Louis Cennamo

Louis David Cennamo (born 5 March 1946, Hornsey, North London) was bass guitarist with an early line up of The Herd,^[1] the original line-up of Renaissance and later Colosseum, Steamhammer, Armageddon and Illusion (the reformed Renaissance). He also worked with Jim McCarty in Stairway and the short-lived Bogomas with Barry Wilson and Ivan Zagni from Jody Grind.^[2] The song "Bullet", on the first Renaissance album, includes an extended unaccompanied bass solo by Cennamo. For a number of years Louis has played jazz with a variety of line-ups, most recently with Special Edition.

Special Edition

Special Edition was formed by Cennamo as a jazz band. They feature jazz poetry written by Angela J Elliott and include horn/harmonica player Graham Pike, who wrote the theme tune for the BBC children's show The Tweenies, and a number of their other 'hits'; keyboard player Barry Parfitt, and drummer Tim Stephens.

Instrument

When playing with Special Edition Cennamo's current (March, 2013) instrument of choice is a Warwick Corvette $$ fretless four-string - a model characterised by its double humbucker pick-up layout. This is an custom-built model whose body is unusually constructed of ovangkol wood - in contrast with the more common swamp ash or bubinga models. The result is a warmth and richness of tone which complements Cennamo's fluid jazz-style playing.

See also

• Speech, a 1972 album by Steamhammer

References

External links

• Northern Lights, a fan site
• Biography