Giorgio Santisi takes a Jabba from Mayones

Many in the USA do not know about the very tasteful playing by Italian session bass player Giorgio Santisi. After finding him on the Mayones.com website as an endorser for their Jabba 5 string. We delved a bit deeper into this phenomenal bass players background.

Giorgio gave us the skinny on his Mayones Jabba, cooking, playing in a trio vs session work and…..cooking?

Don’t be surprised if you see giorgio cooking something up on foodnetwork.

CustomGuitarBoutique: Let’s start from the beginning how did you generate interest in the Bass?

Giorgio Santisi: I started to play guitar when I was 16, but I was not really interested in music, it was just for fun. After about two years, a dear friend of mine asked me to play the bass in his band. He lent me his bass and I really fell in love with this instrument and so after a few months I bought a Squier Jazz Bass.

CGB: How did your endorsement with Mayones come about?

Giorgio Santisi: I was at Musikmesse in Frankfurt in 2008 to endorse Tecamp amplifiers, and having a look around the stands, I saw this beautiful Mayones Jabba ready to be tested. I started to play it and I couldn’t stop anymore…everything was perfect. I met the italian distributor at Mayo booth and he asked me to endorse it and it was very easy for me to accept.

CGB: Tell us a Bit about the bass you play?, almost every pic or video of you we see is with you playing either a Jabba 4 or 5, is this the bass you endorse or are there others?

Giorgio Santisi: I own and play several instruments because I am often required to play some specific brands and models for my job in studio recordings or live gigs, but I endorse just Mayones. I play and endorse my Jabba because I feel it is my instrument, so I always consider it my first choice.

CGB: When did you finally realize you could earn a living Playing professionally?

Giorgio Santisi: I started to play just for fun, but as soon as someone decided to pay me for my playing, I realized that the best thing that you can do in your life is to have fun and to be payed for it.

CGB: How does playing as a hired gun for the likes of Pia Tuccitto, Federico Poggipollini, Rosanna Fratello, and Gianni Nazzaro compare to the session work that you do in your trio “GOS”?

Giorgio Santisi: They are two different worlds…when I play someone else’s music, I put my soul in my notes but I use the notes they need, when I play my music I use the notes I want :-)

CGB: Be honest! What part of the world do you prefer to play the most and why?

Giorgio Santisi: Playing outside Italy is always funny, it is a new experience every time. I can’t tell you what part I prefer, but I can tell you that I really should like to play soon in the States and in Japan

CGB: Besides Mayones, what is some of the other gear you are using these days?

Giorgio Santisi: I use and endorse Tecamp Amplifiers and Galli Strings. I also use a hand made 4 strings, a 5 strings Jazz Bass, a 5 string Music Man, a fretless Ibanez Musician, a Japan made Fender Precision and an acoustic Takamine TB10.

CGB: So we know you have the chops to hold your own playing just about anything on bass, what other style of bass playing would you like to pursue if any?

Giorgio Santisi: I am not really interested in playing the bass as a guitar…I see there are a lot of young guys that play wonderfully but they are more interested in making a lot of notes without worrying about their role of bass players. I like to see them playing and I really admire them, but I really would like to play like the great bass players in the 70’s.

CGB: What doesn’t the guitar and Bass world know about Giorgio Santisi, the Italian Bass virtuoso from Naples?

Giorgio Santisi: I don’t think to be a virtuoso on my instrument…but I know how to be a virtuoso in the kitchen. I started to cook when I was 18 and may be I will open a restaurant in my next life…or in this, who knows?

CGB: What can your American fans expect to see in 2010 from you?

Giorgio Santisi: I don’t start a new year thinking to what I will do with music, the only thing I try to do is making music every day.
There are some goals I want to reach, but we all know that it is very hard for musicians to reach them in a short time. Anyway I am really happy to have some fans in the States and I will try to be a better musician at the end of this year.

CGB: What advice would you give to up and coming Bass players that want a career in music?

Giorgio Santisi: Play for fun and because you love music, don’t start to play because you want to be professional musicians. If you play for passion and you play with your heart, someone one day will pay you for your playing and some of you will become professional.

CGB: In your opinion who is the most influential Guitar Player/Bass Player of all time?

Giorgio Santisi: Oh, this is easy….I think that no player has influenced the bass world as Jaco did! And he still does…

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Please contact us if you are interested in purchasing Mayones and DL cables.

See ya next week