Born in Messina, Sicily, Gino has been exposed to diverse types of music from an early age. Although not from a musical family, some of his earliest recollections are of his father playing European classical works and folk music from various Mediterranean countries on their record player, and his mother singing along to operas and popular Italian songs on the radio. Emigrating to the United States in the early seventies, at a time when jazz fusion and progressive rock were at the zenith of their popularity