OSANNA LIVE UOMINI E MITI

Osanna was one of those many captivating Italian progrock bands from the Seventies. They made some fine albums, perhaps "Palepoli" is their most acclaimed one. In the autumn of 2001 Osanna gave a reunion concert and the band even decided to make new songs. Two years later Osanna performed live in Napoli with contributions by members from other Italian progrock legends from the Seventies. This is all put on a CD and a DVD, beautifully packaged in a double fold out cover entitled "Osanna Live - Uomini e miti".

The CD delivers a bit more polished and groovy sound than the more raw and agressive sound in the Seventies. But the performance from all the musicians is outstanding, these veterans love to play their music and they are so talented and experienced! Osanna plays material from their Seventies albums like "Ce vulesse - ce vulesse" (exciting ethnic sounding clarinet), "There will be time" (wonderful piano and warm vocals), "Mirror train" (propulsive guitar riffs, powerful clarinet and organ and strong vocals) and an abridged version from "Oro caldo" (swinging bass intro, catchy rhythm and great work on clarinet, fiery electric guitar and vocals), one of the highights from the album "Palepoli". If you like the early Osanna I'm sure you will not be disappointed by this reunion band concert (featuring three members from the Seventies line-ups). The four studio tracks sound pleasant and varied with strong guitar, saxophone and clarinet but I wonder how many fans from the early Osanna will be pleased by this quite modern and more polished Osanna.

The DVD is very worth to check out, especially because of the contributions by members from Area, Il Balletto Di Bronzo, Area and Banco. The concert (12 songs) is recorded on December 2nd 2003 in a theater in Napoli, the (in)famous city in the poor southern part of Italy. Osanna plays powerful and inspired, most of their songs can also be traced on the aforementioned CD. Very interesting are the tracks by the Italian progrock legends Vittorio De Scalzi from New Trolls with "Signore, io sono Irish" (tender piano and expressive vocals) and "Ti ricordi Joe?" (strong acoustic rhythm guitar), Francesco Di Giacomo and Rodolfo Maltese from Banco with "R.I.P." (very compelling 'unplugged' version with splendid work on a blue Ovation guitar and great moving vocals, goose bumps halfway!), Patrizio Fariselli from Area with "Luglio, agusto, settembre (Nero)" (sparkling piano and guitar with talkbox, it sounds a bit experimental) and Gianni Leone from Il Balletto Di Bronzo with "Love in the kitchen" (very distinctive with bombastic keyboards, classical orchestrations and theatrical vocals). The final 13th song entitled "Everybody's gonna see you die" is recorded on a festival in 2003 and features Osanna with again Gianni Leone, it sounds swinging and it rocks featuring clarinet, saxophone and heavy electric guitar riffs.

AN IMPRESSIVE RETURN FROM THE LEGEND OSANNA!!

In 1999 founder members Lino Vairetti and Danilo Rustici joined again, after more than twenty years passed in "stand-by", to play the music of Osanna with a new line up featuring Enzo Petrone on bass, Gennaro Barba on drums, Gigi Borgogno on electric guitar, Luca Urciuolo on keyboard and Vito Ranucci on sax. "Uomini e miti" is in part a celebration of one of the most relevant bands of the Italian progressive scene of the Seventies and in part a new starting point... Perhaps the magic is gone, nonetheless Osanna are still able to perform good music...

This album features six live tracks full of energy and enthusiasm where the band play trying to update some "historic pieces" and the result is quite good, especially "Ce vulesse - Ce vulesse" and "L'uomo"... You can find here also two interesting new studio versions of old tracks ("Medley acustico: Oro caldo / My Mind Flies / L'amore vincerà di nuovo" and "Non sei vissuto mai") and two new tracks (the weak "Colpi di tosse (medley): Tropp / Ho scritto una canzone" and the funny "Taka boom").

The DVD documents a celebration concert for the 30th anniversary of the band (recorded in Naples in December 2001), featuring the performances of some guest stars such as Francesco Di Giacomo and Rodolfo Maltese (BMS), Vittorio De Scalzi (New Trolls), Paolo Fariselli (Area), Gianni Leone (Il Balletto di Bronzo) and Jenny Sorrenti (Saint Just) and one track from another concert in 2003. The quality is good and it could be of some interest for Italianprog lovers...

In the whole "Uomini e miti" is definitely a good work but very far from essential in a prog collection...