Ambrogio Gaigher
O Rei da Guitarra Havaiana 4
Steel guitar country
Biography
I was raised in a little town in the north of Italy. My father died in a train accident when I was seven years old and my mother have to raised four children of her own. One year after began the second world war in Europe and we suffered. When the war was over there was very hard to find a job in Italy and therefore many Italians went abroad to find a better future. This happened to me, and I immigrated to Brazil 1952.
The only one in my family who played any musical instrument was my father, he played organ. As a teenager I went to a music school and learned to play classic guitar, trumpet and contrabass. After I have met the famous steel guitar player Gino Bordin and got lessons from him, the steel guitar became to bee my favourite instrument for the rest of my life.
In Brazil I began to play steel guitar at different radio station in São Paulo. There I met other musicians and we formed the group”Trio Sem Fronteira”. Later on I met Zacarias Mourão and got a disc contract with PHILIPS and became famous in Brazil with the melody “Moreninha Linda”. With a great help of Ariovaldo Pires -- more known as Capitão Furtado -- I launched a LP, Guitarra Maravilhosa, with melodies as Maria Mary, Índia, Mula Preta and other famous melodies. Capitão Furtado gave me the artistic name ESPERANTO because I played music from many different countries.
I did shows with many famous artists as Cascatinha & Inhana, and with several Italian artists as Alberto Sordi, Wilma de Angelis, Luciano Tajoli and Toni Dallara.
I have worked with the Galvão Sisters on TV Cultura, and played steel guitar in other television programs directed by Silvio Santos, Mara Maravilha, Bolinha and Flávio Cavalcante.
Recently I have launched tree CD:s :”Grupo Ambrogio com Fernando e Bernardo, unico grupo com Guitarra Havaiana e Harpa”, “Ambrogio Gaigher, O Rei da Guitarra Havaiana 4” and one CD for Xmas. I have been recording at “Gravadora GENES”, Campinas-SP. GENES is an independent recording studio.
This year I have played in TV Século 21 in one program directed by Padre Antonio Maria and in TV-Diário directed by Carlos Santos.
Besides the music I have done other things in my life. During many years I have some restaurants in São Paulo and now I live in Campinas where I have a club (a chácara).
I am an inventor with different patents, as the “teclado elétrico”, (the prototype of the synt), which could sound many different music instruments.
I have written an autobiography “A Trajetória de uma Vida, um imigrante no Brasil (My life, an emigrant in Brazil). The book is translated into Italian and Swedish.
With a lifetime of experience to play steel guitar, I now creating and playing my music with more intense and feeling, than I ever done before.
Salute,
Ambrogio Gaigher
Latin: Brazilian Folk