| Antonio Forcione | |
| Birth Date: | 2 May 1960 |
| Birth Place: | Molise, Italy |
| Genre: | Jazz |
| Instrument: | Guitar |
| Years Active: | 1990s–present |
| Label: | Naim |
| Associated Acts: | Eduardo Niebla, Adriano Adewale |
Antonio Forcione is an Italian jazz guitarist. His 2000 album Live! was recorded at The Vortex in London.[1] He also recorded a duet album with bassist Charlie Haden – Heartplay.[2]
Forcione grew up on the Adriatic coast of the Molise region of southern Italy.[3] By the age of 11, he was playing Italian folk music, accompanying two accordion-playing uncles on guitar and mandolin. He toured Italy at the age of 13 in the 1970s.[4] Coming to London in May 1983, he busked in Covent Garden, and won a Time Out busking award.[5]
Charles Alexander, writing in Jazzwise, states that Forcione has "influences ranging from flamenco to Balkan and from Arabic to American acoustic guitar styles, but he is thoroughly conversant with the jazz language."[6] Forcione names Carlos Santana, Jimi Hendrix, John McLaughlin and Pink Floyd’s Dave Gilmour as his "guitar heroes".
Forcione's main instrument is the guitar, both six string and twleve-string. He also created an instrument, the oudan. “I bought an oud but after 40 years of playing the guitar I struggled to adjust my technique to an unfretted instrument with different spacings. So I took some frets off a guitar and put them on the oud – it’s like an entirely new instrument.” He uses this, for instance, on the track Tarifa on Sketches of Africa.
Forcione composes and plays in genres such as folk, rock, jazz, Latin, and fusion.[7]