two more italian prog artists

• Alan Sorrenti's first three releases (1972-1974): outstanding vocal impact! "The man who eat a moog!"
• Riccardo Zappa: excellent instrumental works on guitar!

I'm sure these two names deserves their own place here on progarchives.

The three prog releases of Alan Sorrenti (1972, 73, 74) before entering disco music (1976)!!

Riccardo Zappa's fan page:

http://digilander.libero.it/riccardozappa/Testi/menu.html

Well, i attended a concert of Riccardo Zappa in 1996 (actually, it was a clinic where he was showing a new 12 strings guitar)... I own some of his records: "Definire significa limitare" (1996 - bought at that concert) ; "Anthakarani Swami" (1990); "Fondali - Volume decimo" (1993); "Dal vivo" (1994) and "Riccardo Zappa interpreta Johann Sebastian Bach" (1997)... I'm an acoustic guitar player and I like these albums but they're more close to works of artists like Leo Kottke, Alex De Grassi, Tommy Emmanuel, Franco Morone, Peter Finger etc... I never thought to Riccardo Zappa as a "progressive-rock artist" (anyway on this site there are so many albums and artists not exactly prog that I like as, for instance, Al Di Meola...). Personally I don't care if an album or an artist "not prog" is on this site... The most important thing is to understand what kind of music you can find in an album and if it's good or not...

By the way, sometimes ago I started a topic with a list (very far from complete, indeed) of Italian artists related to prog... I think it could be useful discuss their music on this site, so I post it again...

Bye!

ALAN SORRENTI (Singer-songwriter): Many people think that his first album “Aria” is a masterpiece of progressive music. I do not agree, though it’s an interesting album with vocals in the style of Tim Buckley and a long suite (in the line-up there’s Jean-Luc Ponty). The following two albums “Come un vecchio incensiere all’alba in un villaggio deserto” (1973) and “Alan Sorrenti” (1974) are less interesting. The other albums, especially from 1977 are just melodic pop.

ALBERTO FORTIS (Singer-songwriter): The first album “Alberto Fortis” (1979) is very interesting, in the line-up there’s all the PFM, lyrics are a mix of rage and poetry. Not bad also “Tra demonio e santità”, with Mauro Pagani in the line-up (1980), while the other albums are less interesting for prog-fans

ANGELO BRANDUARDI: His albums from 1975 to 1980 should be of great interest for prog-folk lovers: “Angelo Branduardi” (1974), “Alla fiera dell’Est” (1976) “La pulce d’acqua” (1978), “Cogli la prima mela” (1979) and “Gulliver, la luna e altri disegni” (1980). If you’re not familiar with this artist I suggest you to begin with the live album “Concerto” (1980), where play the musicians of Banco del Mutuo Soccorso and where you can hear some English versions of his songs (though the Italian versions are better).

EUGENIO FINARDI (Singer-songwriter): In the albums “Sugo” (1976) and “Diesel” (1977) you can hear clearly the “Area touch” in the rhythmic (Paolo Tofani, Patrizio Fariselli and Ares Tavolazzi from Area are in the line-up). Lyrics are extremely “engaged” (for instance Giai Phong on the Vietnam war and Scimmia on drugs addicition on Diesel album). Intersting also “Non gettate alcun oggetto dai finestrini” (1975), “Blitz” (1978) and “Roccando Rollando” (1979).

IVANO FOSSATI (Singer-songwriter): Former member of Delirium, his career, though not exactly “progressive”, has been successful and with high quality standard albums. I suggest to listen to “La pianta del tè” (1988) and “Macramé” (1996).

LUCIO BATTISTI (Singer-songwriter): One of the best known Italian singer-songwriter. Usually the lyrics of his songs are written by Mogol and are very poetic. In his early albums you can find in the line-up musicians of PFM, Area, Il volo and Formula 3. I suggest to listen to “Emozioni” (1970), “Umanamente uomo: il sogno” (1972) and “Il mio canto libero” (1972).

FRANCESCO GUCCINI (Singer-songwriter): In some of his albums of the seventies you can find prog arrangements, but his works are essentially  based on lyrics so, if you can’t appreciate the lyrics probably you’ll find him a little bit boring. Anyway, in the live album “Tra la via Emilia e il West” (1984), featuring, among others,  Vince Tempera (Il Volo) on keyboards and Ares Tavolazzi (Area) on bass, there are interesting new arrangements of some songs and it could be a good starting point if you would check this artist.

FABRIZIO DE ANDRE’ (Singer-songwriter):  Probably the most influent and well known Italian singer-songwriter. His live works in 1979 with PFM,  “De Andrè In concerto + PFM” Vol. 1 and 2  are two must-have. Very interesting also the eponymous album with the native American on the cover “Fabrizio De Andrè” (1981), “Creuza de mä” (1984), co-written with Mauro Pagani and sang in Genoa’s dialect, and “Anime salve” (1996), co-written with Ivano Fossati.  

andrea wrote:   FABRIZIO DE ANDRE’ (Singer-songwriter):  Probably the most influent and well known Italian singer-songwriter. His live works in 1979 with PFM,  “De Andrè In concerto + PFM” Vol. 1 and 2  are two must-have. Very interesting also the eponymous album with the native American on the cover “Fabrizio De Andrè” (1981), “Creuza de mä” (1984), co-written with Mauro Pagani and sang in Genoa’s dialect, and “Anime salve” (1996), co-written with Ivano Fossati.

Fabrizio De André , i love his voice

Ricardo Zappa is IMHO, fit to be in the Archives, (how about JR/F genre?)

Cociante has some horrible 90's stuff (that is the one I am unfortunately familiar with) and this means that those albums would find themselves in the Archives too, given that the entire discography must be present

Sorrenti: The name rings a bell (maybe read in references books), but like Branduardi and Batiatto, I was always guilty of searching groups rather than solo artistes. This was so for years and not just in Italians artistes

let's also avoid Zucchero