The Porretta Soul Festival is a soul music

Soul music

Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...

 festival that usually takes place in the third week of July in Rufus Thomas Park in Porretta Terme

Porretta Terme

Porretta Terme is a town and comune in the province of Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. It is historically a spa town, but it is now also a centre for winter sports....

, which in the province of Bologna

Bologna

Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...

.

History

The festival was started on December 10, 1987 by Graziano Uliani, a passionate soul music fan, who, after attending the events in Macon, Georgia

Macon, Georgia

Macon is a city located in central Georgia, US. Founded at the fall line of the Ocmulgee River, it is part of the Macon metropolitan area, and the county seat of Bibb County. A small portion of the city extends into Jones County. Macon is the biggest city in central Georgia...

 commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the death of Otis Redding

Otis Redding

Otis Ray Redding, Jr. was an American soul singer-songwriter, record producer, arranger and talent scout. He is considered one of the major figures in soul and R&B...

, decided to dedicate a festival in his honour.

Thanks to some fortunate encounters, Uliana has been able to bring to Porretta most of the major soul band in the world.
Porretta now has a street dedicated to Otis Redding

Otis Redding

Otis Ray Redding, Jr. was an American soul singer-songwriter, record producer, arranger and talent scout. He is considered one of the major figures in soul and R&B...

 and the park where the Porretta Soul Festival is held is named Rufus Thomas

Rufus Thomas

Rufus Thomas, Jr. was an American rhythm and blues, funk and soul singer and comedian fromMemphis, Tennessee, who recorded on Sun Records in the...

. After more than 20 years, the Porretta Soul Festival is now part of the geography of soul music and is considered the European showcase of the Memphis Sound. The festival is associated with the Stax Museum of American Soul Music in Memphis and the Center For Southern Folklore in Memphis.

Acts that have played the festival

Rufus

Rufus Thomas

Rufus Thomas, Jr. was an American rhythm and blues, funk and soul singer and comedian fromMemphis, Tennessee, who recorded on Sun Records in the...

 & Carla Thomas

Carla Thomas

Carla Thomas is an American singer, who is often referred to as the Queen of Memphis Soul. She is the daughter of Rufus Thomas.-Childhood:...

, Solomon Burke

Solomon Burke

Solomon Burke was an American singer-songwriter, entrepreneur, mortician, and an archbishop of the United House of Prayer For All People. Burke was known as "King Solomon", the "King of Rock 'n' Soul", and as the "Bishop of Soul", and described as "the Muhammad Ali of soul", and as "the most...

, Howard Tate

Howard Tate

Howard Tate is an American soul music singer and songwriter.-Early life:He moved with his family to Philadelphia in the early 1940s. In his teens, he joined a gospel music group that included Garnet Mimms and, as the Gainors, recorded rhythm and blues sides for Mercury Records and Cameo Records in...

, Isaac Hayes

Isaac Hayes

Isaac Lee Hayes, Jr. was an American songwriter, musician, singer and actor. Hayes was one of the creative influences behind the southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served both as an in-house songwriter and as a record producer, teaming with his partner David Porter during the...

, Wilson Pickett

Wilson Pickett

Wilson Pickett was an American R&B/Soul singer and songwriter.A major figure in the development of American soul music, Pickett recorded over 50 songs which made the US R&B charts, and frequently crossed over to the US Billboard Hot 100...

, Percy Sledge

Percy Sledge

Percy Sledge is an American R&B and soul performer who recorded the hit "When a Man Loves a Woman" in 1966.-Early career:...

, Sam Moore

Sam Moore

Samuel David Moore is an American Southern Soul and Rhythm & Blues singer who was the tenor vocalist for the soul vocal duo Sam & Dave from 1961 through 1981...

, Irma Thomas

Irma Thomas

Irma Thomas is an American Grammy Award-winning soul and rhythm and blues singer from New Orleans. She is known as the "Soul Queen of New Orleans"....

, The Memphis Horns

The Memphis Horns

The Memphis Horns are an American horn section made famous by their many appearances on Stax Records. They have been called "arguably the greatest soul horn section ever." Originally a sextet, the Memphis Horns gradually slimmed down to a duo, Wayne Jackson on trumpet and Andrew Love on tenor...

, LaVern Baker

LaVern Baker

LaVern Baker was an American rhythm and blues singer, who had several hit records on the pop chart in the 1950s and early 1960s. Her most successful records were "Tweedlee Dee" , "Jim Dandy" , and "I Cried a Tear" .-Early life:She was born Delores LaVern Baker in Chicago, Illinois...

, Millie Jackson

Millie Jackson

Mildred "Millie" Jackson is an American R&B/soul singer-songwriter and comedienne. Three of her albums have been certified gold by the RIAA for over 500,000 copies....

, Otis Clay

Otis Clay

Otis Clay is an American R&B and soul singer, who started in gospel music.-Life and career:...

, Ann Peebles

Ann Peebles

Ann Peebles is an African American singer-songwriter who gained celebrity for her Memphis soul albums of the 1970s on the Hi Records label...

, Mavis Staples

Mavis Staples

Mavis Staples is an American rhythm and blues and gospel singer, actress and civil rights activist who recorded with The Staple Singers, her family's band.-Biography:...

, Booker T. & the M.G.s, The Neville Brothers

The Neville Brothers

The Neville Brothers, an American R&B and soul group, was formed in 1977 in New Orleans, Louisiana.-History:The group notion started in 1976, when the four brothers of the Neville family, Art , Charles , Aaron , and Cyril The Neville Brothers, an American R&B and soul group, was formed in 1977 in...

, Chaka Khan

Chaka Khan

Chaka Khan , frequently known as the Queen of Funk, is a 10-time Grammy Award winning American singer-songwriter who gained fame in the 1970s as the frontwoman and focal point of the funk band Rufus. While still a member of the group in 1978, Khan embarked on a successful solo career...

, Sugar Pie DeSanto

Sugar Pie DeSanto

Sugar Pie DeSanto is an American rhythm and blues singer of the 1950s and 1960s.-Early life:...

, Joe Simon

Joe Simon

Joseph Henry "Joe" Simon is an American comic book writer, artist, editor, and publisher. Simon created or co-created many important characters in the 1930s-1940s Golden Age of Comic Books and served as the first editor of Timely Comics, the company that would evolve into Marvel Comics.With his...

, Mable John

Mable John

Mable John is an American blues vocalist and was the first female signed by Berry Gordy to Motown's Tamla label.- Biography :...

, Bar-Kays

Bar-Kays

The Bar-Kays are a popular soul, R&B, and funk group who began performing in 1966 and continue to perform today, although with only one original member. The group had dozens of charting singles from the 1960s to the 1980s, including "Soul Finger" The Bar-Kays are a popular soul, R&B, and funk group...

, Harvey Scales

Harvey Scales

Harvey Scales is an American R&B singer, songwriter, and producer. Scales has been active in the music industry since the 1960s, and has composed songs for groups with a long standing history in the industry as well such as The Dells, The Dramatics, and The O'Jays...

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