I started listening to Soul, or rather Rhythm & Blues as I liked to call it, listening to Bandiera Gialla the legendary transmission by Arbore and Boncompagni. It was the golden age of that music, the mid-60s. I was little more than a boy, there was the English beat, and there were the Italian ensembles that mocked the bands that were in fashion. Of the latter, without knowing it, I liked songs that, I discovered later, were covers of songs that would become soul classics. Soon then I started listening only to soul music. Those melodies, that rhythm, those horns and above all those voices. Expressive but above all warm and intriguing. Then when I heard Otis sing I’ve Been Loving You Too Long I realized that rhythm & blues was my music. In a couple of years between 1966 and 1967 all over Europe there was a real explosion of soul music, but musical fashions change quickly, and already around 1970 one of the few places where you could hear this music was in my mind.
The passion for soul and black music not only did not leave me but became a constant in my life. Then the long chats with the music critic Gianni Del Savio and later with Ernesto De Pascale that gave me the certainty of not being the only one to dream of promoting soul music in Italy. At first I began to publish a sort of newsletter, the title of which could only be Soul News, then came the collaborations with some prestigious music magazines, thanks to my work at Seat-Pagine Gialle which gave me the opportunity to get in touch with publishers. of which Seat was the advertising concessionaire.
In 1986 I went to Zurich to attend a Solomon Burke concert, I was trying to find a ticket when, walking around the Congress Palace, I found myself in front of him, a sort of black wardrobe almost two meters high with an imposing physique. I presented myself as the one who had founded the Solomon Burke Italian fan club, which was completely non-existent. However, this dance made a great impression on Solomon who proved enthusiastic and very kind to the point of satisfying all the typical requests of the fans, including photos. I promised him in a fit of madness that I would be able to make him play in Italy and the incredible thing that the dream, the utopia, came true. Back home I really founded, together with Del Savio, an association, Sweet Soul Music, which had the presumption to clarify soul music and promote it in Italy.
The final acceleration of the project will be given to me by another lucky coincidence. I was able to talk to Zucchero. In those years (1986/87) Sugar was not yet the world star it has become today and I convinced him to bring with him, for the realization of his new album Blue’s, none other than the Memphis Horns, the legendary horn duo formed by saxophonist Andrew Love and trumpeter Wayne Jackson. It was an overwhelming success. The next blow I did, then, was with one of my myths: Renzo Arbore. I managed to convince him, through the good offices of Ernesto De Pascale, to inaugurate the first season of D.O.C. on Rai 2 with Solomon Burke. Arbore wanted Wilson Pickett but luckily for me and especially for Solomon’s, Pickett was on probation for carrying a loaded rifle in his car. Not having credentials with RAI, I was lucky enough to turn to a former member of the Italian national ski team, Andrea Cova, who had found a way to spend some of the assets of the family, owner of the historic Hotel Falken in Wengen. Cova had enthusiastically joined my association Sweet Soul Music and, under pressure to organize something for Solomon, had even taken me to the legendary Leo Watcher, the impresario who had organized the Beatles’ tour in Italy in 65. Thus it was that Solomon arrived in Porretta on 7 November 1987.
Two overwhelming sets in the lounge of the Hotel Castanea for a total of three hours of music. The concert was supposed to be a tribute that Solomon and Cova paid to our association for allowing him to perform for Italian TV but given the success that had been there, Cova, a bit tipsy, had demanded a compensation of one and a half million lire that we hardly collected. The success was sensational and the interest in the Sweet Soul Music association increased.
On December 10, 1987, I was in Macon, Georgia at the twentieth anniversary celebrations of Otis Redding’s death. Invited to the legendary Big O Ranch together with distinguished guests, I could only promise, without too much conviction, the widow Zelma, a festival in honor of Otis. During my stay in Macon and then in Memphis I had met Rufus Thomas. Rufus was the dean of a generation of musicians and for the last week of D.O.C. in 1988 I proposed Rufus Thomas and the Memphis Horns to Arbore.
In June 1988, thanks to air travels paid for by RAI, I was able to create the first edition of the Porretta Soul Festival. The great moment of that first edition was represented by what will become a regular guest: the sprightly 71-year-old Rufus Thomas with the Memphis Horns. It was Rufus’ first time in Italy, who will become the true icon of the Festival and the park where Porretta Soul is staged every year will be dedicated to him. Zucchero himself will then be a guest in various editions.
Then in 1989 by dint of tormenting the producer Michele Torpedine and Zucchero himself, we went to Memphis to record Oro, Incenso e Birra. The album sold another million and a half copies with excellent collaborations. The second edition of the festival saw the presence of Geno Washington & The Ram Jam Band and among the Italian bands District 51 & The Capric Horns from Varese with Bobo Maroni at the Hammond organ who then, a few years later, would become Minister of the Interior of the Italian Republic. In 90 Solomon Burke returned to Porretta in excellent company: Sam Moore of the legendary duo Sam & Dave, Carla Thomas, Billy Preston and a host of legendary musicians where guitarist Michael Toles, already with the Bar-Kays, excelled.
In over thirty years, the elite of soul performed on the stage of my house. From Wilson Pickett to Isaac Hayes, from Booker T. & The MGs to Millie Jackson to go from excellences such as James Carr, Eddie Hinton, Dan Penn or LaVern Baker. Top soul authorities such as Peter Guralnick, Rob Bowman, David Nathan or Tony Rounce will come to see for themselves what happened to Porretta. For fans from all over Europe, a fairy tale.
I forgot, in Porretta there is also a street dedicated to Otis Redding, in addition to the Rufus Thomas park, the Solomon Burke bridge and the Sam Cooke alley.
Peace, Love & Soul.
Graziano Uliani – Artistic Director of Porretta Soul Festival
