Comments (0) Best Solo Musician - 2002
Fabio Zini
Harvard Square in Boston. Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley. Greenwich Village's Washington Square Park. These are places to find street musicians who rock. Not SoFla. Or at least that's what we thought before running into 33-year-old Argentine guitarist Fabio Zini one sunny Sunday at a picnic shelter on Hollywood Beach. On his Takamine, he played electrified flamenco, tango, and bar mitzvah music as kids and seniors, Argentines and Quebecois, picnickers and homeless guys danced up a storm. Zini started playing guitar at eight years old in Santa Fe, north of Buenos Aires; by the time he was 13, he was picking before a crowd of 3000 people at a festival. He came to the United States in 1996; since arriving here, he has entertained crowds just about everywhere they'd let him, from Argentinean festivals to the opening of the Hallandale Beach Cultural Community Center to Tango Dreams at the Actors Playhouse. He's also opened for Lucy Arnaz and jammed on South Beach with the Gipsy Kings. To make the bulk of his living, Zini peddles two CDs -- Passion Springs, which he produced in 1999, and the recent Magic Fingers, which includes a flamenco-inspired rendition of "Flight of a Bumblebee." These days, he's a regular at Mizner Park in Boca Raton and Sawgrass Mills, as well as the Hollywood Broadwalk scene. You never know where you're going to find him, though if you must, you can log on to his Webpage.
