GARYBALDI

Hailing from Genova, Italy, Garybaldi were, in the seventies, the outlet for Pier Niccolò "Bambi" Fossati's guitar wanking. A devout disciple of Hendrix, Bambi Fossati had enough sense to employ creative and intelligent musicians who helped balance Fossat's psych hard leanings with sensitive Italian melodicity and good technique, ensuring that their "Nuda" LP from 1972 was a minor classic of early spaghetti prog.

The group ended its activities in the mid-seventies after a series of lineup changes and a change in name, but emerged in the 2000s like many minor prog groups in the Boot Peninsula. However, Bambi Fossati was forced to retire by a serious illness that ultimately killed him in 2014; the band by then was led by the only original remaining member, drummer and co-vocalist Maurizio Cassinelli.

"Storie di un'altra città" is a pleasant, warm album of mediterranean rock with clear prog leanings. It is ripe with compositions written with intelligence and gusto like the hard/melodic cross "Sulla strada", which opens the album; or the prog divertissement-meets-faux-circus-vaudeville-music "William Fix", with David Jackson (yes, our beloved former Van der Graaf) coloring the tune with his saxophone; or the beautifully sung theme of the minisuite "Nove" (incomprehensibly divided into three parts, when the whole minisuite is less than 7 minutes in length). The tunes are never too long, so they never tire the listener, and the band carefully tends to each song with interesting arrangements and details, like a rhythmic variation, a catchy solo from guitarist Davide Faccioli ("Nova", part 1), or the addition of unusual instruments (violin, cello, sax, flute, bassoon, french horn) in strategic locations of the songs.

Leader Cassinelli and co-singer and keyboardist Jon Morra are able to take upon themselves the legacy of the group after Bambi Fossati's demise; and there is also a tribute to their late friend with the song "Vicino in un momento", the last tune he recorded and sung with the band before dying.

Garybaldi are not concerned with being innovative or with expanding the frontiers of progressive music: at this point in their career, their main goal is to provide the fans with a collection of good songs that can stand with dignity the test with their own past. In this sense, they create a truly beautiful, nostalgic album that, though not really engaging, will appeal to all fans of the more melodic side of 70s spaghetti prog.

This one contains two sidelong pieces only for a total time of 43 minutes, the opening one was recorded in studio and the second one was taped live.Both are good examples of guitar-oriented Psychedelic/Prog Rock with Fossati's guitar in evidence.Not technically explicit, both long tracks are based on atmospheric soundscapes, intense singing and Fossati's stretched guitar solos with a pretty old-fashioned sound and many moments with a quite loose playing.Some vocal melodies in here have a bit of a poppier tendency similar to 60's stylings, but the majority goes straight into jamming guitar fists, low-tempo groovy lines and some more fiery textures with Fossati's impressive solos in a HENDRIX style.The presence of Lio Marchi is responsible for some of the tunes close to Classic Italian Prog, coloring the sound with beautiful symphonic images or just supporting in the background with his Hammond organ.''Madre di cose perdute'' is propably the best of the two pieces, pretty solid effort with Fossati's displaying a wide variety of moods with both attacking riff scratching and melodic solos and Marchi's work being exetremely balanced.The live-recorded ''Sette?'' is even more guitar-oriented, tending to improvised performances, with ovestretched soloing and a less balanced sound overall.Still some of Fossati's most complex executions appear in this track.

Garybaldi officially folded in 1973, giving rise to a new Fossati project in 1974, Bambibanda e Melodie, which had a more jazzy but still charming style.Garybaldi were brought again out of dust by Fossati in late 80's, releasing two more albums, ''Blokko 45'' and ''La ragione e il torto'', both having a limited interest for Prog fans.An archival release, the 2010 LP ''Note Perdute'', containing some previously unreleased material, seems like a nice document, and in 2011 comes the release of ''Live in Bloom'', an interesting live album.

''Astrolabio'' marks the second and last official album of Garybaldi from the 70's.The opening piece tops up any previous or future piece recorded by the band, while ''Sette?" is rather uneven, abstract and less convincing, still some of Fossati's best guitar lines are included in here.Recommended overall.

My first thought was how odd that Garybaldi are doing a new live album without Fossati, given how important his guitar was to their formative sound. Only the drummer Maurizio Cassinelli and bassist Angelo Traverso are around from the "Nuda" days. And yet the show ended up being very nice in its own right. I was never a fan of Fossati's Hendrix hard-on anyway, so the involvement of different people made little difference to me, frankly I wish there was even more change to report. That said, Fossati's replacement Ricky Pelle can burn it up with the best of them and there is plenty here to sink your teeth into.

The album is more of a hard rock/jam thing than traditional RPI, recalling bands like Flea and Osage Tribe. It is definitely a guitar-first (or would that be guitar-fest?) experience. The band pushes Pelle into heavy yet dreamy territories and then the song floats there giving him time to cut loose and wail. Some of the finest moments in this mode occur in the excerpt from Astrolabio's "Madre di cose perdute", a heavy and atmospheric number with tons of mood. "Il Volto Stanco Delle Gente" cooks like a Santana track with hand percussion and blistering leads trading with organ. There is a sweet melancholy keyboard progression with flanged guitar effect on Nuda's "26 Febbraio 1700". It's all fine rock and roll, though a little too much of the album's mid section is muscular jamming without much extra to interest me. But if you love long jams by the likes of Cream, Santana, Hendrix, Crazy Horse, etc, this album will be right up your alley.

My favorite track was the bonus studio cut "Appena Prima Di Cadere" which certainly makes clear this band could easily transition from live hard rock to making a thoughtful and interesting "Italian prog" studio album if they decide they want to. A good album although far from essential RPI. A special nod goes to the fantastic cover art!

Apparently the seeds of this release were born when someone in 99 sent a bootleg recording of a concert dating from 73, this prompting the band to exploit it along with creating this DVD. So the album proper is made from a bunch of miscellaneous tracks half from their glory era, including the Gleemen album sessions (the rather proggy opening Volto Stando Della Gente), a rather surprising folky Harold from the Nuda sessions, and the intensely Hendrix-y Madre Di Cose Perdute, which seems to exude Astrolabio sessions (that's the Italian translation of the first track's title). Despite a recent remastering, these tracks sound dated ? there is only so much you can do with nearly 40-years old magnetic tapes. The rest of the album consists of three solid (read guitar-saturated) tracks recorded in 98, including a reworking of the Martha Helmut track from Nuda, but this writer finds them messy and too raw for their own good. As you can read here, hardly anything essential.

As is usual with Italian products, the attached DVD documentary insist a tad too much on visuals from well-documented artistes, much more than necessary, but it's nothing blatantly abusive of copyright infringements. There is plenty (too much?) of name-dropping in the background context to flatter themselves with comparisons with the acts mentioned. For progheads, the rockumentary spends way too much time on the genesis of the group in the 60's, especially when discovering what kind of atrocious soup they were dabbling in at that time, even if most 70's Italian groups went through the same kind of ordeal and paid their dues that way. Compared to their early singles-days, the Gleemen album seems a little too-quickly dealt with, and I must say that I can't help feeling a bit frustrated that so few minutes are spent on Nuda and Astrolabio, compared to their early and later days, but the good stuff is delivered correctly, even if you wish the live footage would've lasted much longer. Indeed, over the four decades of the "group's" existence, their peak period lasted two, maybe three, years, the rest being only mildly interesting at best, although not totally devoid of interest.

I can't help but thinking that this type of nostalgic release is a bit of an auto-satisfecit artifact, but I won't judge on its justification or pertinence, outside that it is an interesting (if partisan, as they might over-estimate their own impact on the scene) view on the Italian prog scene, but it is hardly essential for this writer. I know I won't keep this album, so if interested, you can always PM me.

"Madre Di Cose Perdute" opens with the sounds of birds as relaxed guitar sounds come and go.Drums and organ 2 minutes in, reserved vocals 2 1/2 minutes. A change after 7 minutes as it builds quickly and becomes fuller sounding. Nice. The guitar is soloing beautifully as the bass throbs and the drums beat. A calm before 10 minutes with guitar expressions.The beat is back 12 1/2 minutes in as the guitar continues. An earlier theme returns 15 1/2 minutes in and the guitar is fantastico ! The theme ends 19 minutes in as we get some laid back organ with bass to the end.

"Sette?" is actually a live track. We hear it introduced then this excellent bass line comes in with guitar and drums in tow. It kicks in at 1 1/2 minutes.The organ dominates after 2 minutes. It's the guitar's turn before 4 minutes to lead. Vocals before 5 minutes. Love the guitar here. Check out the guitar / organ interplay before 8 minutes. Vocals are back 9 minutes in but he's pretty much speaking the words. His guitar is talking too. It picks up before 12 minutes with singing. A calm a minute later then the guitar starts to solo. Incredible performance here. A change 16 minutes in as the organ takes over. The guitar is back after 18 minutes. A huge applause ends it.

A solid 4 star album.

"Maya Desnuda" is perhaps the most Hendrix-like with the guitar and vocals early on especially. Although the singing is in Italian he mentions Superman and James Brown sex machine in his singing. Lots of organ in this one too. "Decomposizione, Preludio E Pace" opens with experimental sounding guitar until late when it turns mellow and blends into "26 Febbraio 1700" . I like this.The vocals 1 1/2 minutes in are again Hendrix-like. "L'ultima Graziosa" opens with lots of guitar and the vocals arrive when it settles. Contrasts continue. Piano before 3 minutes then harmonica (I think). Piano and organ trade off before guitar and vocals end it.

"Moretto De Brescia" is the final suite divided into 3 parts. First is "Goffredo" with the tasteful guitar intro with light drums and keyboards. Fragile vocals before a minute. The guitar then starts to almost soar. Keyboards take over and vocals return late. "Il Giardino Del Re" is mellow to start almost spacey in fact. I like it.It picks up a minute in.The guitar sounds great before 2 minutes then it's the organ's turn. Reserved vocals before 3 1/2 minutes. A calm after 5 minutes then drums and guitar come in. Great sound ! Organ 7 minutes in and it still sounds incredible. "Dolce Come Sei Tu" opens with vocals and a mellow soundscape. A beat with laid back guitar after 3 minutes to the end.

A good album especially the second half, but the first half is a little too Hendrix-like.

Joking aside you may gather from my remark above that Garybaldi have a sound very derivative of the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Guitarist Bambi Fossatti plays very much like Hendrix and even models his own vocal style on the legendary axeman at times. The inclusion of keyboards adds another dimension to the sound but like Hendrix much of the material here is psychedelic blues rock and despite a 1972 release still has a foot firmly in the sixties.

Side 2 of the original vinyl album is the more satisfying, being the more progressive and comprising of one piece divided into three parts. Fossatti while still having his moments doesn't dominate quite as much and keyboard player Lio Marchi is given more space. The rhythm section of Maurizio Cassinelli (drums) and Angelo Traverso (bass) are solid enough but unremarkable, but they hold things together well enough for some pleasing guitar and keyboard over the top including a section reminiscent of a live version of Deep Purple's Space Truckin'.

Getting back to side 1, it's fairly pedestrian bluesy rock with those Hendrix influences well to the fore. Decomposizione, Preludio E Pace is a guitar only piece of wailing guitars, much like the kind of thing Hendrix frequently reeled off live, but while you can't deny Fossatti's talents as a player Hendrix not surprisingly did it better. Apart from this we get two rockers and 26 Febbraio 1700 in a ballad style, but still reminiscent of Hendrix in his mellower moments like on The wind Cries Mary or Angel.

Overall then a good album, nothing more, nothing less. It does have a great cover though and if you get it go for the BTF triple fold out sleeve version.

Taking unusual way with their very Heavy sound (often) in Maya Desnuda, which isn't exactly my favourite (I don't like theme of the song, even using more "classical" RPI elements in songs 26 Febbraio 1700. These are archetypal songs, but the rest of songs kinda fall in between these descriptions. I'm aware of "epic" here, of course. If you take it as one piece, it's RPI, but not the kind I know about. They're doing it in original way, which even doesn't instantly mean interesting, still is nice to hear.

4(-), torn between Rock and Prog, but mostly good.

What is absolutely evident for all to see is Bambi Fossati's Hendrix-influenced guitar playing and song writing style, infact the opening track seems to own a lot to "1983...(a merman I should turn to be)" from "Electric Ladyland". Not to mention how the second track recalls very closely "Voodoo Child" , not only in the musical structure, but also in the informal context in which the song was recorded: in other words a very long jam session, however brilliant.

This record differs very much from Garybaldi's previous release "Nuda", a work with much more keyboards and much closer to a "symphonic" prog sound; "Astrolabio" is totally different: the guitar reigns on everything, and the sound of the band is much closer to psychedelic /space rock kind of thing.

From a chronological point of view Fossati's guitar playing is incredible, considered the Italian guitarists scene of the time.

The record in the end risults very homogeneous and very enjoyable to the listener, and it is different from anything else in Rock Progressivo Italiano: a truly unique sound and style, powerful, evocative and visionary; impossible to ignore.

A truly gem, a must have.

This one starts with a more keyboards approach and deep psychedelic texture. Some sort of very early Floydean impression combined with a definite Italian flavour. Quite well achieved to tell the truth. Poetic (I'm referring to the music, since I don't grab too much of the Italian language), and full of harmony.

The true prog feel has never been as deep than during this epic, and the usual and great "Hendrix" feel enters the scene somewhere at half-time. I have to admit though that this portion is not my fave one: it doesn't reach the ankle of the master for a good while, but then finally "Bambi Fossatti" shines as he did in the previous albums: a good (but not great) guitar moment.

Still, what prevails globally on this epic are the keys. Some excellent (but short) mellotron lines are wonderfully sustaining the fine guitar work during the excellent closing part.

The second and epic track was recorded live and has little to share with its first counterpart. "Sette" is fully "Hendrix" oriented even if during brief moments, keyboards are surging (but this was a standard for the band).

This track is heavy and bluesy and features a lot of guitar maestria of course. Like Hughes mentioned, there are some fine call and response between keys and guitar (while both Led Zep and Purple were doing this on a vocal / guitar base). This live performance holds a lot of improvisations and can definitely be considered as a tribute to the great man. But IMHHO it lacks of truly great moments.

Three stars for this good album.