Jazz-Rock Italian Style

Jazz in the Italian peninsula was not quite as popular in the 1960s as it was in the countries to its north but the Progressive Rock mania carried with it a component of Jazz that many of the classically- and blues-rock-trained musicians appreciated. Some even latched onto the progressive events and waves occurring within the Jazz circles--especially the fiery Power Rock and power Jazz-Rock Fusion that was coming out of the Anglo-American world. Bands like the The Jimi Hendrix Experience and the Band of Gypsies, Cream and, later, Tony Williams Lifetime, The Mahavishnu Orchestra, and Return To Forever definitely sparked some imitation and inspiration from Italian musicians.

     The list that follows mentions some of the bands, artists, and their albums that expressed some of Italy's most Jazz-Rock and Jazz-Rock Fusion-oriented experiments and passions--all of which followed the explosion that occurred in August 1971 when John McLaughlin's first incarnation of The Mahavishnu Orchestra debuted with the album, The Inner Mounting Flame.

AGORA - An Italian band from Ancona--on the Eastern shores of the Italian peninsula--whose influences range from Milanese countrymates Perigeo to Weather Report. Their only studio album from the 20th Century, Agora 2 [88.59 rating], was recorded in Milano in September of 1976 and then released by Atlantic Records in 1976.

AREA - a band of politically-motivated and artistically-experimental artists from Milano that produced six albums from 1974-1979 of which Arbeit Macht Frei (1973) [93.08 rating], Caution Radiation Area (1974) [87.69 rating], Crac! (1975) [94.0 rating], and Maledetti (1976) [84.0 rating] are the most notable and relevant to this page.

ARTI E MESTIERI (1974-2000) - a conglomeration of six Roma-based musicians who all had some previous experience from working in local bands. Their first two albums, Tilt - Immagini per un orecchio (1974) [92.81 rating] and Giro di Valzer per Domani (1975) [91.27 rating] are both stellar examples of top tier Jazz-Rock Fusion. Those that came after (three in the 1980s, four in the 21st Century) showed diminishing returns.

CERVELLO - a band of Napolitano boys that included 17-year old Mahavishnu John McLaughlin-inspired guitar phenom, Corrado Rustici. Inspired by the success of Corrado's elder brother, Danilo's band, OSANNA, they came together to produce a single album in 1973, called Melos [93.57 rating]. A reunion concert in Japan in 2017 produced an amazingly powerful cover of the now-classic 1973 album.  

DEDALUS - this band of adventurous and well-trained musicians from Pinerolo chose increasingly experimental and avant-garde musics to express themselves over the course of their two 1970s releases but the did manage to release one solid J-R Fusion-bordering-on-Canterbury Style album in 1973, their self-titled debut, Dedalus [90.0 rating]. Their second album, Materiale Per Tre Esecutori E Nastro Magnetico, released a year later, exhibited an enthusiasm for a wilder, totally avant-garde direction. [rating]

ETNA - members of the Sicilian band FLEA produced one funky Jazz-Rock Fusion album, the self-titled Etna in 1975 [92.03 rating], which happens to be one of my ten or twenty favorite European J-R Fusion albums.

IL BARICENTRO - Il Baricentro was a band from Bari whose previous incarnation was called FESTA MOBILE. Their album Sconcerto was recorded in Roma in December or 1975 and January of 1976 at Chantalain Studio and then released later in 1976 by EMI Records. [88.125 rating]

IL VOLO - this Milano-based "supergroup" was comprised of six experienced musicians who came together as veterans of seven different popular local bands to produce two excellent albums: the self-titled more PFM/classic-RPI-oriented debut album, Il Volo from 1974 [91.82 rating] and a second, more CORTEX-like funky Smooth Jazz album of nearly equal excellence, Essere O Non Essere ? (1975) [89.29 rating] 

NAPOLI CENTRALE - founder James Senese was the Napolitano-raised son of an American soldier from World War II. He and drummer Franco Del Prete attracted two American expats to join their Rock combo to produce the band's self-titled Jazz-Rock debut, Napoli Centrale in 1975 [90.39 rating]. They then pushed through to create two more excellent rock-perspective Jazz-Rock Fusion albums in the Seventies using a revolving door of Italian and American ex-pat musicians: 1976's Mattanza [89.76 rating], and; 1977's Qualcosa ca nu mmore [90.16 rating].

PERIGEO (1973-81) - founder and band leader Giovanni Tommaso was born in Lucca, the capital city of Tuscany's Luccan Province on the Ligurian Sea but it took landing in Milano for him to gather like-minded musicians around him. Guitarist Tony Sidney, a central and pioneering figure of the band, was born in New York City to parents of Italian heritage but chose as a young adult to seek out life in Italy among his family's relatives. The band, in fact, contained one and, at times, two American-born ex-pats. This Rock band was definitely Jazz-oriented from the start, releasing five quality Jazz-Rock (Fusion) albums: Azimut in 1972 [90.36 rating]; 1973's Abbiamo Tutti un Blues da Piangere [92.5 rating]); 1974's Genealogia [90.91 rating]; La valle di Templi in 1975) [rating]; Fata Morgana in 1977) [rating], and; Alice in 1980 [rating]. 

PICCHIO DAL POZZO - this innovative and courageous Genova-based band produced two acclaimed albums before disbanding: the self-titled Canterbury Style debut, Picchio Dal Pozzo in 1976 [94.70 rating] and 1982's jazzier Abbiamo tutti i suoi problemi [rating]

ROCKY'S FILJ - three musicians from Parma and one from Vicenza came together to form a band that earned a record contract from the prestigious Dischi Ricordi label but they were only able to hold it together long enough to create the material for one studio album: 1973's excellent Storie di uomini e non [93.66 rating].