Fitness Forever are the Champions League of Italian music
“The Champions League of Italian music”: this is how Calcutta defined Fitness Forever. It’s not an exaggeration, if you think about it.
In recent years the members of the Neapolitan super group have had their hands in the dough almost everywhere, playing on the records and on the stages of artists such as Elisa, Alan Sorrenti, Colapesce and Dimartino, Tropico, Nu Genea and Calcutta itself, coming to everyone the effects recognized as some of the most talented and competent Italian musicians. When Fitness Forever began working on their new album four years ago, the first since “Tonight” in 2017, the singer-songwriter from Latina, an indie superhero who has become the new Italian pop, was among the first to respond “present” to their appeal, contributing to the single “A vele explanation”. And along with Calcutta there is also Alan Sorrenti: the arrangement of the song ranges between jazz-funk in Carioca sauce and influences of the great soundtrack composers (Ennio Morricone and Piero Umiliani have always represented two beacons for the superband).
And the surprises don’t end there: “A vele explainate” will be followed by a single created together with the icon Peppino Di Capri. The album will inevitably be a tribute to Neapolitan music, with which Fitness Forever will underline their influence on the contemporary scene, as forerunners of that gigantic wave of Neapolitan Funk that has monopolized playlists and dancefloors in recent years.
It was 2007 when the group composed of Carlos Valderrama (real name Gaetano Scongnamiglio), Luigi Scialdone (bass), Nicoletta Battelli (vocals), Francesca Diletta Iavarone (flute), Roberto Porzio (keyboards), Massimo Imperatore (guitars) and Andrea De Fazio (drums and percussion) made his debut with “Personal train”, an unusual mix between the indie pop of Belle and Sebastian, the Italian masters of soundtracks and the sixties sound of the Beach Boys, Byrds and Love.
But it was with the subsequent “Cosmos” of 2013 that Fitness Forever began to develop their sound, elegant and full of groove, mixing a jazz and funk attitude and an obsession for harmonies and refined arrangements, expanding their sound universe by incorporating the sounds of artists such as Marcos Valle, Serge Gainsbourg, Lucio Battisti and Steely Dan, up to the ghostly and visionary funk of Enzo Carella.
In recent years the band has gained an increasingly larger following of enthusiasts, through live performances and collaborations. The new album, which will arrive on November 8th on the Madrid label Elefant Records, will certify its cult status.