Recently we played a birthday gig in Toronto, and our client requested that we play a tune by Alfie Zappacosta, since he was a cousin of hers, and there was a chance he would be at the party, and might even want to come up and sing with us.
We were only passingly familiar with Zappacosta, remembering him as a big-hair rock-crooner from the 1980’s, in the same vein as Gino Vanelli. We looked at his material from back then, trying to figure out which of his power ballads we could pull off.
We were thrilled to discover, however, that the new-look Zappacosta is much more accessible. He has chosen to follow Sting’s approach, aging gracefully with a more mature, sophisticated sound, rather than hanging on to the makeup and sleeveless shirts of his youth.
One of his most beautiful tunes, the one we chose to play for his family, is called “Bella” and is a haunting urban love song that sticks in your head for days. His version, recorded at the CBC studios in Vancouver is linked through his picture at top left.
The big irony for us is that our brilliant keyboard player, a handsome, bald Hungarian, is also named “Bela,” though he uses only one “l”. This makes it a doubly-fun love song to sing.
As it turned out, Alfie did not make the party, since he was in Edmonton the night before. We learned later that he also had been suffering some voice problems and actually had to cancel some gigs, but he is expected to recover. We played the song well, in fact we payed it twice, and it has now become part of our repertoire.
Zappacosta has found a new stride with his mature approach, and we wish him the very best. We look forward to seeing him at Hugh’s Room in Toronto in February.
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Steve Prentice Guitarist 