Week of April 25, 1999

IL VOLO

Alberto Radius: Guitar, Vocals
Vince Tempera: Keyboards
Gabriele Lorenzi: Keyboards, Vocals
Bob Callero (Olov): Bass
Gianni Dall'Aglio: Drums, Vocals
Mario Lavezzi: Guitar, Vocals

Il Volo was formed in the early seventies as a result of a very commendable attempt to bring together some of the best rock musicians in the land into one single group. Up till then, many such musicians had played together in various jam sessions but never collaborated on the recording of an album, excluding the solo album by Radius. This group was officially launched in 1974, at the point in time when both Formula 3 and other major groups were falling into a deep crisis. The sextet included Mauro Lavezzi (ex-Camaleonti and Flora Fauna Cemento) on guitar, Gianni Dall'Aglio (ex-Ribelli) on drums, Bob Callero (ex-Duello Madre and Osage Tribe) on bass, Gabriele Lorenzi (ex-Camaleonti and Formula 3) on keyboards, Alberto Radius (ex-Quelli and Formula 3) on guitar and Vince Tempera, a successful composer (ex-Pleasure Machine) on keyboards. All of them were important musicians that had participated over the years to the making of Italian rock history. The first album from Il Volo was released in 1974 for the Numero Uno label with Mogol as producer and author of the lyrics. What amazed the critics at the time (everybody's expectations were really big, considering the prominence of the names involved) is the simplicity of their musical style, based on "easy", accessible songs, while foreign supergroups had traditionally focused more on solo performances. It's important to note that the members of this group had quickly established a sense of unity. Their effort to adopt a typical Mediterranean conception and style, completely detaching themselves from foreign influences, also has to be pointed out. Anyway, the album enjoyed good sales and Il Volo achieved a good amount of success with their live work.  In 1975, they released their second album, "Essere O Non Essere? Essere, Essere, Essere!", which demonstrated that this supergroup had not been put together just for trivial commercial reasons; the sextet played very well together and all the instruments were given enough space. This record is entirely instrumental, and again shows the great potential of the six musicians involved, both as players and as composers. The public was, perhaps, expecting a more consumer-orientated album: the LP did not attain the level of success that the band had been hoping for. Thus, Il Volo came to a halt and disbanded. Both Lavezzi and Radius tried respective careers as solo artists, while all other members of the group became very high-in-demand sessionmen.

Taken from "The Return of Italian Pop"  by Paolo Barotto (Vinyl Magic VM201, 8016158220124)
Vinyl Magic web site: www.btf.it

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