Marcello Zappatore was born in Lecce on May 4, 1976.
He started playing the guitar at the age of 13.
– He is a self-taught musician, later refining his skills by attending many masterclasses with world-renowned guitarists and musicians, including Frank Gambale (1997), Brett Garsed (2003), Massimo Varini (2005), Luca Colombo (2005), Pietro Nobile (2006), Paul Gilbert (2008), Steve Vai (2009), Franco Morone (2012), Kee Marcello (2013), Guthrie Govan (2017), Greg Bisonette, Richard Bona.
– In 2002, he played with Alex Damiani.
– He played with Kiss of Death, recording the album ‘Inferno Inc.’ (2004) and performing as the opening act for Sepultura in 2002.
– He performed live with Après la Classe from 2005 to 2007 and recorded guitars for the album ‘Luna Park’ (2007) and the live CD released in 2008.
– In 2004, he won the ‘Emergenza Chitarre’ competition organized by Chitarre magazine and Playgame Music, being among the top ten new Italian guitar talents selected by the competition, which led to the release of one of his tracks in the compilation ‘Emergenza chitarre 4’.
– He performed on the main stage of Arezzo Wave with Après la Classe in the summer of 2005.
– He performed at the Primo Maggio concert in 2007 on the stage of Piazza S. Giovanni in Rome with Après la Classe, in front of an audience of seven hundred thousand people, sharing the stage with Chuck Berry and many other great artists.
– In October 2003, the MTV television network aired a short spot featuring Marcello Zappatore and his passion for Frank Zappa.
– In 2005, he starred in the short film ‘In religioso disagio’ by Massimiliano Verdesca, which won the critics’ award at the Milano Film Festival.
– He is actively involved in teaching, both privately and in music schools, collaborating with Jazzitalia; in 2005, he also released his educational DVD ‘Improvisation on chord progressions’ produced by sevenotes.com.
– Since 2008, he has been endorsed by Di Marzio pickups, and since 2009, by Essetipicks picks and MadCat amplifiers. Since 2010, he has been the endorser of ARTE-SOUND handcrafted amplifiers, THREE GUITARS instruments, and CAPURSO GUITARS basses and guitars.
– On June 7, 2008, he held a seminar titled “Meeting with Marcello Zappatore, guitarist, and composer” at the University of Lecce, organized by Prof. Boero, a biologist friend of Frank Zappa, who discovered a species of jellyfish and named it Phiaella Zappai in honor of his idol. The same event was repeated in March 2011, with Prof. Boero, as part of the prestigious UBI JAZZ jazz festival in Mirano (Venice).
– November 2008, he performed in Rome with Grazia Negro, Roy Paci, and Frank London for the presentation of Lisa Romani’s film “Se chiudi gli occhi”.
– May 2009, his solo album ‘LA CILIEGINA SULLA PORTA’ (ed. Note Volanti) was released.
– September 2009, he was featured on Italia Uno’s talent show ‘Talent1’.
– 2010, he starred as the main character in the movie about himself titled ‘W ZAPPATORE’ (Apnea Film, directed by Maci Verdesca), alongside great figures like Sandra Milo, Guia Jelo, Monica Nappo.
– June 2011, the film W ZAPPATORE won the Brooklyn Film Festival in New York.
– On November 20, 2011, Marcello Zappatore performed at the Second Hand Guitars in Milan, the most important Italian guitar fair, playing his compositions representing the brands he endorses.
He was recalled to perform at the same fair in 2013, although it took place in Salerno.
– 2013, he played with Antonio Maggio, winner of the Sanremo Giovani Festival, touring with him as a guitarist and recording guitar parts for his two albums “NONOSTANTE TUTTO” and “L’EQUAZIONE” (Universal Music).
– 2014 he performed with Stanley Jordan in Cavallino (LE).
– February 2015, his second solo album ‘PROPOLINO’ (Audioglobe) was released.
– 2016 he recorded guitars, bass, and keyboards for Mino De Santis’s album PETIPITUGNA (Abac editions) in his studio.
– Also in 2016, he performed live with Boom Da Bash.
– 2019, his third solo album ‘SUSCO’ (Workin’ Label) was released.
– December 2019, the prestigious guitar magazine Axe Magazine dedicated to Marcello the entire cover and six pages of review and interview for his album SUSCO.
– 2020, Marcello Zappatore recorded and arranged the album SASSIDACQUA by Mino De Santis, with the collaboration of Giuliano Sangiorgi of Negramaro.
Marcello played guitars, bass, keyboards, and percussion.
– In October 2020, RAI Italian television produced a feature on the music video for the song ‘Molteplice‘ from SUSCO.
– He has performed in Italy Spain, Germany, Poland, Albania, Switzerland, and England.
