaquarantatre, Frutta e verdura, Amanti di valore, Baby Gate, La Mina, Singolare, Mina con bignè, Mina Live '78.
Presti composed four songs for Mina: "Tentiamo ancora", for the album Frutta e verdura (1973), "L'amore è un'altra cosa", for Mina® (1974), "Amante amore", for Mina con bignè (1977), and "Bignè", for Ridi pagliaccio (1988).
On Mina's come-back at the Bussoladomani theatre in Viareggio on 24 June 1978, Nantas Salvataggio wrote an enthusiastic review of the event in the Il Giorno newspaper: « Mina was accompanied by an orchestra as that of a grand Las Vegas show.
The Italian press, as well as others, described the concert as a "triumph" and underlined the contribution of the backing orchestra (14 members and the chorus), directed by Presti.
Between the 1970s and 1980s, he collaborated on recordings and or concerts with prominent personalities of the international music scene such as Wilson Pickett, Shirley Bassey, Quincy Jones, Gerry Mulligan, Ástor Piazzolla, Maynard Ferguson, Severino Gazzelloni, Franco Cerri, Shirley Bunnie Foy, Stéphane Grappelli, Aldemaro Romero, Tullio De Piscopo, Gianni Bedori, Eartha Kitt, Brian Auger, Lara Saint Paul, Bruno De Filippi, George Aghedo, Augusto Martelli, Enrico Intra, Ellade Bandini, Angel Pocho Gatti, Caterina Valente, Bill Conti, Hugo Heredia, and Maurice Vander.
He is listed under his real name, Giuseppe Prestipino, on the record Libertango with Ástor Piazzolla and in Summit by Ástor Piazzolla and Gerry Mulligan. He is listed under the name Giuseppe "Pino" Prestipino Giarritta on the records La Onda Máxima and Onda Nueva Instrumental by the Venezuelan pianist, composer, arranger Aldemaro Romero.
In April 1975 during the European tour with Mulligan and Piazzolla, he also played at the Olympia Theatre in Paris and at the World Music Festival in Palma, Majorca. The combo was composed by Gerry Mulligan (saxophone baritone), Ástor Piazzolla (bandoneón), Tom Fay (piano), Pino Presti (electric bass), Tullio De Piscopo (drums), Waldo de los Rios (organ), Sergio Farina (electric guitar). One set was for Gerry Mulligan, the second was dedicated to Ástor Piazzolla and the last one was the reunion of Astor and Gerry and the songs of this last set were those that had been issued on the LP Summit-Reunion Cumbre.
In 1976 he created and produced for Atlantic Records the first dance-funk album in Italy: 1st round with hit songs such as Smile, Funky Bump, L'estate di Laura, Sunny.
In 1977 he signed a contract with RAI2 as arranger, conductor and composer of original music for the noted TV show, Auditorio A, directed by Stefano De Stefani. On that occasion, he was the conductor of a big band composed of 56 musicians with star names like: Gino Paoli, Sergio Endrigo, Milva, Pino Daniele, Maynard Ferguson, Angelo Branduardi, Rino Gaetano, Fausto Leali, Giorgio Baiocco, Banco del Mutuo Soccorso. Other top shows were: C'era due volte, directed by Enzo Trapani (1980) and Il cappello sulle ventitré, directed by Fernanda Turvani (1983).
Besides composing music for TV series since the 1980s, Pino Presti has been creating and producing albums under various pseudonyms for renowned labels such as Polydor, Baby Records, Barclay, Edizioni Curci, Durium, Dischi Ricordi, Joker, as well as independent ones: Emergency Records, Soul Xpression, Level One, Self.
He has been living in France since 2004 and in 2009 created and produced the album, A La Costa Sud with 28 vocalists and/or instrumentalists who are from various continents and nations but who regularly perform in theatres and clubs in the French Riviera.
In 2011, he composed a five-hour soundtrack comprising music of different genres for Grand Heritage Hotel Group (and for its related media). These genres range from classic jazz, to nu jazz, bossanova, world music, and ambient music.
In 2013 Presti co-produced the tribute album Shirley Bunnie Foy, consisting of seventeen tracks performed by jazz vocalist Shirley Bunnie Foy in her 60 years career. The album includes such noted artists as The Dell-Tones, Tony Scott, Archie Shepp, Franco Cerri, Lou Bennett, among others.
In 2014 Presti composed, co-produced and released, under the pseudonym Mad of Jazz, the album Deep Colors, with the collaboration of keyboardists, synth programmers and composers Claudio and Andrea Calzolari.
In 2016 he composed the music for the 2016 advertising campaign of Scavolini, an Italian kitchen and bathroom products designer and manufacturer.
In 2019 he composed the music for the book (+Audio cd) "Eco nel vento", by Italian poet Tania Cantone. ISBN 978-88-94866-19-3
In May 2023, the vinyl album Pino Presti & Garden Planet - Sharade was released, also digitally uploaded on the main Streaming platforms.
In November 2024, a remastered version of the album 1st Round, was released and published on digital platforms by Planet Records. [2][3]
On February 6, 2025, the compilation Soul Touches, produced by Pino Presti and distributed by Planet Distribution, is released and promoted in major digital stores.
On March 25, 2025, coinciding with the birthday of Mina, the project Mina Arrranger Pino Presti: Finali Strumentali was released on major digital platforms.
Presti trained in Shotokan karate and Goshindo under master Hiroshi Shirai from 1967 to 1985. He has also trained on several occasions under other Japanese masters such as Taiji Kase, Hidetaka Nishiyama, Keinosuke Enoeda, Takeshi Naito, Hideo Ochi. He holds a 5th degree black belt obtained in Rome, in 1987.
In December 2023, is published on YouTube the music video "Pino Presti - Incontri di valore" (1:30 length) containing, in addition to some compositions performed by Presti himself, several of his collaborations made over the years with notable artists such as Mina, Astor Piazzolla, Gerry Mulligan Shirley Bassey, Franco Cerri, Aldemaro Romero, Enrico Intra, Augusto Martelli, Roxy Robinson + the bonus track "Nessuno mi può giudicare" sung by Caterina Caselli. The video, although not made for commercial purposes, attracted the interest of the online music daily Rockol, which included it with a feature article among its news of the week.