MARCANGELO PERRICELLI

The Beginning

I was born to be a composer/musician. It was 1964, and the Beatles were on Ed Sullivan show. I wanted like most kids at that time to be a “Beatle”. Paul was my favorite. I took guitart lesson for 6 months but it went no where. I strummed the damn thing (open strings and all) and sang Beatle songs but showed no signs of learning the instrument! I then began to take an interest in art. I remember drawing super heros from out of the comic books I
had and selling them to friends in the neighborhood. It was 8th grade and in my music class, our music teacher Barabara Glennie would often play LPs of broadway shows and classical music and also show us film strips of orchestras playing music of the masters. I remember like yesterday, hearing and seeing an LP by Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic. This recording changed my life forever! I asked if I could take it home and listen to it and that I did. It was a recording of Beethoven's 5th symphony with photos of Beethoven's original manuscripts in the liner notes. This did something to me that to this day, I cannot explain. I began to copy it, making my own music and at this point I thought “I” was Beethoven! I remember showing the music I wrote to Ms. Glennie and she was very encouraging. I began to show up to school early everyday and I would go into the auditorium and try to play the piano. The first thing I began to play was the piano part in the song “Expressway to you Heart” by The Soul Survivors. This was the beginning of my career as a wannabe musician.

As a teenager in the late 60's and early 70's, music became an obsession! There was so much cool music on the radio and I had began my first job and now I had money to buy LPs and 45 rpm singles. It was my 17th birthday and I begged my Dad to buy my a organ, I wanted to be in a band. This didn't go over to well considering my Dad was a very successful businessman and pharmacist and wanted me to focus on a more lucrative career. I was a rebel! I had to have an organ! So we reached an agreement, we would both pay half. So I went to the local music store and we both bought my first organ and what a beauty it was, a Farfisa Professional Duo. I was rockin' now. Only one problem... I didn't know how to play the thing! LOL Well, wood shedding it for one month and promising a friend of mine who just left his band to group up with me, I would be ready to play, we played our first gig at our high school, one month later! I made my first $25.00! I say my first $25.00 because as I got better on the keyboards and moved from one band to another, with roadies, traveling expenses and more gear to keep up with the other bands, you were lucky to even make that. Time marched on to bring even more frustration, keeping members, looking for rehearsal space, buying PA equipment, it sucked! Why did I want to do this?

My attitiude about playing keyboards changed when in 1975 I purchased my first synthesizer. An ARP Odessey. I then took out a loan and bought an ARP String Ensemble. Just about every band in the local circuit wanted me to be in their band. It was overwhelming! I chose though to start an original progressive band. Hey I had a synth and string orchestra at my finger tips like Rick Wakeman of Yes, Tony Banks of Genesis and Keith Emerson of ELP. So I could have cake and eat it too. I could be in a band and create my own orchestral sounds and music like the other prog bands of the day. I was loving it but it went nowhere. So, after returning to covers bands for 6 more years, I had enough. I decided to give up performing and started recording my own material on reel to reel decks and cassette decks, bouncing back and forth until I had one of my tunes buried in hiss! LOL But, it was a great start. It was one of these recording that caught the ear of a member of “Kool in the Gang”. From there, the rest is history.

The Skinny

Having topped international charts with Platinum and Gold record awards in the early 1980's for writing with the internationally famous "Kool and The Gang", it was at that point Marcangelo Perricelli decided to focus on becoming more of a serious musical entity. Working in record retail for six years, twelve years in the record business working for the TimeWarner Record group (Warner Bros/Elektra/Atlantic Records) and helping to break such acts as Guns & Roses, Paul Simon, Whitesnake, Peter Gabriel, Genesis, Yes, Dream Theatre, George Harrison, Tori Amos, Tom Petty, Cher, Enya, Julian Lennon, Aerosmith... just to name a few). Classically trained at the Bradley Institute on the violin and an intense “no-boundaries, no-limitations” approach to composition and keyboard performance, Marcangelo has become be quite the “well-rounded” musician. Compound all of that with his love for songwriting and orchestral composition, Marcangelo is truly a professional.

From 1972 until 1981, Marcangelo performed with a few of the "higher caliber" cover bands in his area and played the local clubs and toured much of the east coast. In 1982, Marcangelo took leave from performing an began the process of creating his first home studio, recording demos of his original material, composing jingles and learning the business of operating his newly found record label "Masterson Records" and his publishing company. Fifteen years later, he and long-time musician friend and collaborator Bob Piper joined forces again. It was here that Marcangelo began performing with and also managing Bob's original progressive rock group, "PLEIADES". Shockingly, the group disbanded one week after it's debut CD release, "A Moment of Clarity" released on Marcangelo's label. Two months later, he began planting seeds for his next project (which was to be progressively conceptual in nature), hence the birth of NAVIGATOR. After 2 moderately successful CD releases with NAVIGATOR (reEvolution Volume 1 and 2), Marcangelo, the driving force behind that band, decided to return to a territory where he knew he was most comfortable... being a solo artist. 

In January of 2006, Marcangelo released his debut EP entitled, "The Anatomy of an Echo", followed by another EP one month later, "The Soothsayer". Both discs are "New Age/Ambient" in nature. But oddly, something was missing. So as not to disappoint the fans he embraced while performing in NAVIGATOR, it was in April of 2006 that he released an EP of 3 vocal rock songs entitled, "It's Only Me." In August of 2007, Marcangelo released the 3 song EP, “The Anomaly” and later that month released the ambient CD, “An Absence of Color”.

In the Fall of 2007, Marcangelo submitted music and orchestral scores to Jon Anderson from YES and since that time Jon and Marcangelo have become great friends and send music back and forth for critique and recording. Jon plans to release this music, as well as the music he has worked on with other composers in the near future. Marcangelo... "I can only say Jon refers to it as "The Big Work to Come". It is a pleasure to work with him.

For the holidays of 2007, Masterson Entertainment released a collection of the most requested songs/pieces by Marcangelo at internet radio entitled, “As Requested” as a gift to all his loyal fans and supporters.

In 2008, Marcangelo released an ambient music project entitled "The Antikythera Mechanism" which received considerable internet radio play in Cananda and Europe.

2009 Marcangelo was silent but in 2010 he released his new work which was orchestral and synthestral in nature entitled "Witch and Wizard". This work is currently receiving internet airpllay and is one of his finest orchestral works to date.

Marcangelo's music is still receiving a considerable amount of airplay on internet radio as well as a number of AOR and AC stations across the US. He thanks all his fans for continuing to support his music and assures them that he's just getting started!

Marcangelo Perricelli is exclusively represented in the World and USA by Masterson Entertainment.