This is an album I've wanted to make for a long time. My fascination with my Italian roots and Italian music go back to when I was a kid listening to my father and uncle play songs from the old country. I soon realized that Italian music is MELODY. In college one of my music theory teachers said "Puccini and Verdi are the masters of melody, that's your music, go check it out!" That heritage carries over into Italian popular music as well which is where I drew from for this record. The songs range from a 1930's standard like "Amore Baciami" to hits from the 60's "Senza Fine" and even some 90's references "Di Sole E D'azzurro". The connection between them is that they are simply beautiful melodies. My goal here was to play the songs without doing anything too fancy. Of course we added some blowing on each track and for the most part the recording session in Genova, Italy was live, 2 takes and move on. The musicians were fantastic as to be expected from such a group of pros. Both Rachel Z (piano and rhodes) and Solomon Dorsey (electric and acoustic bass), friends from my New York days, were in Genova while on tour with Pino Daniele and I couldn't miss the opportunity to invite them on the session. Christian Meyer (drums) came down from Milano and Marco Fadda (percussion) and myself were in Genova. We had a marathon studio session and laid down 11 tracks in one day. It was an ambitious effort and the band came through! Engineer Marco Canepa really put it together in post production and did a fantastic mix. Living here the past 8 years I've experienced both the sheer beauty and frustrating complexity of Italian life. It's proudly all part of who I am and I hope my love for this culture and music comes across to you the listener as your own "Italian Fantasy". A huge THANK YOU goes out to the great band: Mafadda, Chris, Rachel, Sol and Tindi; Roberto "Robbo" Vigo and the whole team at Zero Dieci Studio; To Marco Canepa for his musical sensibility and technical expertise; To all the composers and artists of the original versions of these songs that made them timeless; To my family, Italian and American, for your love and support; To Monica, my muse who gave me the most incredible treasure, our baby son Manuele born in 2013; And to all those musicians past and present who inspire me daily to keep doin' it! Album Credits: Michael Campagna - saxophones, flute Rachel Z - piano, rhodes Solomon Dorsey - acoustic and electric bass Christian Meyer - drums Marco Fadda - percussion Marco Tindiglia - guitar (track 7) Roberto Vigo - tracking engineer Marco Canepa - post production engineer/ mix Stefan Noltemeyer - mastering Andrea Palmucci - cover photo Samuele Wurtz - cover art design "An immensely talented musician and composer, he’s serious, but not so serious that you can’t find the fun in his music.” - Loren Schoenberg “Mike's a great player with a great sound and a lot of melody in his heart." - George Garzone "...a composer/player of great stature, humility, and poetic expression walks among us. Don't hesitate to let your soul free to roam within the beautiful tone of his saxophone...." - José James "Michael Campagna, a saxophonist who deserves to be well known, has put together a program that is highly recommended for modern jazz fans." - Scott Yanow "This isn't background music by any means, but it is a version of modern hard bop that's intended to soothe more than provoke." - Phil Freeman