Héctor Facundo Vitale (born December 1, 1961,

Villa Adelina Villa Adelina is a city in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is divided between the counties ('' partidos'') of San Isidro and Vicente López and forms part of the urban conurbation of Greater Buenos Aires. The town is named after Adelina M ...

Buenos Aires province Buenos Aires, officially the Buenos Aires Province, is the largest and most populous Provinces of Argentina, Argentine province. It takes its name from the city of Buenos Aires, the capital of the country, which used to be part of the province an ...

), known as Lito Vitale, is an

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

musician, composer and arranger.

Career

A talented

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

player, he was coached by his mother, renowned music teacher Esther Soto, since childhood. Together with fellow musicians from his neighbourhood he co-founded the MIA music

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomy, autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned a ...

(MIA is the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

acronym of Independent Associated Musicians) when he was 13 years old. MIA became popular with progressive rock audiences in the late 1970s. The family atmosphere they projected and their suburban roots kept them aloof of the political turmoil of those times. Other than Vitale's, MIA launched many careers, including Lito's sister Liliana, singer Veronica Condomi (who would eventually marry Lito) and instrumentalists Juan del Barrio and Daniel Curto. Starting in 1980, Vitale launched a series of collaborations with several Argentine musicians. He performed and recorded with

Dino Saluzzi Timoteo "Dino" Saluzzi (born 20 May 1935) is an Argentinian bandoneon player. He is the son of Cayetano Saluzzi and the father of guitarist José Maria Saluzzi. Early life, family and education Timoteo "Dino" Saluzzi was born in Campo Santo, S ...

and then with Bernardo Baraj ( sax) and

Lucho González Luis Óscar "Lucho" González (; born 19 January 1981) is an Argentine former professional Association football, footballer, currently a Manager (association football), manager. A versatile midfielder who was able to play in different positions ...

(

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

) in what became known as "the Trio". This formation adapted many classic

tango Tango is a partner dance and social dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. The tango was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries from a combination of Arge ...

and folklore numbers, and became popular with college students, jazz audiences, and radio DJs. It was often compared to

ECM ECM may refer to the following: Economics and commerce * Engineering change management * Equity capital markets * Error correction model, an econometric model * European Common Market Mathematics * Lenstra's Elliptic curve method for factor ...

acts such as the

Pat Metheny Patrick Bruce Metheny ( ; born August 12, 1954) is an American jazz guitarist and composer. He was the leader of the Pat Metheny Group (1977–2010) and continues to work in various small-combo, duet, and solo settings, as well as other side pr ...

quartet and the

Keith Jarrett Keith Jarrett (born May 8, 1945) is an American pianist and composer. Jarrett started his career with Art Blakey and later moved on to play with Charles Lloyd (jazz musician), Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. Since the early 1970s, he has also be ...

European quartet. In the 1990s, Vitale recorded several tango standards with Juan Carlos Baglietto, and was awarded a Latin

Grammy The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...

for their collaboration in 2000. Also during those years, Vitale recorded a more jazz-like project with Lucho González and flute player Rubén ''Mono'' Izarrualde. This formation performed in the 1998

Montreux Jazz Festival The Montreux Jazz Festival (formerly Festival de Jazz Montreux and Festival International de Jazz Montreux) is a music festival in Switzerland, held annually in early July in Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline. It is the second-largest annu ...

. Vitale has also composed soundtracks for several Argentine films. He was awarded the prestigious Argentine

Konex Award Konex Foundation Awards, or simply Konex Awards, are cultural awards from the Konex Foundation honouring Argentine cultural personalities. History and purpose Konex Awards are granted by the Konex Foundation, created in 1980 in Argentina. The p ...

twice: as arranger in 1995, and as instrumentalist in 2005.

Partial discography

References

External links

*
Official site
* *
Biography at Rock.com.ar
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vitale, Lito 1961 births Living people Argentine musicians Argentine people of Italian descent Latin Grammy Award winners