New Trolls
Encyclopedia
New Trolls are an Italian
progressive rock
band, known for their fusion of rock
and classical music. Their history is filled with line-up changes, band name changes and struggles between band members.
, Nico Di Palo, Mauro Chiarugi, Giorgio D'Adamo and Gianni Belleno decided to form a band called New Trolls, after the name of the previous band of one of them, The Trolls.
After a first series of concerts in local clubs, New Trolls gained popularity to the point they were chosen as supporting act for the Rolling Stones, on their Italian tour dates. Soon after, they released their debut single, "Sensazioni" (1967
), the first of a very long series of chart hitting songs. The band was one of the best live acts in Italy at the time, and Hendrix
-inspired guitarist Nico Di Palo was one of the first Italian guitar heroes.
Their first full-length album, Senza orario senza bandiera, came in 1968 with lyrics written for it by famed singer-songwriter Fabrizio de André
. This release was very successful at the time. A second album, simply titled New Trolls, followed two years later (1970) as a compilation of their singles. By the end of the same year New Trolls would have faced their first line-up change, when Mauro Chiarugi left the band. The other members managed to go on as a quartet.
In 1971 they released the album which was to become their trademark: Concerto grosso per i New Trolls. The album was a fantastic example of early symphonic rock
experimentation, with classical music arrangements written by composer Luis Enriquez Bacalov
. As the first effort in Italy to merge rock music with classical treatments, this album is still considered one of the most important Italian progressive rock releases ever.
The second line-up change came by 1972
, when bassist Giorgio D'Adamo was replaced by the Italo-Canadian Frank Laugelli. With the new line-up the band released Searching for a land, a double album with some live tracks and mostly sung in English. This new record was a disjointed album and not a great success, as most of the English-sung albums by Italian artists. That same year brought another New Trolls album: Ut, introducing a heavier sound similar to hard rock. Even though the release was successful, creative differences emerged and the band broke into two parts, with Di Palo and De Scalzi going in two different ways. A legal struggle began for the use of the band name ensued.
Vittorio De Scalzi reunited with Giorgio D'Adamo, effectively forming another band called New Trolls. The De Scalzi incarnation of the band released a single Una notte sul Monte Calvo, a popular rendition of Mussorgsky
's A night on Bald Mountain, as New Trolls. A legal battle followed and the next album was released with the title N.T. Atomic System as a result, keeping the style of New Trolls prior to Ut. Despite some accounts on the web De Scalzi never intended to call the band New Trolls Atomic System. An Italian court ruled in De Scalzi's favor and Di Palo and the other three band members released their next album with a question mark replacing the name of the band. The quartet was later dubbed Ibis, a band oriented towards hard rock.
The De Scalzi led lineup, often mistakenly referred to as New Trolls Atomic System
, released their first album in 1973
with arrangements similar to the ones used previously in Concerto grosso per i New Trolls. In 1973 De Scalzi founded Magma Records which released the album. De Scalzi himself played the flute, keyboards and guitar in this work. The second album, Tempi dispari, was a live instrumental jazz-rock fusion
album, completely different from the previous New Trolls sound. With the court case settled De Scalzi was again able to use the name New Trolls, despite this Tempi dispari was rather unsuccessful.
The disappointment of Tempi dispari triggered the breakup of the De Scalzi led incarnation of New Trolls. Amazingly, De Scalzi rejoined his old friend/rival Di Palo and drummer Belleno for a new chapter in New Trolls' history. Bassist D'Adamo remained and singer/guitarist Ricky Belloni was hired to complete the line-up. In 1975 the band released a live album on Magma simply titled N.T. L.I.V.E. which contained songs prior-breakup and some excerpts from the forthcoming studio album Concerto grosso no. 2, which was released in 1976. Concerto grosso no. 2 revisited the style of their best selling album, but this time the critics considered it to be "pale" and too "pop-vein". Magma Records eventually released both "Concerto grosso" albums in a single package.
1978 brought a new member to the band, keyboardist Giorgio Usai. Then the band slowly begun to abandon its progressive style in favour to a mainstream pop rock sound that gave them many more hits (Quella carezza della sera and Aldebaran among them). The New Trolls kept in this line until early 1990s.
From then on, the name New Trolls has appeared sporadically in the music scene. Along the 1990s Vittorio De Scalzi recruited several musicians to make tours playing old New Trolls songs. Some album remakes and best-hits collections have appeared too. In 1999
Di Palo, Belloni and Belleno tried to regroup the band (again) but came into legal conflict with De Scalzi.
In 2001 a two-disc set was released credited to De Scalzi: La storia dei New Trolls. Recorded live, the first disc includes reworkings of old tracks, while the second is a complete rendition of Concerto grosso per i New Trolls with full orchestra.
By 2002 the band led by De Scalzi kept touring with La storia dei New Trolls repertoire. Di Palo and former band members regrouped as Il Mito New Trolls, only touring and performing old songs, not releasing any record yet.
2007 saw what is currently the latest reunion of De Scalzi and Di Palo. Reuniting elements from both members' bands, the reformed New Trolls released Concerto grosso: the seven seasons, a continuation of their classical/rock blending "Concerto grosso" series. For this issue, the band returned to English lyrics, written by Shel Shapiro. The record was produced and released by the band's own label, Aereostella.
Later that year, New Trolls were disbanded because of artistic divergences between the members.
Vittorio De Scalzi continued with the New Trolls Atomic System, Nico Di Palo formed two different bands, Tritons and Ibis, while Gianni Belleno recorded some singles under the pseudonym Johnny Dei Tritons and continued to play live with a band named Il Cuore Dei New Trolls. The releases of the subsequent years are:
First reunion. The reformed New Trolls released:
There was another division. The members continued as two separate bands (La Storia Dei New Trolls and Il Mito New Trolls):
Second reunion. Since then the band has released:
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
band, known for their fusion of rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
and classical music. Their history is filled with line-up changes, band name changes and struggles between band members.
History
The band was founded around mid-1960s, when musicians Vittorio De ScalziVittorio De Scalzi
Vittorio de Scalzi is the lead singer and rhythm guitarist, as well as flautist and pianist of Italian progressive rock band, New Trolls.-Il Suonatore Jones:...
, Nico Di Palo, Mauro Chiarugi, Giorgio D'Adamo and Gianni Belleno decided to form a band called New Trolls, after the name of the previous band of one of them, The Trolls.
After a first series of concerts in local clubs, New Trolls gained popularity to the point they were chosen as supporting act for the Rolling Stones, on their Italian tour dates. Soon after, they released their debut single, "Sensazioni" (1967
1967 in music
The summer of 1967 is "The Summer of Love" in San Francisco. It also became an important year for psychedelic rock, with releases from The Beatles The summer of 1967 is "The Summer of Love" in San Francisco. It also became an important year for psychedelic rock, with releases from The Beatles The...
), the first of a very long series of chart hitting songs. The band was one of the best live acts in Italy at the time, and Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
-inspired guitarist Nico Di Palo was one of the first Italian guitar heroes.
Their first full-length album, Senza orario senza bandiera, came in 1968 with lyrics written for it by famed singer-songwriter Fabrizio de André
Fabrizio De André
Fabrizio De André was an Italian singer-songwriter.Known for his sympathies towards anarchism, libertarianism, and pacifism, he also was a convicted atheist , and his songs often featured marginalized and rebellious people, prostitutes and knaves, and attacked the Catholic Church...
. This release was very successful at the time. A second album, simply titled New Trolls, followed two years later (1970) as a compilation of their singles. By the end of the same year New Trolls would have faced their first line-up change, when Mauro Chiarugi left the band. The other members managed to go on as a quartet.
In 1971 they released the album which was to become their trademark: Concerto grosso per i New Trolls. The album was a fantastic example of early symphonic rock
Symphonic rock
Symphonic rock is a sub-genre of progressive rock. Since early in progressive rock's history, the term has been used sometimes to distinguish more classically influenced progressive rock from the more psychedelic and experimental forms of progressive rock....
experimentation, with classical music arrangements written by composer Luis Enriquez Bacalov
Luis Enríquez Bacalov
Luis Enríquez Bacalov is a prolific Argentine, naturalized Italian, composer of film scores. Early on in his career, he composed scores for Spaghetti Western films. In the early 1970s, he collaborated with Italian progressive rock bands. Bacalov has been nominated twice for the Academy Award...
. As the first effort in Italy to merge rock music with classical treatments, this album is still considered one of the most important Italian progressive rock releases ever.
The second line-up change came by 1972
1972 in music
-Events:*January 17 – Highway 51 South in Memphis, Tennessee is renamed "Elvis Presley Boulevard"*January 20 – The début of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon at The Dome, Brighton, is halted by technical difficulties,...
, when bassist Giorgio D'Adamo was replaced by the Italo-Canadian Frank Laugelli. With the new line-up the band released Searching for a land, a double album with some live tracks and mostly sung in English. This new record was a disjointed album and not a great success, as most of the English-sung albums by Italian artists. That same year brought another New Trolls album: Ut, introducing a heavier sound similar to hard rock. Even though the release was successful, creative differences emerged and the band broke into two parts, with Di Palo and De Scalzi going in two different ways. A legal struggle began for the use of the band name ensued.
Vittorio De Scalzi reunited with Giorgio D'Adamo, effectively forming another band called New Trolls. The De Scalzi incarnation of the band released a single Una notte sul Monte Calvo, a popular rendition of Mussorgsky
Mussorgsky
Mussorgsky can refer to:*The Mussorgsky family of Russian nobility;*Modest Mussorgsky, a Russian composer belonging to that family.*Mussorgsky , a 1950 Soviet film about the composer...
's A night on Bald Mountain, as New Trolls. A legal battle followed and the next album was released with the title N.T. Atomic System as a result, keeping the style of New Trolls prior to Ut. Despite some accounts on the web De Scalzi never intended to call the band New Trolls Atomic System. An Italian court ruled in De Scalzi's favor and Di Palo and the other three band members released their next album with a question mark replacing the name of the band. The quartet was later dubbed Ibis, a band oriented towards hard rock.
The De Scalzi led lineup, often mistakenly referred to as New Trolls Atomic System
New Trolls Atomic System
New Trolls Atomic System were an Italian progressive rock band which released one record in the early 1970s, New Trolls Atomic System. The album spawned a single, "Una notte sul Monte Calvo", a symphonic rock cover of Modest Mussorgsky's A Night on Bare Mountain.They were an offshoot from the band...
, released their first album in 1973
1973 in music
-January–April:*January 9 – Mick Jagger's request for a Japanese visa is rejected on account of a 1969 drug conviction, putting an abrupt end to The Rolling Stones' plans to perform in Japan during their forthcoming tour.*January 14...
with arrangements similar to the ones used previously in Concerto grosso per i New Trolls. In 1973 De Scalzi founded Magma Records which released the album. De Scalzi himself played the flute, keyboards and guitar in this work. The second album, Tempi dispari, was a live instrumental jazz-rock fusion
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...
album, completely different from the previous New Trolls sound. With the court case settled De Scalzi was again able to use the name New Trolls, despite this Tempi dispari was rather unsuccessful.
The disappointment of Tempi dispari triggered the breakup of the De Scalzi led incarnation of New Trolls. Amazingly, De Scalzi rejoined his old friend/rival Di Palo and drummer Belleno for a new chapter in New Trolls' history. Bassist D'Adamo remained and singer/guitarist Ricky Belloni was hired to complete the line-up. In 1975 the band released a live album on Magma simply titled N.T. L.I.V.E. which contained songs prior-breakup and some excerpts from the forthcoming studio album Concerto grosso no. 2, which was released in 1976. Concerto grosso no. 2 revisited the style of their best selling album, but this time the critics considered it to be "pale" and too "pop-vein". Magma Records eventually released both "Concerto grosso" albums in a single package.
1978 brought a new member to the band, keyboardist Giorgio Usai. Then the band slowly begun to abandon its progressive style in favour to a mainstream pop rock sound that gave them many more hits (Quella carezza della sera and Aldebaran among them). The New Trolls kept in this line until early 1990s.
From then on, the name New Trolls has appeared sporadically in the music scene. Along the 1990s Vittorio De Scalzi recruited several musicians to make tours playing old New Trolls songs. Some album remakes and best-hits collections have appeared too. In 1999
1999 in music
-Events:*January 7**After eight years of marriage, Rod Stewart and supermodel wife Rachel Hunter announce their separation.**Paul McCartney attends the first of his stepdaughter Heather's first housewares collection in Georgia....
Di Palo, Belloni and Belleno tried to regroup the band (again) but came into legal conflict with De Scalzi.
In 2001 a two-disc set was released credited to De Scalzi: La storia dei New Trolls. Recorded live, the first disc includes reworkings of old tracks, while the second is a complete rendition of Concerto grosso per i New Trolls with full orchestra.
By 2002 the band led by De Scalzi kept touring with La storia dei New Trolls repertoire. Di Palo and former band members regrouped as Il Mito New Trolls, only touring and performing old songs, not releasing any record yet.
2007 saw what is currently the latest reunion of De Scalzi and Di Palo. Reuniting elements from both members' bands, the reformed New Trolls released Concerto grosso: the seven seasons, a continuation of their classical/rock blending "Concerto grosso" series. For this issue, the band returned to English lyrics, written by Shel Shapiro. The record was produced and released by the band's own label, Aereostella.
Albums
- 1968 - Senza orario senza bandiera
- 1970 - New Trolls (collection of singles)
- 1971 - Concerto grosso per i New Trolls
- 1972 - Searching for a land (double album, studio recording on the first disc, live recording on the second)
- 1972 - Ut
Later that year, New Trolls were disbanded because of artistic divergences between the members.
Vittorio De Scalzi continued with the New Trolls Atomic System, Nico Di Palo formed two different bands, Tritons and Ibis, while Gianni Belleno recorded some singles under the pseudonym Johnny Dei Tritons and continued to play live with a band named Il Cuore Dei New Trolls. The releases of the subsequent years are:
- 1973 - N.T. Atomic System (New Trolls Atomic System)
- 1973 - Satisfaction (Tritons, remake collection of rock classics)
- 1973 - Canti d'innocenza, canti d'esperienza (Nico, Gianni, Frank, Maurizio (pre-Ibis))
- 1974 - Twist and shout with satisfaction (Johnny Dei Tritons, remake collection of rock classics)
- 1974 - Tempi dispari (New Trolls Atomic System)
- 1974 - Sun supreme (Ibis)
- 1975 - Ibis (Ibis)
First reunion. The reformed New Trolls released:
- 1976 - Concerto grosso no. 2
- 1976 - Live
- 1978 - Aldebaran
- 1979 - New Trolls
- 1981 - FS
- 1983 - America O.K.
- 1985 - Tour (live, includes the single Faccia di cane)
- 1988 - Amici
- 1990 - Live con i New Trolls (2 LP, live with Anna OxaAnna OxaAnna Oxa is an Italian singer of Albanian descent, well-known through her numerous appearances in the televised Italian song contest, the Sanremo Music Festival. In 1978, at the age of sixteen, she took second place with the song "Un'emozione da poco" at the Sanremo Festival...
) - 1992 - Quelli come noi (includes the single Quelli come noi and re-arranged old songs)
- 1996 - Il sale dei New Trolls
There was another division. The members continued as two separate bands (La Storia Dei New Trolls and Il Mito New Trolls):
- 2001 - Live (Vittorio de Scalzi - La Storia Dei New Trolls)
- 2001 - Concerto grosso live (Vittorio de Scalzi - La Storia Dei New Trolls)
- 2005 - Live (Vittorio de Scalzi - Il Suonatore Jones: played early tracks of New Trolls in Live DVD)
- 2007 - TR3 (Nico di Palo - Il Mito New Trolls: live DVD, recorded in 2004)
Second reunion. Since then the band has released:
- 2007 - Concerto grosso: the seven seasons
- 2007 - Concerto grosso: the seven seasons (2LP edition)
- 2007 - Concerto grosso trilogy live (1DVD + 2CD - songs from all three "Concerto grosso" albums)
Etc
- 1975 - New Trolls (double compilation album)
- 1977 - Revival (compilation)
- 1987 - New Trolls story (compilation)
- 1987 - New Trolls raccolta (compilation)
- 1989 - Quella carezza della sera (compilation)
- 1994 - Singles A's & B's (compilation of singles)
- 1996 - Concerto Grosso e raccolta (compilation)
- 1997 - Il meglio (studio live, recorded 1993, aka. Una Miniera)
External links
- New Trolls.it
- New Trolls Fan Club Italia
- Fan club ufficiale Torino
- Sito ufficiale di Nico Di Palo
- Sito ufficiale di Vittorio De Scalzi
External links
- New Trolls on Progboard: New Trolls albums reviews and ratings