ALMAMEGRETTA BAND

Formano il gruppo, nel 1991, Gennaro Tesone (in arte Gennaro T), Gennaro Della Volpe (in arte Raiz) e Gianni Mantice, a cui si aggiungono, nel 1992, Paolo Polcari e Tonino Borrelli. Il significato del loro nome è spiegato da Raiz: "Almamegretta significa anima migrante, tratto da un dialetto che sta a cavallo tra il tardo latino e gli inizi del volgare. Ci è piaciuto perché non è né italiano né dialetto e rispecchia fedelmente la nostra attitudine a saltellare da un punto all'altro del pianeta, alla ricerca delle radici profonde". Nel 1993, durante la fase di produzione del nuovo disco, conoscono Stefano"D.RaD" Facchielli che entra nella band come soundman e dub-maker; l'album presentato è Anima Migrante, prodotto da Ben Young, che vince la Targa Tenco come miglior opera prima e il singolo estratto dall'album, Sole, viene premiato da 105 Network come il brano più richiesto tra le nuove proposte. Al termine del tour italiano Tonino esce dal gruppo. Nel 1995 esce il loro secondo album, Sanacore, che viene premiato con la Targa Tenco come miglior disco in dialetto a cui seguirà un tour italiano con oltre 80 date. Nel 1996 pubblicano la raccolta Indubb che contiene brani già editi ma rivisitati in chiave dub, remixati oltre che dagli Alma stessi anche da Bill Laswell, Adrian Sherwood, Scorn e Frequecies. Il 1997 vede la collaborazione con Pino Daniele alla registrazione del brano "Canto do mar". Il terzo album degli Almamegretta, Lingo del 1998, si avvale della collaborazione di molti artisti, tra cui Pino Daniele, Laswell, Pasquale Minieri, Tommaso Vittorini, Eraldo Bernocchi e Count Dubulah, bassista dei TransGlobal Underground. Il primo disco completamente prodotto dalla band e mixato da D.RaD è 4/4 (2000). Il 2001 è l'anno di pubblicazione di Imaginaria, con cui il gruppo si aggiudica per la seconda volta la Targa Tenco per il miglior disco in dialetto e la cui copertina vince l'"Italian Grammy Awards" per il miglior progetto grafico. Il 31 dicembre gli Almamegretta suonano davanti a 70.000 persone a Napoli, in piazza del Plebiscito, per il concerto di Capodanno. L'intensa attività dal vivo in 10 anni di carriera viene sintetizzata nell'album live del 2002, Venite! Venite!. Sempre nel 202 lasciano la BMG e creano una loro etichetta, la Sanacore, con cui pubblicano nel 2003 il lavoro successivo Sciuoglie 'e cane, che vede come cantanti Patrizia Di Fiore e Lucariello al posto di Raiz che ha nel frattempo abbandonato il gruppo per la carriera solista. Collaborano alla registrazione del disco Marco Parente e Francesco Di Bella dei 24 Grana. Nel 2004 dopo il loro primo video-singolo "Preta d'oro" parte il tour invernale che subisce una triste battuta d'arresto la notte tra il 31 ottobre e il 1 novembre quando, in un incidente stradale, muore a Milano Stefano Facchielli alias "D.RaD", colui che ha creato il sound "Alma". Il tragico evento mette in seria discussione la vita dell'intero progetto Almamegretta che decidono però di proseguire considerando questa scelta come un omaggio a Stefano. Il 29 dicembre all'Auditorium Parco della Musica di Roma si tiene un concerto per D.RaD, riassunto poi in un "Istant CD", che vede la partecipazione di molti amici: Ash, Patrizia Di Fiore, Massimo Fantoni, Mario Formisano, Fefo, Greg Ferro, Lucariello, Gianni Mantice, Sergio Messina, Pasquale Minieri, Marco Parente, Raiz, GennaroT, Zaira. Nel 2005 pubblicano il doppio album "Sciuoglie 'e cane live 2004", tratto da una serie di istant CD registrati durante il tour del 2004, che è anche l'ultima testimonianza che documenta il contributo di D.RaD agli Almamegretta. Nel 2006 esce l'album strumentale Dubfellas e nel 2008 Vulgus. Nel 2009 arriva l'Indub Tour con la partecipazione alla voce di Marcello Coleman, ed alla postazione dub Neil Perch degli Zion Train. Nel 2010 nuovo disco "Almamegretta Presents Dubfellas Vol.2". Questo album è un nuovo capitolo del viaggio Almamegretta nell’universo Dub, che mette in primo piano l’approccio sperimentale e di ricerca tipico del Dub e che si avvale della collaborazione di Neil Perch (Zion Train) ed alle voci di Marcello Coleman, Princess Julianna e Raiz.

BIOGRAPHY:

1991: GennaroT, Raiz and Gianni first formed the band (drums, vocals e guitar).

1992: Paolo and Tonino joined the group (keyboards and bass). They recorded their first mini cd "Figli di Annibale". Italian Tour.

1993: "Animamigrante", produced by Ben Young, was released as the first full album. They met D.RaD during the production and he joined the band as soundman and dub-maker. Italian Tour with a short stop in Nantes, France, where they took part in the Nantes Naples twin-town festival. Their single "Sole" won the radio 105 Network Award for the most played song. Tonino left the band.

1994: Massive Attack heard "Animamigrante" through Ben Young and asked the group to remix "Karmacoma", a track from their soon-to-be released album, "Protection" and the track "The Napoli Trip" came out of it. Contact intensified with Adrian Sherwood, the mythical producer of On-U Sound, which has always been considered one of the top record labels by the Alma. They recorded "Sanacore" on Procida and in Naples: the mix (and the dubs!) were entrusted to Sherwood. Pappi Corsicato did the video for "Nun Te Scurda' ", the single taken from the album. Gianni left the band. "Animamigrante" won the Targa Tenco as best first album.

1995: "Sanacore" was released and followed by an Italian Tour of more than 80 dates. Giuletta Sacco and Salvatore Palomba also took part on the album. The record was awarded the Targa Tenco as best cd in dialect. Raiz started work on Eraldo Bernocchi's Ashes project and together they created "Corpus", produced in New York by Bill Laswell, another "Grand Master" of dub. Laswell remixed "Ruanda", a track from "Sanacore": and the result was "Glossolalia Dub".

1996: "Indubb" came out, a dub collection of previously released tracks: remixes by Sherwood, Laswell, Scorn, Frequencies and the Alma boys were included. Tour with Rogue Go Go, a group of American dancers who choreographed the gigs.

1997: Leftfield, one of the most important groups of the British dance scene, were bowled over by Raiz's voice and they asked him to participate in the recording of their album "Rhythm & Stealth" which was released in 1999. The group recorded "Canto do Mar" for Pino Daniele's album "Dimmi Cosa Succede Sulla Terra".

1998: "Lingo", the third album was released. It was produced and recorded in London and included Laswell, Pino Daniele, Pasquale Minieri, Tommaso Vittorini, Eraldo Bernocchi and Count Dubulah, the bassist from TransGlobal Underground who went on tour with them.

1999 "4/4" was recorded in Mauro Pagani's studio in Milan: guest artists were Dubulah, the same Pagani, the extraordinary Tuvan singer Sahinko Namtchilak. It was the first album produced entirely by the band and mixed by D.RaD.

2000: "4/4" was released and a tour followed. Asian Dub Foundation asked Raiz to sing a piece for their new album. Tarsem Singh, the Anglo-Indian director of videos (U2, REM) and well-known television advertisements, shot his first film, "The Cell", with Jennifer Lopez: "'O Sciore Cchiù Felice", from "Sanacore", was on the soundtrack. The film was a success in America and Europe. Paolo decided to leave the band and move to London but remains a permanent collaborator.

2001: The group released "Imaginaria", recorded and mixed in Milan at Mauro Pagani's "Officine Meccaniche". Pagani collaborated on the recording sessions of the album whose cover won the Italian Grammy Awards as best graphic project. "Imaginaria" was awarded the Targa Tenco as best work in dialect. On 31 December, the Alma played in Naples in Piazza Plebiscito for the New Year celebrations in front of more than 70.000 people.

2002: "Venite! Venite!" was released, the first live album (and the last for BMG). It documented and synthesized the non-stop activity of the group both on and off stage during almost 10 years of concerts. The track list was completed using 2 previously unreleased studio tracks with the collaboration of Mauro Pagani.

2003: Raiz left the band to embark on a solo career. The disc "Sciuoglie 'e cane", first fruit of the new record label Sanacore, came out in early December and signalled the start of a new phase in the story of Almamegretta. The vocals were trusted to Lucariello and Patrizia Di Fiore. Guest artists Marco Parente and Francesco Di Bella of 24 Grana also contributed.

2004: Winter tour, which was repeated again in the spring and saw the addition of singer Zaira in the line-up. The first single-video was "Preta D'Oro". Just as the Alma were finding a new direction, they suffered a terrible blow: in the early hours of the night of 1st November Stefano Facchielli, aka D.RaD, who had helped create the Alma sound, was killed in a car crash in Milan. This left a gaping hole, both human and professional, that will never be filled and put the life of the whole project into serious discussion. But a story such as theirs could not finish in this way. After an initial and understandable moment of disorientation, Almamegretta decided to go ahead anyway with the project largely due to the avalanche of messages of affection, love, respect and solidarity sent in by all the fans who wrote in the guest-book on the website in the days following the tragedy. In the knowledge that this would be a really tough challenge, they realised that this was the only way to pay homage to the relentless love and work that Stefano had always put into the project. A concert was held for D.RaD on 29 December in Rome at the Auditorium Parco della Musica. It was the first tribute to Stefano that saw the participation of many of his friends: Ash, Patrizia Di Fiore, Massimo Fantoni, Mario Formisano, Fefo, Greg Ferro, Lucariello, Gianni Mantice, Sergio Messina, Pasquale Minieri, Marco Parente, Raiz, Gennaro t and Zaira. A live recording of the evening was made.

2005: The double cd, Sciuoglie E Cane Live 2004 came out at the beginning of the year and was a compilation of a series of live recordings that the Alma had made during the 2004 tour. The album, whose release had already been decided before the loss of Stefano, is unfortunately the last testimonial that documents the powerful and unforgettable contribution of D.RaD.

2006: The album "Almamegretta presents Dubfellas", came out in June. It's an album that has Dub as its focale point and marks the return of a collaboration with Paul Polcari, one of the founding members of the Alma project. The summer tour, which consisted of more than 40 dates, included vocalist Marina Mulopulos from "Tilak" and other experimental music projects.

2008: Almamegretta new cd, title of this brand new release is "Vulgus" . 14 tracks featured by several important artists; from Raiz, Princess Julianna Sir Horace Andy (historic voice of Massive Attack) to actor and writer Peppe Lanzetta, Napo Camassa, Piero Brega (ex Canzoniere Del Lazio) until rapper Lucariello, Zaira and ethnic singer Marina Mulopulos. A remix by Dub Maestro Gaudi will be included as bonus track. Cover is cured once again by the unmistakable style of Mimmo Palladino. Distribuited by Edel this long-awaited return is on the shelves from the 28th of March.

2009: InDub tour featuring Neil Perch from Zion Train (live dubbing) and Marcello Coleman (vocal).

2010: "Almamegretta presents Dubfellas Vol.2" is a new chapter of Almamegretta travel across the Universe of Dub. This work once again focuses on the experimental approach and research typical of Dub and features collaborations by dancehalls specialist Neil Perch (Zion Train) and vocal contributions by Marcello Coleman, Julianna and Raiz.