Il Balletto di Bronzo

Il Balletto di Bronzo
Origin Naples, Italy
Genres progressive rock, Italian progressive rock
Years active 1966–1973
1999–present
Labels RCA, Polydor, Mellow Records
Website www.ballettodibronzo.too.it
Members Romolo Amichi, Giani Leone, Ugo Vantini

Il Balletto di Bronzo (Italian: "The Bronze Ballet") is an Italian progressive rock band from Naples. The band was initially formed as the I Battitori Selvaggi, which had Rafaele Cascone and progressive guitarist and later included Freddy Cannon on drums for all the NATO concerts which personally booked for the band. Cannon would later become a very successful record company executive with EMI, Carrere, PWL and join BMI as a senior executive in 1994. They formed in the Balletto di Bronzo in 1969 and released two albums, Sirio 2222 and Ys, before disbanding in 1973.

Sirio 2222 (1970) is a psychedelic album originally released on RCA Italiana. The line-up of the band at this time was Marco Cecioni (vocals, guitar), Lino Ajello (guitar), Michele Cupaiuolo (bass) and Giancarlo Stinga (drums).

In 1971 both Cecioni and Cupaiuolo left the band, replaced by Gianni Leone (vocals, keyboards), from the band Città Frontale, and Vito Manzari (bass), formerly of Rome's Quelle Strane Cose Che. This line-up released Ys in 1971 on Polydor, regarded as one of the finest examples of Italian symphonic rock.

Written by Leone, Ys is a concept album divided into four parts: "Introduzione", "Primo Incontro", "Secondo Incontro" and "Terzo Incontro ed Epilogo".

The band released several singles, among them "Neve Calda/Cominciò per gioco", "Sì, Mama Mama/Meditazione" and "La tua casa comoda/Donna Vittoria". Over the years, several rarities, including previously unreleased English and Spanish language singles, have surfaced.

Despite breaking up in the early 1970s, Il Balletto di Bronzo continued to exert an influence, mostly on the strength of their second album. Several bands, amongst them Nurse With Wound, have cited them as an influence: The band is on the Nurse With Wound list. The album Ys has been reissued at different times in Italy, Korea and Japan.

In the late 1990s, Gianni Leone reformed the band as a trio, recording the live album Trys. As of this writing this incarnation of the band is still active as a live ensemble with a rotating roster, Leone being the sole constant.

In 2013 Lino Ajello and Marco Cecioni reformed the band but the name "Balletto di Bronzo" continues to belong to the prog trio of Gianni Leone who however, participated in the recording of "CUMA 2016 DC". After 40 years, the 3 historical elements of "Balletto di Bronzo" are again reunited for this recording project "CUMA 2016 D.C."

Discography

Albums

Singles

Live

See also

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