Full Album show of May 27, 2023
with the album: Kaleidoscope Summer


Artist's Biography

I'm Cortez, Italian artist from Rome, known by my real name Alessandro Bagagli for my English production of 7 rock albums: Under the Gun (no longer available) and Magic in the air (2013), Shouted Songs (2014), Primal life (2015), Live & Die (2016), Out in the Nowhere (2017) and Highways & Cigars (no longer available) (2018).

I was born as a guitarist and now I am a multi-instrumentalist and independent composer.

I started in 1994 with PolyGram / Mercury under the stage name of Alex Baggi and an Italian rock album called Un po' di Sentimento.

After my experience as Alessandro Bagagli, I started a collaboration with artists from all over the world and in 2019 I published The Eve, Entropy and a single, I'll make it up for you with the brand The Eve.

At the end of this experience, I needed to start a new musical journey.
I changed my name to a new stage name, Cortez and in 2020 I released two brand new works in Italian, two rock albums Poeta di Strada and Nel Colore della Notte.

My musical journey has no rules or a specific musical style. I write and do what I like. So,
also in 2020, I released a new funk and soul disco album. Come to Poppa,a tribute to the
disco funk music of the Seventies and to Studio 54.

In February 2021 Souled came out, an album with strong soul funk overtones.
Then I went back to where it all began. When I was a kid I have played in hard rock and heavy bands, rehearsing in Rome's suburbia. I was a singer. That's how I started. I was young and my room was full of vinyl and posters of Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, UFO, Free... on June 4th 2021 I paid homage to my old passion for hard rock, with the release of my album Through Death Valley & Nowhere.

My journey has also pushed me to the California coast, on a psychedelic journey that draws inspiration from bands and artists such as The Byrds, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers and George Harrison.

A rebirth that took me to new destinations full of creativity and peace, with Rise Again, released on October 7, 2021.

For Christmas 2021 I decided to go back to rock in Italian with the album Domani Cambio Nome.

As I had promised to my Italian friends, after two years I went back to writing and making an album in Italian. It was a rock album, with dark and somewhat reflective undertones.

In March 2022 there was a country breakthrough with Train to Coming, an album released on March 4th.
June 21 marked another step in my discography, with the release of Modern Blues.

In December 2022 Rock 'n' Roll Packed has been released, an album featuring strong rock and roll hues.

In 2023 And the Rain Was Coming Down and Kaleidoscope Summer have been released.

About the Album

Kaleidoscope Summer, released in 2023, is the 21st album of Cortez discography. An album description? Just dive in a kaleidoscopic summer, a new psychedelic musical journey by Cortez. Discover the sounds of dreams, the visionary lyrics of an artist with a distinctive and original style. Let yourself go and enjoy your tan. You deserve it, don't you? 

Full Album show of February 14, 2023
with the album: And the Rain Was Coming Down


Artist's Biography

See below

About the Album

This album wasn’t planned.
The last year has been tough, violent, hopeless.
Wars all around the world, human rights violated, people dying under the same old bombs, people still fighting against masters of law who erase rights and justice, conquered after centuries, for their economic interests or in the name of their Gods.
People are struggling more and more working just to feed their families, money that is no longer sufficient to support them and nothing more to believe in.
The price of energy, the international economic fights among countries that act like empires but they are not anymore, are crashing down on us.
So, one morning I watched my daughter running under and against the rain pouring down on the promenade and I had the idea of this album.
Fortunately, my wife had taken a photo of the scene and it’s now the album cover of my new work. This album is born in few days, inspired by the sadness of the last year and, I guess, the next one to come.
But my daughter’s smiling face while running into the rain gives me a hope for the future.
We came right on time for the deluge. But we can survive it, if we stand united, with some of that precious human spirit.

Full Album show of June 27, 2022
Album: Modern Blues

About the Album:

This is the 9th album of my new discography as Cortez. I really couldn't describe the album as much a verse of my song "Blame it on Rock and Roll":
Baby, you get mad because I come home too late
And you frighten up when I play on the stage
You say you don’t want a man who acts like a child
Shaking like a crazy in his guitar solo time
Baby maybe I ain’t the one you were looking for
It’s just that I’m a prisoner of Rock ‘n’ Roll

I guess this verse describes better that any other words the mood of my new album, out June 21, 2022 and available on Apple Music, Amazon Music, Spotify and more.

Full Album show of October 15, 2021
Album: Rise Again

I've passed a strange period that scared me very much, as many of us. Now I feel a whole lotta better and my musical journey leads me to the shores of California, in a psychedelic trip that draws inspiration from bands and artists who meant a lot to me in my musical growth, such as The Byrds, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers and George Harrison.

The new album "Rise Again" is a journey, a psychedelic and rock trip in search of a rebirth, rising again to my life and to what I meant to be when I started. 14 songs with a specific mood, vintage instruments, like my Rickenbacker Fireglo 12 strings or my 52' Telecaster, which can give you the character of my new work, out October 7, 2021.

I wanted to use other vintage instruments, in my creative process, to give my personal touch to this new album: a mellotron, a B3 organ, grand pianos and Gretsch guitars. The sounds of "Rise Again" are important as much as the lyrics and I really hope that you will find this work sincere and authentic, as I always tried to be, in my life. Rise Again is an album about freedom. I wish you peace and love.
 

Full Album show of May 14, 2021
Album: Through Death Valley & Nowhere

About the Album

This is a new release, out June 4, 2021, including my single "Arabian Nights", out now. I always loved music. So, as an independent artist, I like to travel from a genre to another. I love everything on the 7 notes: soul, funk, rock and roll, jazz.

But when I started, I was a kid and I played in hard rock and heavy metal bands. I was a vocalist. I was young and my room was filled with vinyls and posters by Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, U.F.O, Free and other bands like them (to be honest even Cindy Crawford was hung up on my wall). I always loved hard rock, that true powerful music and stunning guitars, vocals... well, you know what I mean.

And you even know that the first love is never forgotten.

Well, this is my personal coming back to hard rock music, after my 2013 album "Under the Gun", released with my real name.
My new album has been written, performed and produced by myself in my studio of Rome Italy.

It has been anticipated by the single "Arabian Nights", already on line on Lonely Oak Radio.

As anyone else, I’ve been living a long period of trouble and hard thoughts, contaminated by this pandemic disaster. "Through Death Valley & Nowhere" talks about our fears, our dreams. The enemies who I talk about in the titletrack are not real. I don't mean to fight against anyone, I’m talking about struggling against our pride, our sense of defeat, our resignation".

I really hope that Lonely Oak Radio listeners will enjoy my new work that I want to share with you as a preview. Feel free to share and comment my music and write me on my Twitter profile to get in touch. As always I do, let me thank Lonely Oak Radio for its dedication to music and independent artists. I really love you.

Full Album show of December 1, 2020
Album: Come to Poppa

Artist's Biography

The Italian rock artist Cortez from Rome, Italy has so far been known by his real name Alessandro Bagagli for his English production, 7 rock albums available digitally in streaming and download on the main e-music stores: Under the Gun and Magic in the Air (2013), Shouted Songs (2014), Primal Life (2015), Live & Die (2016), Out in the Nowhere (2017) and Highways & Cigars (2018).
With the classic rock riffs of his 1952 Telecaster, the chords and licks of the Byrds-style 12-string Rickenbacker and the extended and powerful vocals, his music owes its influence to artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, John Mellencamp and Pearl Jam.
He started in 1994 with PolyGram / Mercury under the stage name Alex Baggi and an Italian rock album called Un po 'di Sentimento . Following his experience as Alessandro Bagagli, he has collaborated with many artists from all over the world on two of his projects with the name "The Eve", realizing two albums, The Eve and Entropy , both released in 2019 and available in all e -music for streaming and downloading.
After years of English productions, the Italian artist has decided to change his musical path starting with a new stage name, "Cortez" and two brand new works in Italian, two rock albums called Poeta di Strada (Street Poet) and Nel Color of Night (In the colors of the Night), both available for streaming and downloading of all e-music stores.
From 2 October 2020 a new album by Cortez is available, again in English Come to Poppa, a funky disco pop album.
A peculiarity of all his production is that Cortez writes his songs and produces his works independently, playing all the musical instruments, arranging and producing his music by himself, even the artworks for his album covers. Join Cortez in his new soul, R'n'B, disco funk musical moods.
His complete discography is now available on all streaming services, Spotify, Amazon Music, iTunes and Apple Music. You can follow Cortez on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram.
Like Gemini, Cortez is very multifaceted: he is a novelist, a painter and a sculptor. You can see some of his works of art around many places in Rome.


About the Album

Composed of 12 tracks, Come to Poppa is a musical journey through the moods of funky, disco and soul music of the Seventies, when vinyl was the master: a return to the sound of Studio 54 in New York and the revolution of rhythm in merican pop. The album is available in digital format on the main streaming platforms and on Cortez website. Recorded in the artist's studio in Rome, Come to Poppa was born from the idea of a musical celebration of a mix of musical styles to which Cortez did not seem so attached till now: disco music, funky and soul. In this period of diculty for everyone, the freshness of these songs, while perhaps screeching a little, were used by the Italian artist to recharge the batteries. It starts with "Give it up", a song that certainly is inspired by New York and Philadelphia from the golden years of disco music. It continues with other songs full of rhythm and soul, to get to "Funky Love", which eatures guitar references reminding George Benson. With "Do You Think I'm Crazy", which promises to be a dance song for summer 2021, some falsettos remind us the Bee Gees of Saturday Night Fever. A peculiarity: the last song, "Blue Door Fight Club Night" is inspired by a dialogue between Rocky and his son, in the lm "Rocky Balboa".
Initially, the American actor's speech was present in the song but for copyright reasons it was not possible to keep it. A piece full of energy and with more contemporary features, close to certain works by Jamiroquai.“I was preparing the new album in Italian which was ready to be released at the beginning of 2021,”Cortez says, “but I already had an unusual album ready, that was not rock. I almost had some reserve to propose it to my audience, since it appeared so apparently far from my rock music culture”.
And in fact, Cortez's latest work certainly cannot be approached, in style, to his artistic history. “Like many of my age, I didn't grow up only with Dylan and Springsteen,” he continues: “in the 70s there were my mother's records around the house: Bee Gees, Barry White, Boney M, Donna Summer, a lot of vinyl records: a lot of black music, funky and soul”. Inevitably Cortez was fascinated by that music, it was contaminated by it and "Come to Poppa" came out with, apparently, little things to do with him. Yet Cortez wrote all the songs and arrangements. Everything you will hear on the album was played and produced by the Italian artist himself. “So it's an album that belongs to me a lot, despite the style”.
We are used to the artistic turning points of Cortez, who, since he produced under his real name Alessandro Bagagli, has produced a rich discography that is very heterogeneous in stylistic terms.
"Come to Poppa is a rich work" in terms of arrangements and production: strings and horn sections, funky and slap basses, guitars and moog, Rhodes piano, a mix of funky, disco 70's style, even going jazz. In short, even in the artistic references that deviate from the love for rock music declared by the artist, the result is sparkling, festive and pleasant. “It's a record that makes you dance,
it's joyful and given the time we live in, I rst asked my followers for advice on my social channels. The answer was unambiguous: what are you waiting for to publish it”? But what does the title of the album mean? "Come to Poppa" is an American slang expression that has always been used and well known in the Seventies. It is no coincidence that also Bob Seger released a song with the same title. The meaning is simple: it is an often whispered temptation to achieve a desired outcome in gambling, games, money or love. This is the track list of "Come to Poppa": Give It Up!, Keep Your Body in Motion, I Like it, DoYou Think I'm Crazy, Funky Love, What You Say, Without Love, Comin' Back toYou, Living with the Boogie, U & I, When It's Really Love and Blue Door Fight Club Night.To enhance the album, played entirely by the Roman artist, a digital book with photos and lyrics of the songs, downloadable from the artist's ocial website, www.ocialcortez.net by those who havepurchased the digital album. Cortez also conceived and created the album cover. Everything that has been described makes "Come to Poppa" a project of great musical importance, dedicated to the numerous and loyal fans of disco, funky, soul and rhythm & blues music but also intended to involve
and approach a younger audience that wants to deepen the roots of contemporary black music. The rst two videos from the album are available on Cortez Ocial YouTube Channel. "Come to Poppa" is available in streaming on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and download.