Genuine Swing

An Album Review of Genuinely Radiosuccessi by Radiosuccessi

by Emiliano Beltzer

When I think of jazz, I think of the United States, African-American culture, and the complexity and musical virtuosity that are characteristic of the genre. However, since its appearance at the beginning of the last century, jazz has taken many different forms in different parts of the world. Wherever jazz arrived, it mixed with the pre-existing local culture, giving rise to new musical forms (such as bossa nova) or to new versions of American jazz with a different, original local “colour”. Radiosuccessi plays music that could be included in this last category. The group was created by legendary drummer, the late Carlo Canevali, who wanted to play Italian music with fellow Italian jazz musicians in Melbourne. Apart from Canevali on drums, the original line-up included Mirko Guerrini on sax, piano, flute and arrangements, Ilaria Croatiani on vocals and Ryan Griffith on guitar and clarinet. The text accompanying their first album, Mr Amore (Independent, 2016) explains that the band “pays tribute to” Italy and to the particular atmosphere that pervades movies like La Dolce Vita or Vacanze Romane, their music being “a nod and a wink” to those cheerful 1950s and 1960s when swing music was at its apex on radio and TV. After the tragic passing of Carlo Canevali in 2019, the music he imagined continues, now with Tom Lee on double bass and Niko Schäuble on drums replacing Canevali. Genuinely Radiosuccessi (2020) was recorded in a single day, at Pughouse Studio. The album has various sounds, from the swing to which it pays homage, to rock and roll, through to European folk, circus music and even soundscape. The tracks Amorevole, and Eccomi, despite having their own arrangements, have a sound that retains a relative closeness to the original versions. In Tua, however (a beautiful version with which the album ends), the arrangement changes from the original not only in its texture, which is present-

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ed here in piano and voice alone, but in its rhythm: changed from the original 4/4 to 5/4, which gives the track an unexpected interest, while maintaining the warmth of the original version. Something similar happens in Le Tue Mani, where the new rhythm chosen is 7/8, instead of the original 4/4. In Fai Male, on the other hand, a swing song is born from a piece that did not originally belong to the genre. Although a bit outside the period to which Radiosuccessi pays tribute, Samba e Amor does not clash with the other songs on the album. It adds the sounds of Bossa Nova, which are already part of the world jazz culture. In this particular version (but also throughout the album) Guerrini's skills as a pianist can be appreciated, though his main instrument is the saxophone. Among the farthest from swing (and perhaps jazz) is La Regina dello Yé-Yé, originally performed in a RAI TV show by Gina Lollobrigida in 1965. A fundamental part of Radio, TV and the culture of those days, the sound of rock and roll appears in the second half of this version. There are two songs on the album that take us to unexpected new places. Il Vino proposes an arrangement that reaches a sound that is both circus and almost experimental music. At the same time, the presence of the accordion and the harmonic and melodic characteristics of the piece maintain its folk spirit. Bing Bang Bong, originally sung by So25ART & CULTUREAlbum Reviewphia Loren in a mix of Italian and English, the rhythm is reminiscent of that of the habanera, and becomes more and more playful, supported by successive key changes. The end of the song reaches dissonance, almost stridency. It is worth stopping to read the album notes (only available on Bandcamp). Here, the band explains that the intention of the recording was never to make an album, but simply to spend a day in the studio to document the work that the band had done during the year. For those readers who are not familiar with the process of recording an album, it is important to note that since the advent of digital technologies, very few discs are made in a single day, with a single take of each track and next to no post-production. In this way of recording, what is played in the take is what is left on the record. It gives a kind of honest freshness to the sound of these records, something that is lost when the recording is manipulated over and over again. That freshness is very clear in Genuinely Radiosuccessi. Throughout the album the band manages to add its colour to the songs with variations that are at times subtle and at others quite drastic. Furthermore, the second album by Radiosuccessi confirms something that seems obvious, but which is nevertheless a recurring preconception not only among the general public but also among fellow musicians: Italian music is extremely multi-faceted and has much more to offer than Tarantella.