Enzo Avitabile
S.O.S Brothers

Essential Album!

"S.o.s Brothers" is in my opinion a true soul/blues gem of the 80s, an album direct, warm, and absolutely profound.

Enzo Avitabile undoubtedly remains a great artist but unfortunately has not always received in Italy (especially in his years of success) the recognition he rightfully deserved, having been shelved by the powerful EMI too quickly. An artist of caliber and a saxophonist of disarming skill (the only white artist to have supported James Brown on stage), he collaborated in the past with still "Artist" Pino Daniele of the good old days, he has duetted with Maceo Parker, and collaborated with Richie Havens and Afrika Bambaata.

"S.o.s Brothers" stylistically speaking comes quite close to the Neapolitan melodic blues style that during the 80s had its main exponent in Pino Daniele, but the album has an edge born from the creativity of its author... the Soul.
The album is composed of 9 tracks, songs that in their nuances demonstrate that Enzo Avitabile is someone who knows a lot about music... and a lot. The album precisely dates back to 1986, released under the EMI label and produced by the legendary Willy David who signed several excellent productions for Pino Daniele, with arrangements also contributed by Mauro Malavasi, a producer of caliber from the 70s-80s (maybe even 90s-00s). The album opens with the track "ALZATI CHE E TARDI" a mix of blues soul and melodic funk where Enzo invites everyone to get up, hurry up, move because outside "there's work to be done".

The album continues with the track "MAMMA CHE CAOS" (among my favorites) where all the grit of Avitabile's sax emerges in a structurally perfect piece where Enzo describes a bit the chaos and madness of the world. The third track is "SE LA MUSICA" a splendid soul ballad that gathers all the artist's feeling towards music that "if you keep it inside it never goes away". The fifth track is the one that gives the album its title and represents the most memorable piece of Avitabile's 80s soul production so much that the word "Brothers" is absolutely still very recurring during his live shows to encourage his audience.
"SOS BROTHERS" addresses a specific theme... light drugs, where Enzo talks about it in a cheerful and funny way also saying "cà nun mo fann fa cchiù" (they don't let me do it anymore) and then signing off with a "meglio che ti saluto". The album then offers us the track "SOUL EXPRESS" which remains absolutely in the artist's history the highest peak of his creativity. Avitabile invites us to board the soul train, a train belonging to everyone, where there is a quiet, subdued, familiar atmosphere and where he tells us "Call me if you see it, believe me, if you miss this train, you won't catch it anymore, it has no borders, flies over seas and walls, over cities and smokestacks".

It then proceeds with "NON MI TOCCARE IL FEELING" a deeply soul track where the dominant feature is Avitabile's enveloping sax mixed with his "black" voice that describes the deep meaning of the feeling that springs directly from his soul. The seventh piece is "YOU CAN LIVE" a seductive ballad with very calm rhythms where at the center of the piece is a description of some reflections on life. We then arrive at "BLACK OUT" a very rhythmic and danceable funk with an Avitabile expressing all the Neapolitan in him on the theme of war, in this case, in Lebanese territory "black out, no war, black out, no more". The album closes with "SORRIDIMI" a light and carefree song, well-structured, with blues sounds and the aid of his magical sax that often seems to really speak for him.

With "Sos Brothers," Enzo Avitabile achieved a true miracle in sales. The album did very well, unlike (especially) the subsequent ones, but not because his creative vein had diminished, on the contrary.... but because after this success, the artist was forced by EMI to repeat himself which, however, did not let the artist have free will in his musical choices. Feeling oppressed and above all forced to abandon Neapolitan in his lyrics (the artist's strong point) and stringing together several subsequent flops, Avitabile thus decided to leave EMI to change paths and do what he truly desired, a path that has led him today to the increasingly original pursuit of "World Music". Today he is an artist who, unlike his illustrious friend Pino Daniele, has been able to positively renew himself with numerous "multi-ethnic" works, even gaining esteem in American territory.

"Sos brothers" in my opinion remains the most successful album of his first phase, where his sharp voice mixed with the Neapolitan dialect, Italian and English really dazzled, moreover, it was the only one to really succeed decorously.