Milano Calibro 9

The Osanna story begins in Naples with the band Città Frontale. The original lineup consisted of vocalist Lino Vairetti, drummer Massimo Guarino, bassist Lello Brandi and guitarist Danilo Rustici. When keyboardist Gianni Leone left for Il Balletto di Bronzo in 1971, they added Elio D'Anna on sax and flute, and changed their name to Osanna. The band earned quite a reputation as a live act, as they were one of the first to wear costumes on stage and integrate theatre into their performance. In addition to playing the major Italian festivals, they opened for Genesis on their earliest tour of Italy. Their first album, L'Uomo, was released in 1971 on Fonit Cetra. It was a curious mix of hard rock with progressive overtones, and evoked the earliest of Jethro Tull's works. In 1972, Osanna teamed up with Luis Enríquez Bacalov to produce Preludio Tema Variazioni e Canzona, aka Milano Calibro 9: a soundtrack for the film noir by Fernando Di Leo. Bacalov of course, was hot on the heels of Concerto Grosso per i New Trolls. "Preludio" sets the stage: The contrast of flute and synthesizer yield to the sharp string arrangements, and when the band kicks in, the music shifts into high gear. Throughout each of the seven "Variatione," the band is potent and eclectic. The album ignores the British idiom of adding orchestral arrangements as a mere accoutrement; it's a true fusion of rock and classical music. In a valiant attempt to bring "Eurobands" to the US, the album was the first to be released on the Peters International Cosmos Label in May 1974.