Lucio Dalla
Geniale? 1969-70 (Inediti)

A Lucio Dalla like you've never heard before. “Geniale?” is a work released in 1991 that contains tracks recorded live between 1969 and 1970 in Barga di Lucca and La Mecca di Rimini. At the time of the record, Lucio had only released one LP “1999” from 1966 and had collected a series of colossal failures. However, in 1969, he decided to embark on a tour that saw him perform in various iconic venues accompanied by a Bolognese group “Gli Idoli” (Giorgio Lecardi on drums and guitar, Bruno Cabassi on keyboards and organ, Emanuele Ardemagni on bass), the band that accompanied him in the recording studio for his first 3 albums.

The recording, given the era, is not technically the best, but in “Geniale?”, a truly rustic album, you can hear a magnificent Lucio improvising with “scat” tracks, i.e., without lyrics, starting with “Gragnanino blues” where Bruno Cabassi's organ takes the lead and an astonishing version of that “Summertime” performed by Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday (but also by many others indiscriminately) and here sung by Dalla in his own way. The album also includes “1999” from his first LP and “Sylvie”, “Il mio fiore nero” and “Africa”, songs that appeared on his second career album “Terra di Gaibola”. In all of them, the organs played by Cabassi and Dalla himself stand out. A young Lucio, sings and plays like a beast and in three more “scat” tracks: “Geniale”, an authentic organ, bass, and drum jam, “Fottiti” (where Dalla – or Cabassi? – improvises with the organ in a long solo) and “Etto”, starts with his already unmistakable voice and puts “Gli Idoli” to the test as they relentlessly follow him.

It is also a record that contains two mysteries: the (beautiful) song “Non è una festa” credited to Dalla himself for the music and to Gianfranco Baldazzi for the lyrics, would actually have been written by Franco Migliacci and composed by Little Tony and recorded by the latter in 1969. A mystery that I have not been able to unravel. The album closes with a splendid version of “4 marzo 1943” performed with violin and organ. But if Lucio sang it in Sanremo in 1971, how come it was played at La Mecca di Rimini in the summer of 1970? Error in the CD credits? Wasn't there a rule for unreleased songs at Sanremo back then? None of that. Giorgio Lecardi himself once stated that 4 marzo was performed numerous times before that Sanremo…

“Geniale?” is an album to listen to and love, a genuine live record where Dalla divinely plays his best instrument: his voice.