Osanna
Suddance

After four records (two masterpieces L'uomo and Palepoli, and still remarkable Preludio, tema, variazioni, canzona and Landscape of life) recorded for Fonit Cetra, the 1978 Osanna had to do without one of their leaders, Elio D'Anna, and above all find a new label willing to embrace their new project.

CBS would be the one to welcome the fifth and final album of the first phase of the Neapolitan group's career.

Lino Vairetti (whom I met at Teatro Trianon on January 14th at Eugenio Finardi's concert, and he even allowed me a photo!) remains the vocal leader, but on the saxophone this time is Benni Caiazzo.

Suddance certainly has a double meaning, that is, "sudden", perhaps an allusion to the uncertain fate of the album given the internal crisis of the band, but also "southern dance", with a clear reference to the Neapolitan essence of the group.

Indeed, starting from the first of the seven tracks, Ce vulesse, it's like listening to Pino Daniele from 1977-1979, both for the voice and the themes. The music is excellent, though at times melancholic and veiled with sarcasm. The same goes for the following A'zingara, where it's almost impossible not to think of Chillo è nu buono guaglione. If, as they say, the first time can be an accident and the second a suspicion, the third is proof. In other words, Osanna, from the beginning of their career, had never expressed so much their Neapolitan heritage, touching on the now overfamiliar themes of the southern question developed by the early Pino Daniele but even more by Mimmo Cavallo a few years later. The song O'napulitano talks about someone who loves his city deeply and would never accept moving north for work. An excellent lyric for a track that then borders on a jam session lasting up to 9 minutes and 40 seconds.

The title track, Suddance, is an instrumental where Danilo Rustici's guitar plays beautiful phrases that well convey Neapolitan and southern pride. Danilo was (he passed away in 2021) the brother of Corrado, already a member of Cervello, collaborator on the previous Landscape of life and later a faithful guitar for Zucchero; go listen to his solo in Solo una sana...

Returning to the Suddance album, we come to the best of the record, Chiuso qui, a desperate cry in the face of the madness and injustice of asylums. Just as the song is being sung, on May 13, the Basaglia Law is approved, incredible adherence to current events!

The 51 seconds of Saraceno just give us a taste of centuries-old Naples before the grand finale, sung in English, a language not new to Osanna at that time. Naples in the world is moving, gritty, and is the worthy end of the first part of the career of one of the best progressive bands around in Italy, which in some tracks, despite their Mediterranean nature, really had nothing to envy to the English "barbarians". My rating is a convinced "manita", and for me, they also deserve it for their first and third albums.

To see Osanna back on the record market, we'll have to wait for the New Millennium.