Gazebo

Paul Mazzolini came into the world on February 18, 1960, in Beirut, Lebanon, as the son of an Italian diplomat and an American singer. His childhood unfolded through constant international relocations in the company of his parents. During his teenage years he joined a rock group, after which he devoted two years to classical guitar studies in Paris and later passed a period in London that brought a short-lived engagement with the punk scene. Back in Italy at the start of the 1980s he cut his debut recording, “Masterpiece,” written in tandem with his longtime collaborator Pier Luigi Giombini. Released as a single, the track achieved major success throughout Italy in 1982, finishing just short of the top chart position. Gazebo’s self-titled first album followed in 1983 and featured the worldwide chart-topper “I Like Chopin,” which reached number one in Italy plus fifteen additional countries, moved eight million copies, and helped shape the emerging Italo-dance sound. His next effort, Telephone Mama (1984), adopted a contrasting musical direction yet maintained strong sales. Seeking greater autonomy, he established Lunatic S.r.l. in the mid-1980s; five years later Cresus Enterprises S.n.C. was formed to handle promotion and distribution for Lunatic’s output. In that span he issued three further albums—Univision (1986), The Rainbow Tales (1988), and Sweet Life (1989)—the last of which he composed, produced, and arranged himself while including a fresh version of “Dolce Vita,” the song he had originally penned for Ryan Paris in 1983. The two companies merged in 1997 to create Softworks. In 2000 Gazebo united his earlier collections Portrait (1994) and Viewpoint (1998) into the double-CD Portrait & Viewpoint, adding new covers, remixes of signature tracks, and an unreleased sequel to “Masterpiece.”