FunkFreak75 Napolitano bands Osanna and Cervello unite (reuniting brothers Danilo and Corrado Rustici) for some groovin' jazz-rock fusion.

Line-up / Musicians: - Corrado Rustici / lead vocals, acoustic (2) & electric guitars - Danilo Rustici / electric guitar - Elio D'Anna / alto (2,3,6), soprano (1,3,5) & tenor (4,6) saxophones, flute (2) - Luciano Milanese / bass - Franco Lo Previte / drums With: - Morris Pert / percussion

1. "Tailor Made - Part 1 & Part 2 (5:09) what starts out sounding rather funky turns into driving blues-rock when the singing starts, but in the instrumental intervals between vocal passages it's highly-charged Jazz-Rock Fusion! Saxophonist Elio D'Anna is on fire but so is that rhythm section! What a temperamental song from these headstrong lads! (9.25/10)

2. "Something Inside Keeps You Down - Part 1 & Part 2 (6:11) opens as a kind of meandering, wandering "warm-up" or "practice" session turns into something quite else when Corrado Rustici enters singing in a high almost-falsetto voice. After two minutes, the singing shuts down and the band folds into a heavy rock motif that is anchored by some awesome deep bass playing and amazing drumming from Franco Lo Previte. Heavy and brooding but not bombastic or pedantic, this is very solid instrumental (9.25/10)

3. "Nova - Part 1 & Part 2 (7:10) opening with some funky rhythm guitar, Franco enters with some stunning drum work while everybody else settles into the rock 'n' roll groove. Elio takes the lead with some awesome sax screaming--on multiple instruments--while the guitars work out from beneath who's the lead and who's the rhythm. The brothers duke it out with Danilo shrieking out his more blues-anchored style before giving it up to Luciano Milanese's bass by way of short bursts from Elio and little brother Corrado with his fire-breathing machine gun. Elio gets another solo sixth minute which allows us to focus more on the different playing styles of the Rustici brothers: Danilo being all blues-orented while Corrado is so much more Mahavishnu--which is especially demonstrated when he finally lets loose in the final 30 seconds with some of his fire and brimstone. (13.5/15)

4. "Used to Be Easy - Part 1 & Part 2 (5:12) picked and strummed electricguitar chords over which Corrado starts singing in his higher-pitched vibrato voice that I'm so familiar with from my love of the band's Vimana album. The music beneath is sounds quite firmly founded in blues-rock, though you can tell from both his vocal and guitar that Corrado is very much interested in going a different direction (Elio, too); as a matter of fact, the rhythm section of Franco, Luciano, and Danilo all feel so firmly rooted in the blues-rock forms that this is the first time I'm conscious of the rift that must have led to their departure from the band. (8.66667/10)

5. "Toy - Part 1 & Part 2 (4:21) nice semi-funky rock with some jazzy elements coming from the rhythm guitar, lead sax, and drums (a bit)--the rest is more instrumental jam-band rock. By the time they get to the third and fourth minute the infectious groove has gotten so inside your being that the solos become quite enjoyable. I can't believe how 180 my view of this song became over the course of its four minutes! (9/10)

6. "Stroll On - Part 1 & Part 2 (10:33) hard-drivin', blistering-paced, near-metal blues rock with rather coarse and aggressive vocals from Corrado while the band races forward for the first six-and-a-half minutes, Luciano Milanese sounds very much like he's trying to match the speed and style of Percy Jones. Then they slow down a bit, allowing for a bit of space within which the various instrumentalists are able to clearly, patiently inject their solo--though the highlight of the entire song is Elio and Corrado's paired melody lines during the song's final two minutes; the two are in sync! (17.75/20)

Total Time 38:36

Interesting to contrast the two guitar styles of brothers Danilo and Corrado: the former is far more blues-rock oriented with lots of note bending and favoring a much more "dirty" sound while the latter is clearly a student/emulator of the technical wizardry of Mahavishnu John McLaughlin. At times Corrado's vocals sound so much like David Bowie! As accomplished as the musicians are, the sound engineering mix is not very enjoyable: the bass and drums are mixed farther forward than any of the other tracks! And Luciano Milanese is no Percy Jones (future member/contributor to the band) but he and drummer Franco Lo Previte are quite a force as a rhythm team. Though the music is often far too close to standard blues rock in both sound palette and style, I have come away very impressed with the power and presence of this album. I think the power of the music even helped me to cast aside my initial myopic orientation to only being open to Jazz-Rock Fusion. This is not Jazz-Rock Fusion. Still, it is my opinion, that the band's core trio's next move--to move to London, England, where they will use studio musicians in supporting rolls to record their next albums--is the best move they could have made.

B+/4.5 stars; a near-masterpiece of hard-driving technically-awesome jazz-infused bluesy rock 'n' roll music.

FunkFreak75 Rid of the domineering blues-rock effect of Corrado Rustici's older brother, Daniele, and partnering with seasoned British prog-rockers Phil Collins, Percy Jones, and the spiritually-illuminated Mahavshnu alum, Narada Michael Walden (the album's producer), and the band is able to soar into unprecedented territory!

Line-up / Musicians: - Corrado Rustici / lead vocals, lead guitar, 6- & 12-string acoustic guitars, marimba - Renato Rosset / Fender Rhodes, piano, Minimoog, String Ensemble, clavinet - Elio D'Anna / soprano & tenor saxophones, flute, synthesized flute (6) With: - Percy Jones / bass - Narada Michael Walden / drums, Fender Rhodes (6) - Phil Collins / percussion - Zakir Hussain / congas (6)

1. "Vimana" (7:18) the great 12-string guitar opening of this song and album I remember so well from 1977 for the way in which it fed my soul. Then add the soaring flute, Phil Collins-like drums, RTF second motif and out-of-this world bubbling Percy Jones bass lines and I was in heaven. Renato Rosset's keyboard work is so crucial to the whole sound that it sometimes gets overlooked but don't It's amazing! And Phil's percussion work is also not to be ignored. But the real star, for me, was the incendiary guitar play and runs of guitar phenom Corrado Rustici (who was now a whole 20-years old!) The song as a complete "finished" composition doesn't always flow or make sense but the instrumental prowess and sound palette on display are superlative. (14/15)

2. "Night Games" (9:37) acoustic guitar opening that sounds like it could come from Al DiMeola or John McLaughlin, floating Fender Rhodes chords and arpeggi and more bubbling bass popping in and out of the void fill the first 90-seconds of this as subtle cymbal and percussion play also sneak in here and there, but then Elio D'Anna's insistent soprano sax enters and announces its leadership in establishing a melody--one that is matched note for note by Corrado's dextrous electric guitar. The music stays surprisingly spacious even up to the point at the end of the fourth minute when Corrado's treated-voice breaks through in song. Renato's four/five chord keyboard progression paces the song slowly forward until something seems to break loose at 5:18. Thereafter we return to a spacious void in which Narada Michael Walden's intermittent staccato drum flourishes and Renato's clavinet chord play provide the only solid steady backdrop over which Elio, Percy, and Phil add their occasional inputs. Corrado returns to front and center around the seven-minute mark with another foray into singing just before unleashing an ungodly barrage of machine gun guitar runs--some of my favorite obtuse lines ever. It's over before the start of the ninth minute, the band returning to the spacious main theme for more lyrics and more sax, drum, and bass displays before Corrado and Percy take us out with their rapid fire artifice. Very interesting song--again expressing a very unusual compositional style. (18/20)

3. "Poesia (To a Brother Gone)" (5:11) all acoustic fare like the opening of RETURN TO FOREVER's "Romantic Warrior." Steel-string acoustic guitar, flute, and piano--the band's core--all displaying their lightning speed skills. Impressive (especially Renato Rosset!) but, once again, failing to feel like something concrete and "finished" has been displayed. (8.875/10)

4. "Thru the Silence" (5:43) the drummer gets to open this one. Funky bass, clavinet, and fast-picked guitar chords with Narada Michael Walden's driving drumming provide the base for Corrado's singing. At 1:45 the band switches into. a more Latinized motif with all kinds of percussion work, wild screaming saxophone and bouncing clavinet Probably my least favorite song on the album, there's nothing really wrong with it--and it's one of the few songs that actually feels "finished"--but it lacks the melodic or astonishing hooks. Plus Narada's able drum play is close to being on the disco spectrum. The instrumental fifth minute (to close) is the best part with Percy's bass play, Narada's drum play feeling more Lenny White-straight ahead, Renato's clavinet and Minimoog and Corrado and Elio spitting out the same machine gun lines. (8.75/10)

5. "Driftwood" (10:03) my favorite song on the album--one that haunts me in the best way--opens with some very atmospheric slow-played, volume-pedaled, "distant" guitar play while cymbals, synths, and tenor sax flit in and out of the spacious mix for the first two minutes. In the third minute, things setttle into another spacious, atmospheric pattern over/within which Corrado's odd voice gives his best, most impassioned performance backed by some extraordinary flanged strummed acoustic guitar. As he concludes that "I must destroy you" his love all hell breaks loose at 5:40 with sax and guitar absolutely shredding the skies with the army of band mates following the charge. But then calm is restored around the seven-minute mark despite the fact that Corrado's surprisingly Zen Buddhist lyrics assurance that the destruction is inevitable. A small squall of whole-band cacophonoy precedes a rather beautiful and wholly-ambiguous exit. Such a fsacinating song! The detachment toward such underlying existential violence and is extraordinary! (19.25/20)

6. "Princess and the Frog" (7:44) a rather simply-structured ABACAB song with straight time and straightfoarward piano chord construction turns out to be a convenient vehicle for some more fiery displays of guitar and drums as well as some silly Minimoog play rather disappointingly dull percussion play (from Phil and Zakir Hussen, no less!) The two-part song is halved at the five-minute mark by a bleed over into riverside birdsong and gentle Fender Rhodes arpeggi over which some guitar, synth strings, and light-hearted male laughing occur. The motif feels lifted from Minnie Ripperton's "Lovin' You" and seems to be just waiting for her bird-like vocals to step in. I also think that Andreas Wollenweider must have heard this song (and album) before he set forth the composing and recording of his 1981 classic, Behind the Gardens - Behind the Wall - Under the Tree . . . . (14/15)

Total Time 45:36

I have to admit that Vimana is one of my secret favorites from back in the day. There was a time when I was trying to collect anything and everything that fretless bass virtuoso Percy Jones touched. Thus, I stumbled upon this one. Boy! was I sucked in by the entirety of this excellent album. Corrado Rustici's guitar work astounds me to this day (and to think that he would go on to production Hall of Fame with his work with Whitney Houston and others!) Narada Michael Walden is awesome and I, for one, love the "cheesy" Sri Chimnoy-inspired music, titles, and lyrics of he, (Devadip) Carlos Santana, and (Mahavishnu) John McLaughlin. Each song presents atmospheric sections of heavily treated guitars and keyboards which then invariably build into fiery soli from either sax man Elio d'Anna or axe man Rustici. The only straightforward song is the finale, "Princess and the Frog," which is quite catchy. "Driftwood" and "Vimana" are among my all-time favorite songs from the 70s. Not a masterpiece but definitely one that I'd recommend to any prog lover!

A/five stars; a minor masterpiece of proggy jazz-rock fusion. One of my 20 Favorite Jazz-Rock Fusion albums from the "Third Wave" of J-R Fusion's "Classic Era" (the 1970s).