Maremma-born. And, as befits the inhabitants of this beautiful area of Tuscany, a rather difficult and restless character. They had tried to cast her in the role of a playful, carefree girl with simple songs ("Ma che freddo fa," "Il cuore è uno zingaro," "Re di denari"), but in response, she comes out in 1973 with an album composed entirely of songs by Piero Ciampi. Imagine the horror of the recording industry wizards.
Never having settled for easy compromises, despite some chart diversions in the early '80s, her discography has always maintained a good standard, with a definitive resurgence in '99 with the album Dove sei sei and the following one, L'amore è fortissimo e il corpo no.
A strongly rock musical imprint with prominently featured guitars characterizes all ten tracks of this excellent work titled Tutto l'amore che mi manca, which includes contributions from Gelb, John Parish, and Cesare Basile, who is also present as a composer with the song "Proprio tu".
The voice of Nada Malanima, who writes all the tracks except for two, one by Cesare Basile and the final one by Howe Gelb, is as expressive as ever, with a heavy dose of Patti Smith.
"E ti aspettavo" is a piece that cannot fail to make an impact, especially since the singing is built on a single note, "Piangere o no," with a beautiful vocal interpretation, the acoustic guitar of Cesare Basile introducing the first notes of "Ti troverò," one of the gems of this record, while rock takes center stage again in "Tutto l'amore che mi manca" with some crescendos in the chorus reminiscent of something by C.S.I. Where the affinities between Nada and Patti Smith come to the forefront is in the last track, the masterpiece of the CD: "Classico" is the long piece featuring Howe Gelb on vocals, with a text halfway between spoken and shouted, ending with a coda that echoes "Senza un perché".
The tremendous effort you'll make to track down this album (distribution seems to be an issue) will be more than rewarded by listening to this little marvel. Thank you, Nada Malanima!
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