GOFFREDO PLASTINO
1. Nuova Compagnia di Canto Popolare,
“Sia maledetta l’acqua”
From: Lo guarracino. Ricordi ORL 8043, 1978, 33⅓ rpm
(reissue of NCCP’s first album: Nuova Compagnia di Canto Popolare. Rare RARLP 55011, 1971, 33⅓ rpm).
Performers: Eugenio Bennato, Patrizio Trampetti, Fausta Vetere, Carlo D’Angiò, Giovanni Mauriello, Giuseppe Barra.
Musical instruments: guitars, mandoloncello, flute.
An example of NCCP’s re-creation of Neapolitan sixteenth century vocal and instrumental music, arranged by Roberto De Simone. This sound quickly became a trademark of NCCP’s recorded and live performances, imitated by many folk revival bands in Central and Southern Italy.
2. Nuova Compagnia di Canto Popolare, “Cicerenella”
From: Nuova Compagnia di Canto popolare. Rare RARLP 55015/6, 1972, two 33⅓ rpm.
Performers: Nunzio Areni, Giuseppe Barra, Eugenio Bennato, Giovanni Mauriello, Patrizio Trampetti, Fausta Vetere.
Musical instruments: mandola, guitars, frame drum, castanets, flute.
Discogs (1975 reissue)
The song, from NCCP’s second double album, is a Roberto De Simone’s arrangement of a folk nursery rhyme, collected in a Campanian village (Pozzuoli), and performed as a tarantella. The recording exemplifies NCCP’s early approach to folk music and their innovative use of voice and vocal sounds.
3. Nuova Compagnia di Canto Popolare,
“Tammurriata nera”
From: Li sarracini adorano lu sole. EMI 3C064-18026, 1974, 33⅓ rpm.
Performers: Fausta Vetere, Eugenio Bennato, Giovanni Mauriello, Nunzio Areni, Patrizio Trampetti, Beppe Barra, Roberto De Simone.
Musical instruments: mandoloncello, mandolin, guitar, castanets, frame drums, friction drum, piccolo.
This is one of the best known NCCP performances, from their influential album Li sarracini adorano lu sole. In fact, this is a refolklorization of a classic Neapolitan song, composed in 1944 by E.A. Mario (music) and Edoardo Nicolardi (lyrics), a song about black Neapolitan children born under the U.S. occupation at the end of World War II. Mario’s and Nicolardi’s composition mimicked some folk music features: NCCP turns upside down their original musical intent.
4. Nuova Compagnia di Canto Popolare, “Italiella”
From: 11 mesi e 29 giorni. EMI 661182951, 1977, 33⅓ rpm.
Performers: Fausta Vetere, Corrado Sfogli, Giovanni Mauriello, Nunzio Areni, Patrizio Trampetti, Beppe Barra, Roberto De Simone.
Musical instruments: mandoloncello, guitar, battente guitars, violin.
Another successful NCCP song about Italian unification in late nineteenth century, from an album of the band’s second period, released after Eugenio Bennato’s exit and featuring the new singer Corrado Sfogli.
5. Osanna, Palepoli
Fonit LPX 19, 1973, 33⅓ rpm.
Danilo Rustici: acoustic and electric guitars, vocals; Elio d’Anna: acoustic and electric saxophones, flute, piccolo, vocals; Lello Brandi: electric bass and guitar; Lino Vairetti: vocals, 12-strings guitar, mellotron, ARP Odissey synthetizer; Massimo Guarino: drums, percussion, vocals.
Osanna were and still are one of the most influential Italian prog rock bands. Palepoli, their third album, is considered among the best Italian prog album ever, and it is generally valued as a great mix of different influences: free improvisation, folk music, blues, rock, and Neapolitan sounds. “Oro caldo,” the A-side 20-minutes composition, starts and ends with a recreation of a Neapolitan urban soundscape, and includes a tarantella-like section sung in Neapolitan – two fundamental innovations within the rock recorded and live performances of the early 1970s.
6. Napoli Centrale, Napoli Centrale
Ricordi SMRL 6187, 1975, 33⅓ rpm.
James Senese: vocals, acoustic and electric tenor saxophone; Mark Harris: Fender electric piano; Franco Del Prete: drums, percussion; Tony Walmsley: electric bass.
Napoli Centrale is a fundamental Naples Power album, based on the shocking contrast between James Senese’s harsh vocality, politically committed Neapolitan lyrics and an overall jazz-rock approach. “Campagna,” the album’s first song (which starts at 01:37), is preceded by an instrumental introduction of all band’s members; the song unexpectedly entered the Italian chart in 1976, pointing out to the national success of Naples Power sounds.
6a. Napoli Centrale, “Campagna”
Live performance on TV, 1975
A rare live tv appearance of Napoli Centrale performing their 1975 hit single “Campagna”.
7. Toni Esposito, “Rosso napoletano”
From: Toni Esposito. Numero Uno ZSLN 55677, 1974, 33⅓ rpm.
Toni Esposito: drums, percussion; Paul Buckmaster: ARP Odissey synthetizer, piano, Fender electric piano; Gigi De Rienzo: electric and acoustic guitars, electric bass; Robert Fix: soprano saxophone; Edoardo Bennato: vocal effects.
This is the A-side, 17-minutes long composition from Toni Esposito’s first album, the first one in which Esposito elaborates a Neapolitan soundscape through percussion and overlapping street calls (recreated in the studio by singer-songwriter Edoardo Bennato).
8a. Toni Esposito, “Mercato di stracci”
From: Processione sul mare. Numero Uno ZSLN 55686, 1976, 33⅓ rpm.
Credits for the full album: Toni Esposito: drums, percussion; Francesco Bruno: acoustic and electric guitars; Gigi De Rienzo: electric bass; Robert Fix: saxophones; Stefano Sabatini: keyboards; Lina Sastri: vocals (in “Mercato di stracci”); Renato Marengo: vocals (in “L’alba nei quartieri”).
Processione sul mare is probably the album in which Esposito expresses at his best his Neapolitan aesthetics, thanks to an innovative use of the percussion set and to compositions that often focus on Naples, its contemporary music scenes and its soundscapes. “Mercato di stracci” and “L’alba nei quartieri” are two evident attemps to represents the street sounds of Naples, recreated in the studio with actress Lina Sastri and producer Renato Marengo.
8b. Toni Esposito, “L’alba nei quartieri”
From: Processione sul mare. Numero Uno ZSLN 55686, 1976, 33⅓ rpm.
Credits for the full album: Toni Esposito: drums, percussion; Francesco Bruno: acoustic and electric guitars; Gigi De Rienzo: electric bass; Robert Fix: saxophones; Stefano Sabatini: keyboards; Lina Sastri: vocals (in “Mercato di stracci”); Renato Marengo: vocals (in “L’alba nei quartieri”).
9. Toni Esposito, “Gente distratta”
From: Gente distratta. Numero Uno ZPLN 34015, 1977, 33⅓ rpm.
Toni Esposito: drums, percussion; Gigi De Rienzo: electric bass; Ernesto Vitolo: keyboards; Karl Potter: congas.
Toni Esposito’s third album title track exemplifies the Neapolitan penchant for jazz-rock textures and features a long solo by Esposito, performed on pans whose sounds are electronically modified.
10. Eugenio Bennato and Carlo D’Angiò, “Ballo cantato per mandoloncello, violino e percussioni”
From: Garofano d’ammore. Philips 6323 044, 1976, 33⅓ rpm.
Eugenio Bennato: mandoloncello; David Blazer: violin; Toni Esposito: percussion; Teresa De Sio: vocals.
This track, from Eugenio Bennato’s first album after his official departure from the Nuova Compagnia di Canto Popolare, is also a collaboration with Carlo D’Angio, a singer in the very first NCCP line-up. Garofano d’ammore introduces a different approach to folk music: instrumental and vocal parts are not always based on traditional rules and individual, extended improvisations are welcome. Toni Esposito’s interventions establish a clear link with other Naples Power experiences and recordings, so that the whole album inaugurates a new phase of Neapolitan and Italian folk music revival.
11. Eugenio Bennato and Carlo D’Angiò, “Siente mo’ che t’aggia di’”
From: Musicanova. Philips 6323 055, 1978, 33⅓ rpm.
Carlo D’Angiò: vocals and guitar; Robert Fix: ciaramella (folk shawm); Toni Esposito: percussion; Gigi De Rienzo: mandoloncello; Eugenio Bennato: battente guitar; Teresa De Sio: castanets.
From the album that marks Bennato’s and D’Angiò’s success and later gives name to their band, this recording further exemplifies Musicanova new approach to folk music: vocal improvisations and unorthodox use of folk music instruments meet the new sounds provided by Toni Esposito and some members of his bands, creating a new mix which has a huge impact on young (popular and folk) audiences.
12. Pino Daniele, “Donna Cuncetta”
From: Pino Daniele. EMI 3C 064 18391, 1979, 33⅓ rpm.
Pino Daniele: vocals, guitars, mandoloncello; Francesco Boccuzzi: electric piano; Rino Zurzolo: double bass; Rosario Iermano: drums; Karl Potter: congas.
Pino Daniele’s second album is released at the end of the 1970s and confirms, as this recordings shows, his reformulation of the decade’s Neapolitan aesthetics, mostly through a vocal style that mediates between folk music, Neapolitan Song stylistic features and Anglo-American popular music. The Naples Power sonic palette is however used, albeit in a personal way.
13. Pino Daniele, “Quanno chiove”
Live performance from the Vai mo’ 1981 Italian tour.
Joe Amoruso: keyboards; Pino Daniele: electric guitar, vocals; Tullio De Piscopo, drums; Toni Esposito: percussion; James Senese: tenor saxophone; Rino Zurzolo: electric bass.
Discogs (Nero a metà)
Discogs (Vai mo’)
“Quanno chiove” is included in Pino Daniele’s third album, Nero a metà (EMI Italiana 3C 064-18468, 1980, 33⅓ rpm). The 1981 tour from which this excerpt is taken followed the great success of Daniele’s fourth album, Vai mo’ (EMI Italiana 3C 064-18550, 1981, 33⅓ rpm). Pino Daniele’s band line-up in early 1980s is still considered his best, as well as a studio and on-stage representation of Naples Power, thanks to the participation of musicians such as Toni Esposito, James Senese (Napoli Centrale) and Rino Zurzolo (previously in the Neapolitan progressive band Città Frontale).
14. Pino Daniele, “Anema e core”
From: Ricomincio da 30. Sony / BMG 88697310882, 2008, three cds.
Joe Amoruso: keyboards; Pino Daniele: electric guitar, vocals; Tullio De Piscopo, drums; Toni Esposito: percussion; James Senese: tenor saxophone; Rino Zurzolo: double bass.
2008 marks the beginning of a Naples Power revival, still ongoing, mostly fostered by Pino Daniele through recording and live shows. In this official video, released to launch his compilation Ricomincio da 30, Daniele brings back together his early 1980s Naples Power band to perform a new song in which some elements of the Naples Power scene are implicitly or explicitly highlighted.