Surfer Joe is an Italian surf instrumental band from Livorno, Italy and the pseudonym of the guitarist and songwriter of the group, Lorenzo Valdambrini.^[1] Long a regularly used nickname, Valdambrini adopted the stage name officially in 2011, when he returned to Italy from living on the island of Antigua and decided to go solo and break away from his previous band, Wadadli Riders.^[2] The name was also adopted by a retro American-style diner opened by Valdambrini and his brother Luca in Livorno called Surfer Joe Diner.^[3] This diner would eventually become the host location for the largest surf music festival in the world, the Surfer Joe Summer Festival, which was also based upon the stage name of Valdambrini. He is also active as a specialty producer for this unique niche genre of music, and has worked on projects for Reverberati, Paul Johnson, Rev. Hank and The Bradipos IV.^[4][5][6]

The band is one of the most active touring acts in modern surf music, playing upwards of one hundred plus concerts per year, and have toured extensively around the world including Japan, Mexico, Brazil, USA, Europe.^[7]

The band's style is traditional surf, which harkens back to the original era of the early sixties and focuses on strong melody, fairly clean guitar tones, and spring reverb, with a rhythm section that has more in common with jazz than rock.^[8]

Legacy

Guitarists and bands who have covered Surfer Joe songs include Saguaro Pricks, Waves Of Steele, Sys Malakian, Oporto, Watang, Aloha In Hell, Surfantasmas, and The Mentawais, among many others.^{[9][10][11][12][13][14][15]} His music has appeared in film and television, including promotions for Bear Surfboards.^[16] And he has been interviewed for prominent books and documentary films covering surf music, such as Tim Cooley's Surfing About Music, Steve Seagren's Reverb Junkies, and John Blair and Tom Duncan's Sound Of The Surf.^[17][18][19] His music has also been selected to be included in prominent compilation releases that document the contemporary international surf scene, including Brave New Surf (Double Crown, 2011), Surf You Next Tuesday (Otitis Media, 2021), Surf You Next Tuesday 2! The Revenge (Otitis Media, 2022) and Wave Walk'n: A Tribute To The Surf Raiders (Green Cookie, 2022).^{[20][21][22][23]}

Discography

References