Osanna - L'Uomo (1971/2002)
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Album: Osanna - L'Uomo
Released: 1971 (2002)
Genre: Progressive Rock
Warner Fonit 3984 26619-2
Osanna's debut album L'Uomo is a pretty sensational album. Basically, all the elements of their sound are already present on their debut. The basis of their sound here is original heavy guitar rock often in combination with amazing flute solos. Additionally, more spacey, Pink Floydian parts and quiet interludes with acoustic guitar and flute can be heard as well. Besides the great flute playing, good vocals (if sung in Italian), the excellent guitar playing, and a fairly active drummer are the most ear pleasing features. As a reference point, think of a mix of Jethro Tull, early Roxy Music, the heavier side of Cream, and ocassionally Focus. Otherwise imagine a more sophisticated version of Golden Earring (of the early 70's). L'Uomo is a remarkably mature album and easily one of the best Italian rock albums before 1972 (the year that the Italian prog scene exploded with creativity). - Gnosis Ratings
One of the greatest bands in the italian prog field, Osanna came from Naples, formed in 1971 by the members of I Volti di Pietra and Citta Frontale (another band with the same name came from Osanna ashes and recorded El Tor) whose keyboard player Gianni Leone has gone to Balletto di Bronzo. Reeds player Elio D'Anna came from Showmen, the others didn't have significant experiences.
During their four years lifespan Osanna failed to create, as many critics have pointed, the perfect album, but left us four very good LP's, among which Palepoli deserves a particular mention.
L'uomo, their first album, released in a memorable triple gatefold cover, already contains their distinctive elements, the nice voice of Lino Vairetti (with interesting lyrics indeed), the aggressive flute of Elio D'Anna, fluid guitar playing by Danilo Rustici and the solid rhythm section of Lello Brandi and Massimo Guarino. Taken from this album the tracks L'uomo and In un vecchio cieco were also released as a single, both starting with an acoustic guitar introduction followed by guitar and flute riffs - ItalianProg.com
Fusion in the sense of a fusion of many different styles of music in which this fantastic band move from genre to genre with ease. Their first three are masterpieces in their own right. The superb L'Uomo in which heavy rock and spacey jazz are only a few of the styles included. The soundtrack Milano Calibro 9 and their best, Palepoli, which is so bizarre and complex beginners may be too dazzled by the array of styles presented. Progressive (as opposed to popular) opinion warns me to stay away from Suddance although I haven't heard this either.
The first rock-sounding album is very good: the lyrics are in Italian and English. This LP was the soundtrack to the film "Grazie, Signor P.." - New Gibraltar Encyclopedia Of Progressive Rock
Here's my take on the album and the Italian prog scene at that time. In 1971, the Italian prog rock scene was just in its infancy. PFM just released their first single and has yet to release any full length albums. BANCO had yet to release any albums. Le ORME decided to ditch that psychedelic pop sound of "Ad Gloriam" (as they figured it was pretty much a dead-end), and ditch that old prehistoric Car Juke-Box label, signed to Philips, and released Collage which was their first real progressive offering, although the album has always received little more than a lukewarm response. Now for OSANNA.
Here they released "L'Uomo". At this point the band wasn't exactly sure what kind of music they should play. Here you get hard rock, blues, jazz, experimental, folk, and certainly prog. The album starts off with some great acoustic guitar, organ, and synthesizer. It's pretty trippy stuff. Once the music kicks in, you hear lots of aggressive guitar and JETHRO TULL-like flutes. Even harmonica. "Mirror Train" more or less sticks in the bluesy hard rock realm, where they sing in English. Both that song and "Everybody's Gonna See You Die" is the reason why I was warned the album was raw and basic. But already the band shows their aggressive sound, but with all the styles the band explores, it obviously shows that they're in need of exploring it in a more mature and more progressive setting. The band sings in both Italian and English (as you can notice, it's when they sing in Italian that works the best, it's too bad that "Palepoli" remains their only all Italian language album). Actually this is a great album and it's full of great stuff - ProgArchives.com
Osanna Ok, here they are, the first and best three albums (reissued on cd) by "possibly Allan and Andee's all time favorite prog band" Osanna, as we boldly declared in our review of another Italian prog rock fave, Il Balleto Di Bronzo. Yep, we've got the Osanna discs now, so you can judge for yourself. Even limiting our discussion to the realm of Italian prog, it would be difficult to claim that Osanna are objectively better than the also amazing likes of Il Balleto, Le Orme, Area, New Trolls, Franco Battiato, Goblin, I Teoremi, RDM, Museo Rosenbach, etc. But, Osanna do somehow combine the key elements of what we like about those bands and prog in general into these three crazy, colorful records, and thus deserve our hype. Ripping flute and sax solos, heavy psych guitar, powerful vocal choruses, hard rockin' prog drumming, weird musical changes and juxtapositions, electronic synth experimentation... Catchy, fun, ****ed up prog from five nutty Italians, who want to rock out as much as be arty and display their adept musicanship. The wonders of Italian prog have been revealed to us in a gradual process of discovery -- finding a used cd with a cool cover, or reading somwhere about another strange band, or getting a recommendation from a friend or customer. Neither of us grew up in Italy, or had a geeky older brother to hand down his PFM and Goblin LPs. In the case of Osanna, Andee's the one who came across 'em first, while travelling in Japan, actually. Rather randomly, the guy from the Boredoms-meets-St. Vitus doom/trance band Solar Anus (soon to have a mindblowing tUMULt label release) gave Andee a tape of Osanna to take home, promising him he'd like it. Well, Solar Anus dude knew whereof he spoke! Soon we were on-line, trying to track down the LPs, or cd reissues. Not long thereafter, Andee and Allan both possessed the complete works of Osanna on cd. But it took more than a few months for us to find a wholesale supplier so we could stock 'em at Aquarius and share our Osanna-excitement with you, our prog-lovin' customers... Actually we hope that self-proclaimed "prog" dedication is not necessary for enjoyment of Osanna, as we think that these discs are good and weird and silly enough for AQ-customers into whatever sort of musical extremity (experimental, krautrock, psych, metal, classic rock) to dig. OSANNA "L'Uomo" (Warner Fonit, 2002) Osanna's 1971 debut "L'Uomo" may be the most song-oriented of these three albums, their Crimson and Tull influences easy to spot. They sound a bit like a proggier, Italian version of Mexican contemporaries Dug Dugs, if that's of any help -- equally into weird psychedelic effects, hard rock, and pop. A couple of the poppier songs are sung in English, and those might result in a few uncomfortable moments of "what am I listening to here?" panic. But the sheer exuberance and fuzzed out riffing of "L'Uomo" as a whole can't be argued with! - The History of Rock Music. Osanna
The tangled story of Osanna -- a major force in Italian rock in the seventies -- begins around 1970 in Naples, with the formation of the first version of Citta' Frontale. This band, which never recorded, included keyboardist Gianni Leone (who later recorded as Leo Nero). Leone left to join Il Balleto di Bronzo, and Elio D'Anna joined and the group became Osanna.
The original Osanna -- which remained the same for the first four albums recorded under that name -- was a quintet consisting of Danilo Rustici on guitars and keyboards; Lino Vairetti on vocals, guitars and keyboards; Elio D'Anna on saxes and flute; Lello Brandi on bass; and Massimo Guarino on drums and percussion. The music they played came at "progressive rock" from a different, harder-edged direction than most Italian rock. The Mediterranean melodic sensibility is there, but it's blended with a psychedelic, Jimi Hendrix-influenced hardrock. In essense, Osanna was more of an old-fashioned rock 'n' roll band than were most Italian progressive bands of the seventies. Osanna could kick ass.
Paolo Barotto, in THE RETURN OF ITALIAN POP, states, "Their first album is another fundamental event in the history of Italian pop music and shows their fine writing and playing. The spotlight is on Elio D'Anna, who plays sax and flute, and on the electric guitar of Danilo Rustici. Their rock is aggressive even if a little bit 'naive,' and the lyrics are very interesting, half Italian half English, sung with great power and emotion." D'Anna's flute ranges from pretty to dirty in the style Ian Anderson picked up from jazzman Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and his sax playing (mostly on tenor) is wildly uninhibited -- combining r'n'b honk-and-scree with psychedelic freakouts. As Barotto puts it, "the protagonist was always Elio D'Anna, well backed up by the very disciplined Danilo Rustici and the good voice of Vairetti."
Their first album, L'UOMO ("a man"), was launched with a deluxe package from Fonit -- the triple gatefold cover opens into a poster and even has a hanger! This is better treatment than the label gave the New Trolls. The album was also an unacknowledged movie soundtrack -- to "Grazie Signor P." - Dr.Progresso Reviews
1 Introduzione 03:26
2 L'Uomo 03:33
3 Mirror Train 04:55
4 Non Sei Vissuto Mai 06:00
5 Vado Verso Una Meta 03:15
6 In Un Vecchio Cieco 03:30
7 L'Amore Vincera Di Nuovo 06:13
8 Everybody's Gonna See You Die 03:04
9 Lady Power 03:55
Lino Vairetti (vocals, acoustic guitar, keyboards)
Elio D'Anna (flute, sax)
Danilo Rustici (guitar, organ, vocals)
Lello Brandi (bass)
Massimo Guarino (drums, percussion)
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