Pino Presti

Giuseppe Prestipino Giarritta was born in Milan on 23 August 1943. His father, Arturo Prestipino Giarritta, was an accomplished violinist, and his mother was Antonietta Arcieri. He began studying piano and music theory at the age of six and, by his own account and that of Italian music reference works, never fully abandoned those academic studies.

He taught himself the electric bass, developing a personal technique using either a pick or his thumb. At seventeen he started his professional career as a singer and bassist in Milan clubs, while also working in recording studios as an instrumentalist. In 1964 he was photographed with his first Fender Jazz Bass, a 1960 model, and he is widely described as one of the first players in Italy to use that instrument.

Presti's formal musical training began in childhood with piano and music theory. Italian sources describe these as academic studies started at six. On the electric bass he was self-taught.

Outside music he trained for nearly two decades in Shotokan karate and Goshindo under the Japanese master Hiroshi Shirai, from 1967 to 1985, and also trained with Taiji Kase, Hidetaka Nishiyama, Keinosuke Enoeda, Takeshi Naito and Hideo Ochi. He obtained a fifth dan black belt in Rome in 1987.

Session bassist (1960s). Although he signed with the Milan label Durium as a singer, releasing the single Rimani ancora / Oh! Jenny in 1964, Presti chose to focus on instrumental work as the demand for his playing grew. He recorded hundreds of songs with Mina, Giorgio Gaber, Ornella Vanoni, Gino Paoli, Bruno Lauzi, Fabrizio De André, Sergio Endrigo, Mia Martini, Franco Battiato, Adriano Celentano, Milva, Pino Donaggio, Gigliola Cinquetti, Caterina Caselli, Bobby Solo, Fausto Leali, Ivan Graziani and Loredana Bertè. He appeared as bassist and singer on Giorgio Gaber's Rai shows Questo e Quello (1964) and Le Nostre Serate (1965 to 1966).

International work. In 1969 Wilson Pickett chose him as bassist for the Sanremo Music Festival and the European tour that followed. From 1968 to 1970 he played on Shirley Bassey's album This Is My Life and eight of her Italian singles. He played on projects arranged by Quincy Jones, recorded with Eartha Kitt, and worked with Stéphane Grappelli, Maynard Ferguson, Franco Cerri, Severino Gazzelloni, the Venezuelan composer Aldemaro Romero, Brian Auger and Caterina Valente.

Mina (1963 to 1978 and later). Presti played bass on Mina's records from the 1960s and toured with her in 1970 and 1971. From 1971 he became her arranger and conductor, arranging and directing 86 tracks up to her final public appearances at Bussoladomani in Viareggio in 1978. These include Grande grande grande, E poi, L'importante è finire, E penso a te, La pioggia di marzo, Fiume azzurro, Domenica sera and the 1978 Città vuota, on albums including Mina (1971), Cinquemilaquarantatre, Frutta e verdura, Amanti di valore, Baby Gate, La Mina, Singolare, Mina con bignè and Mina Live '78. He composed Tentiamo ancora (1973), L'amore è un'altra cosa (1974), Amante amore (1977) and Bignè (1988) for her.

Piazzolla and Mulligan. In 1974 he played electric bass on Astor Piazzolla's Libertango and on Summit (Reunión Cumbre) by Piazzolla and Gerry Mulligan, credited as Giuseppe Prestipino. In April 1975 he toured Europe with them, including concerts at the Olympia in Paris and the World Music Festival in Palma de Mallorca.

Solo records and television. In 1976 he produced 1st Round for Atlantic Records, described as the first dance funk album made in Italy, featuring Funky Bump, Smile, L'estate di Laura and Sunny. In 1977 Rai 2 hired him as composer, arranger and conductor of Auditorio A, where he led a 56 piece orchestra backing Gino Paoli, Sergio Endrigo, Milva, Pino Daniele, Maynard Ferguson, Angelo Branduardi and Rino Gaetano. He followed with C'era due volte (1980) and Il cappello sulle ventitré (1983). From the 1980s he composed television music and produced records, sometimes under pseudonyms, for labels including Polydor, Baby Records, Barclay, Ricordi and Durium.

Later work. Living in France from 2004, he produced A La Costa Sud (2009), composed a five hour soundtrack for the Grand Heritage Hotel Group (2011), co-produced the Shirley Bunnie Foy 60th anniversary album (2013), released Deep Colors as Mad of Jazz (2014), and wrote music for a 2016 Scavolini advertising campaign. In 2023 he released Pino Presti and Garden Planet: Sharade, and from 2024 to 2026 he oversaw digital reissues with Planet Records, including the 1974 Libertango recording in January 2026.

Presti was born and raised in Milan and lived in France from 2004, working with musicians based on the French Riviera. He was a dedicated martial artist and held a fifth dan black belt in Shotokan karate. Details of any marriage or children have not been made public in the sources reviewed for this page.

Presti spoke about his career mainly through his music and his own archive of recordings and photographs, which he shared on his official website and YouTube channel. In later years he devoted much of his time to preserving and reissuing his catalogue, including the original instrumental endings of his Mina arrangements and his 1974 Libertango session, presenting them as a record of the musicians he had worked with. No public political or religious positions are documented.

Presti is remembered as one of the less visible but most important figures in Italian music of the last sixty years. As a pioneer of the electric bass in Italy and as Mina's arranger through her classic 1970s period, he helped define the sound of Italian pop in that decade. His bass on Piazzolla's Libertango links him to one of the most recorded instrumental works of the century. His 1976 album 1st Round and its single Funky Bump are regarded as landmarks of early Italian dance and funk and are still reissued and sampled. The French bass magazine Grave Basse published a long tribute biography in 2025 calling him the maestro of Italian groove.

No major formal music awards are documented in the sources reviewed for this page. His recognition came through his long credits list, the 86 Mina arrangements he signed, and the critical acclaim for the orchestra he led at Mina's 1978 Bussoladomani concerts. In martial arts he held a fifth dan black belt in Shotokan karate, obtained in Rome in 1987.

Selected albums as leader or producer: 1st Round (Atlantic, 1976), On The Lifeline (1985), Maja Andina (1990), A La Costa Sud (Edizioni Curci, 2009), Café Ipanema 2011 (2011), Shirley Bunnie Foy 60th Anniversary (2013), Deep Colors (2014), Pino Presti and Garden Planet: Sharade (2023), 1st Round Digital Remastered (Planet Records, 2024) and Soulful Touches (2025).

Selected singles: Funky Bump (1976), Shitân Disco Shitân (1977), You Know The Way (1979), Money (That's What I Want) (1980) and Libertango 1974 with Astor Piazzolla (2026 release).

Television: Questo e Quello (1964), Le Nostre Serate (1965 to 1966), Sanremo Festival with Wilson Pickett (1969), Auditorio A (1977), C'era due volte (1980) and Il cappello sulle ventitré (1983).

In December 2023 he published the video Pino Presti: Incontri di valore on YouTube, a montage of his collaborations with Mina, Piazzolla, Mulligan, Bassey and others, which the Italian music site Rockol featured in its news.

Pino Presti died in October 2026 at the age of 83. The news was made public on 27 and 28 October 2026, after his funeral had already been held, and was reported by Rockol, Fanpage and other Italian outlets. He was reported to have died in Sanremo, on the Ligurian coast. The exact date of death and the cause have not been confirmed in published news reports. Some reference listings give 15 October 2026, but this has not been confirmed by news coverage, so this page records the date as October 2026.