Rossignuoli (Walter) Rossi (May 29, 1947 – April 29, 2022) was an Italian-Canadian musician who was active from the 1960s to 2000s. As a guitarist, he played for

Wilson Pickett Wilson Pickett (March 18, 1941 – January 19, 2006) was an American singer and songwriter. A major figure in the development of soul music, Pickett recorded over 50 songs which made the US R&B charts, many of which crossed over to the ''Bill ...

and the Buddy Miles Express in the 1960s. With his own bands, Rossi played with

Influence Influence or influencer may refer to: *Social influence, in social psychology, influence in interpersonal relationships ** Minority influence, when the minority affect the behavior or beliefs of the majority *Influencer marketing, through individ ...

and

Luke & The Apostles Luke & The Apostles was a 1960s blues group from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The band is known for their 1967 hit "Been Burnt". Band members included Canadian guitarist Mike McKenna, Luke Gibson, Peter Jermyn, Jim Jones, and Pat Little. The band i ...

from the 1960s to 1970s. After his tenure with the band

Charlee Vera Luttenberger (born January 28, 1993), better known as Charlee, is an Austrian electropop singer. Career At the age of 14, she signed with Universal and started working on her debut album, ''This Is Me'', which was produced by Hubert Molan ...

, he worked as a

session musician Session musicians, studio musicians, or backing musicians are musicians hired to perform in recording sessions or live performances. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a ...

throughout the 1970s with

Boule Noire Georges Thurston (December 29, 1951 – June 18, 2007) was a Quebec singer, author and composer and radio show host. He was known as Boule Noire since 1975 and worked in the music industry as a solo artist for nearly 30 years and as part of music ...

, Michel Pagliaro and

Nanette Workman Nanette Joan Workman (born 20 November 1945, Brooklyn, New York, United States) is a singer-songwriter, actress and author, who has been based in Quebec, Canada, during much of her career. She holds dual citizenship of both the United States and ...

. As a musician, Rossi debuted with his self-titled album in 1976. Following ''Walter Rossi'', he released ''Six Strings, Nine Lives'' in 1978 and ''Diamonds For the Kid'' in 1980. During this time period, Rossi was a nominee for the Most Promising Male Vocalist of the Year category at the

Juno Awards of 1978 The Juno Awards of 1978, representing Canadian music industry achievements of the previous year, were awarded on 29 March 1978 in Toronto at a ceremony hosted for a second consecutive year by David Steinberg at the Harbour Castle Hilton Conventio ...

. He later won this category at the

Juno Awards of 1980 The Juno Awards of 1980, representing Canadian music industry achievements of the previous year, were awarded on 2 April 1980 in Toronto at a ceremony hosted by Burton Cummings at the Harbour Castle Hilton.Krewen (2010), p. 38. CBC Television br ...

. In between the Juno Awards, Rossi was nominated for Rock Album of the Year with ''Six Strings, Nine Lives'' at the 1979

Félix Awards Felix may refer to: * Felix (name), people and fictional characters with the name Places * Arabia Felix is the ancient Latin name of Yemen * Felix, Spain, a municipality of the province Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, ...

. After two additional Felix Award nominations in the 1980s, he released ''One Foot In Heaven, One Foot In Hell'' in 1984. He then worked as a

music producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure.Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

in North America before publishing ''Secret Sins'' in 2005.

Early life

Rossi was born in 1947 in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

, Italy. During his childhood, he briefly lived in

Halifax, Nova Scotia Halifax is the capital and largest municipality of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of the 2021 Census, the municipal population was 439,819, with 348,634 people in its urban area. The ...

, before leaving for

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

with his family. Rossi began to play guitar when he was a teenager. While playing albums by

Albert King Albert Nelson (April 25, 1923 – December 21, 1992), known by his stage name Albert King, was an American guitarist and singer who is often regarded as one of the greatest and most influential blues guitarists of all time. He is perhaps b ...

and

B.B. King Riley B. King (September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015), known professionally as B.B. King, was an American blues singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. He introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending, shi ...

, he was inspired by

Howard Roberts Howard Mancel Roberts (October 2, 1929 – June 28, 1992) was an American jazz guitarist, educator, and session musician. Early years Roberts was born in Phoenix, Arizona to Damon and Vesta Roberts, and began playing guitar at the age of 8 - a ...

and

The Ventures The Ventures are an American instrumental rock band formed in Tacoma, Washington, in 1958, by Don Wilson and Bob Bogle. The band, which was a quartet for most of its existence, helped to popularize the electric guitar across the world during the ...

before starting his music career.

Career

For his music career, Rossi briefly played in a masked music group known as Les Cagoulards during the early 1960s. He later became part of The Soulmates in the mid-1960s before becoming a backing guitarist for

. During his time with Pickett, Rossi became interested in

guitar solos A guitar solo is a melodic passage, instrumental section, or entire piece of music, pre-written (or improvised) to be played on a classical guitar, electric guitar or an acoustic guitar. In 20th and 21st century traditional music and popular mus ...

while watching a

rock festival A rock festival is an open-air rock concert featuring many different performers, typically spread over two or three days and having a campsite and other amenities and forms of entertainment provided at the venue. Some festivals are singular even ...

in the United States. Following the concerts, he began to practice his solos daily for several hours.Petrowski 1980, p. 26 During his musical career, Rossi started the band

in the late 1960s before playing with the Buddy Miles Express. After starting

in 1970, Rossi became a member of

in 1972.Petrowski 1980, p. 28 While with Charlee, he was asked in 1973 to play

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

for

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

and take over

Mick Ronson Michael Ronson (26 May 1946 – 29 April 1993) was an English musician, songwriter, arranger, and producer. He achieved critical and commercial success working with David Bowie as the guitarist of the Spiders from Mars. He was a session musici ...

's spot. Due to his father's illness, Rossi declined the request to play with Bowie during the

Ziggy Stardust Tour The Ziggy Stardust Tour was a concert tour by David Bowie during 1972–73, to promote the studio albums ''Hunky Dory'', ''The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars'' and ''Aladdin Sane''. Bowie was accompanied by his backin ...

. Throughout the 1970s, Rossi worked as a

. Musicians that he featured for during this time period included

, Michel Pagliaro and

. For his own works, Rossi debuted with ''Walter Rossi'' in 1976 before releasing ''Six Strings, Nine Lives'' in 1978. ''Six Strings Nine Lives'' peaked at #74 on the RPM Top 100 in 1979. Following the release of ''Six Strings, Nine Lives'', Rossi decided to end his session career and focus on his own music. In 1979, he briefly played for The Bombers. During the 1980s, he released ''Diamonds For the Kid'' in 1980 and ''One Foot In Heaven, One Foot In Hell'' in 1984. After ''One Foot In Heaven'', Rossi was a

in North America before he returned to his music career with ''Secret Sins'' in 2005.

Honours and personal life

Rossi was nominated for the Most Promising Male Vocalist of the Year at the

. He later won the same category at the

. At the 1979

, he was nominated for the Rock Album of the Year category with ''Six Strings, Nine Lives''. Additional Félix Awards nominations for Rossi were Producer of the Year in 1983 and Arranger of the Year in 1984. Rossi died from

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissue (biology), tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from tran ...

on April 29, 2022.

References

External links

* *
Entry at canadianbands.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rossi, Walter 1947 births 2022 deaths Deaths from lung cancer Canadian people of Italian descent Canadian rock guitarists Canadian male singer-songwriters Canadian singer-songwriters Juno Award for Breakthrough Artist of the Year winners Italian emigrants to Canada Canadian rock singers Musicians from Naples