I recently purchased a CD/DVD by Andrea Bocelli - Under The Desert Sky. There is a guitarist playing just behind him to his left and if I'm not mistaken that is Ramone (? last name) that was on the Tribute DVD. Ramone was featured at the beginning of Waltz in 7/8 and Yanni is kidding him about washing his guitar as it's so little and must have shrunk. Correct me if I'm wrong on this someone. Anyway, Yanni just uses such talented people. Happy Holiday Season to everyone. Sara

Hi Sawsir2 -- Good eye! You are so right that is Ramone Stagnaro and I was thrilled to see him playing with Andrea. I remember during the Tribute tour, Yanni was saying that Ramone was teaching him how to do some (Peruvian ?) dance steps and when Yanni went to show what he had learned, the crowd went wild.

Happy Holidays Sawsir2.

Ramon also played on a TV special with Josh Groban a few years ago. I saw the end of the show and noticed his name in the credits. He does mostly studio work so I don't get to see him play live often. He is a FABULOUS talent. I loved what he did with Yanni, but he has a fire in those fingers that would just knock your socks off. It sure did to me the first time I saw him play latin jazz with Alex Acuna. He also plays a really mean bass. He did that with a flamenco artist along with our own Pedro on sax and flute.

Ramon is wonderful.

Linda C.

Hi SawSir2,

I just bought Under The Desert Sky, so I will have to look for Ramone. Thanks.

Hey Y'all, thanks for the replies. I rewatched Tribute last night after I'd made the original post and watched the credits at the end and found out the last name. Ramone STAGNARO. I think Ramone was sort of featured in Love Is All, too. Pedro is such a talent and such fun to watch. Happy Holidays to each of you. Be well and be safe. Sara

I had a very pleasant surprise last Sunday. I went to the Christmas program for our Spanish speaking congregation because I knew that Walter Rodriguez would be playing percussion and another young man in my choir was singing a solo in this presentation too. Ramon Stagnaro was there on his guitar and Ramon Flores was also there on his trumput. I had not seen Ramon S. in about 5 years so it was especially wonderful to see him. He confirmed again to me that most of his work is in studios so I don't get the change to see him play live. We just have to keep our eyes peeled for guitar players in other groups and in the movies as well as on albums by others. One place I know you can find him is on a fairly old album of John Tesh called Guitars by the Fire. If you go to his website, www.ramonstagnaro.com, you can see a list of things he has done. It's 10 pages long at 20+ on each page, lists over 200 albums he has recorded on. And this stopped somewhere in 2005 so I KNOW there are more. He is such a nice man and a WONDERFUL guitarist.

I always loved what he did with Yanni which was very beautiful, but the few times I have seen him play in LA, I have been BLOWN AWAY ! ! ! He has a fire in those fingers that rivals the fire in Karen Briggs bow.

This is true of most of Yanni's people. Get them out into their own special element and they are FANTASTIC.

Linda C.

Oh, Linda, how wonderful that you get the chance to see some of the very talented people like that. Now I really wish I still lived in LA. Oh, well, not to be.
Take care of yourself and hope you had a great Christmas and will have a fantastic New Year!!
In Peace, Love and Yannitude,
Margaret0949