Italian progressive rock band - Jumbo

A very important band that would have deserved much more success than they really had at the time, Jumbo were formed in Milan at the end of 1969 around singer-songwriter Alvaro "Jumbo" Fella, previously playing as bassist with the group from Vercelli Juniors.
Their debut came with two pop singles in 1970 on Numero Uno, sharing the same B-side and containing two cover versions, with Montego Bay and an italian version of In the summertime called In estate. First LP arrived in 1972 (but recorded earlier) on Philips, rather thin, conceived as an Alvaro Fella solo album (his nickname then became the name of the group) and mostly based on acoustic guitar compositions with little space for electric group parts. There are some good moments like Amore sono qua and Dio è (re-recorded on second album), but the result is not impressive and on a lesser level than their following works.
Later that year came their second album, DNA, an incredibly mature work, and especially when compared with the previous one this is their real first album as a group. It's composed of four extended tracks, with the long Suite per il Signor K taking the whole of side one. The beginning is in the same style as on the first album, based on acoustic instruments (guitar, flute, piano) but suddenly a distorted electric guitar introduces a much more aggressive sound, led by Fella's harsh voice and strong lyrics. One of the best italian prog albums for sure!
Last album in 1973, after a drummer change with Tullio Granatello from Novara replacing the original member Vito Balzano. Vietato ai minori di 18 anni? is their most ambitious work, containing strong lyrics and fragments of avantgarde-inspired music, with the help of Franco Battiato. Come vorrei essere uguale a te and Specchio deal with difficult subjects as homosexuality and social alienation and the result is intriguing and rewarding even if less immediate than DNA. The strong contents of the lyrics caused the band being banned by radio programs.
The band was very popular live and kept playing for some years, in 1975 they released a last commercial single, playing at Milan Parco Lambro festivals in 1975 and 1976 (this time with Roberto Biancone on sax and Valter Frazzi on keyboards, replacing Guidotti and Conte).
Flutist Dario Guidotti was briefly involved as singer with the supergroup Track in 1974, along with former members of Nuova Idea and I Giganti for their sole album Track rock.
After a not successful reunion attempt in 1983, documented on the Violini d'autunno CD, the band reunited again in late 1989 with original members bar Sergio Conte (replaced by Paolo Dolfini) for a one-off concert in Paris with IQ and Magma, organized by a french fan of theirs, and the very nice evening is documented on the brilliant Live in Paris CD.
2001 has seen the release of another CD, called Passing by, containing 1991-2001 recordings by guitarist Daniele Bianchini (always the driving force behind the reunion attempts) aided by some of the band original members, like Alvaro Fella, Dario Guidotti and Tullio Granatello, more new age oriented and mainly instrumental, but containing some very good moments.In 2007 BTF released the DVD Anthology, containing interviews, pictures and videos documenting the group's career.



Line-up

1970-72:

Alvaro Fella (vocals, acoustic guitar, sax, keyboards, percussion)
Daniele Bianchini (guitar)
Dario Guidotti (flute, mouth harp, acoustic guitar, percussion)
Sergio Conte (keyboards, vocals)
Aldo Gargano (bass, guitar)
Vito Balzano (drums, percussion, vocals)

1973:

Balzano replaced by:Tullio Granatello (drums)

Italian progressive rock band - Premiata Forneria Marconi

Much has been written and said in Italy about Premiata Forneria Marconi, and they have surely been the most popular band here for many years. No one who was in his teens in Italy during the 70's, doesn't know È festa or Impressioni di settembre. They were also the first (and last, probably) italian band to have some success abroad, playing some good european and american tours, and even playing the popular Reading festival in England.
The band was formed in Milan around 1970 when the ex-Quelli (a popular beat band during the 60's) Mussida, Premoli, Piazza and Di Cioccio met multiinstrumentalist Mauro Pagani from Dalton. The four Quelli had a change in their musical style near the end of the 60's and even made a single as I Krel, before the new name was adopted.
The new band had a long name, as it was the tendency for the prog-oriented italian bands of the time, and were usually referred to as "La Premiata" and later PFM. Their live beginnings, recently documented in the 10 anni live 71/81 box set, included many covers, especially by the likes of King Crimson and Jethro Tull that were among their strongest influences.
In June 1971 Premiata Forneria Marconi were invited at the first "Festival d’Avanguardia e Nuove Tendenze" in Viareggio, and they won it, along with Osanna and Mia Martini.
But their first single, coupling La carrozza di Hans with Impressioni di settembre, began a highly original musical style, where the foreign influences had been mixed with classical music and some typical mediterranean sounds, creating the distinctive "italianprog" sound that has been later perfectioned by many others.
First album, Storia di un minuto in 1972 is a milestone in the genre, the quintessence of the italian prog, and few others can be compared with this that's surely one of the top five italian LP's for its contents and energy. Tracks like the two on the single, È festa and Dove.. quando are still among the finest example of their distinctive sound. The fine playing of Mauro Pagani, Franco Mussida and Flavio Premoli, despite the lack of a good role singer (always one of their limits), create a highly regarding sound that's still valid today.
The same year saw the release of their second LP, Per un amico, containing the same elements as the previous one with cuts such as the title track, Generale, Il banchetto. Both the albums were very successful and, along with the first Banco del Mutuo Soccorso album, opened the way to a large audience recognition of the new musical style.
Third album, Photos of ghosts, contained mostly reworkings of old tracks in english version, and represented the first attempt by italian rock bands to break the foreign markets. The LP was released abroad by ELP label Manticore (just like Banco's fourth eponymous album) and gave the band a huge success in the USA.
In 1974 the fourth album, L'isola di niente, also had an english version released with the same track listing, called The world became the world. A new bass guitarist had joined the band, Patrick Djivas from Area (Giorgio Piazza formed the short-lived Crystals), and english lyrics were by Pete Sinfield. The album was again very successful and the band embarked in their first US tour, documented in their Live in USA album.
The lack of a lead singer in the band had always been marked by the press as PFM's main defect, and for this reason the group enroled Bernardo Lanzetti from Acqua Fragile. Lanzetti had lived in the States and with his distinctive voice could solve the major problems for the band, singing and speaking english! The first (and sadly the only) release by the new six-piece was Chocolate kings, the first album only released with english lyrics (and their least successful so far for this reason in Italy). Containing some very good songs such as the title track and Out of the roundabout, the album had probably lost some of the typical italian feel of their previous works, going closer to the foreign markets' taste. A successful album abroad, it gave the band new chances to play in foreign countries, with new tour in Europe, USA and Japan.
But after the long tour, Pagani, tired of the hard life on the road, decided to quit the band. The band tried to replace him with american violinist Greg Bloch (from Flock and It's a Beautiful Day) but their decline had started. Jet lag, released in 1977 on the new Zoo label, still has very discordant reviews, its sound being very far from past glories, and Passpartù in 1978, with lyrics written by italian songwriter Gianfranco Manfredi, saw a strong turn towards pop music.
In 1979 a successful tour brought PFM all over Italy as backing band to the singer-songwriter Fabrizio De André, and two live albums were released by Ricordi (Fabrizio De André e la PFM In concerto voll. I & II).
The band released the good Suonare suonare in 1980 with new member Lucio Fabbri (on violin and keyboards, from Piazza delle Erbe) but some low level albums followed during the 80's, wit the group still continuing its successful live activity in Italy, and members Mussida and Di Cioccio also released solo albums. After Miss Baker in 1987 PFM officially split.
Reunion of the basic four piece of Mussida, Premoli, Djivas and Di Cioccio came in 1997 with the Ulisse LP, and the band had some successful tours in the following years, well documented by the live http://www.pfmpfm.it/, a sort of "live greatest hits" album as stated in its subtitle Il Best.
A studio CD has come in 2000, Serendipity, and again a double live CD, Live in Japan 2002 (better than the previous 1998 live), is another nice document of the group's concert energy, and this also includes two new studio unreleased recordings, a cover of Franco Battiato's Bandiera bianca (following Battiato's remake of Impressioni di settembre in his 2002 album) and a great Sea of memories with vocals by Peter Hammill. Summer 2003 sees the group playing all over Italy with renewed energy, with Mauro Pagani, Peter Hammill and other artists guesting in some dates.Di Cioccio also plays blues in a sort of supergroup and has a record company, Immaginifica, that has recently released the second album by the italian band Stereokimono.
In 2006 the group, always playing live all over Italy, has no less than three different shows going on, the classic PFM canta De André, the new Stati d'immaginazione, featuring improvisations built on original videos, and the rock opera Dracula, released on CD in 2005.



Line-up

1970-73

Mauro Pagani (vocals, flute, violin)
Franco Mussida (guitar, vocals)
Flavio Premoli (keyboards, vocals)
Giorgio Piazza (bass, vocals)
Franz Di Cioccio (drums, vocals)

1974

Piazza replaced by:Patrick Djivas (bass, vocals)

1975

enters:Bernardo Lanzetti (vocals, guitar)

1976

Pagani quits, replaced by:Greg Bloch (violin)

1977

Bloch quits