The Very Agevole Orchestra: the manifesto of smooth music is here
“Smooth music historically, in our country and beyond, has been bigger than Bob Sinclar and trapbut with the 90s it slowly lost ground, we wanted to celebrate its golden years”, he says Enrico Gabriellimember of L'Orchestrina di Molto Agevole, Italian musician of the highest level and former member of Calibro 35. The formation carried out the project “We like smooth!”, an act of love like few seen in today's panorama: a disc of unreleased songs conceived as traditional songs far from the pop charms of recent interpretations.
“It is a tribute to a popular custom that must be defended and preserved from the erosion of time. The most particular aspect? It's the fact that it comes out in 2024”, smiles Gabrielli, flanked by Francesca Biliotti, Alessandro Grazian, Francesco Paolo D'Elia, Guido Baldoni, Francesca Baccolini and Davide “Dave” Radice. All musicians who, moved by burning passion for ballroom dancing, compose an investigation between dances and anthropology. A group of artists from all over Italy with experiences ranging from rock to alternative, from indie to pop, from classical music to experimental music. Artists active in projects such as Calibro 35, Afterhours, Torso Virile Colossale, 19'40'', The Winstons, Hobocombo and much more. “We are an interregional group and this is also a curious aspect – underlines Gabrielli – we make a 'moving ballroom', we are not tied to just one territory as has often happened in the history of ballroom dancing. The album was born in Romagna, the birthplace of the genre, but there are no regional or musical barriers to limit the resonance of the little orchestra. Each piece is a different dance belonging to the panorama of ballroom dancing, from waltz to polka, from foxtrot to tango. Each title is named after our children and is accompanied by its reference danceso as to pass on a musical legacy as if from parents to children, with the aim of offering elements from the past to intercede with the uncertainty of the present.”
The whole thing is an operation faithful to history because for the Very Agevole Orchestra “the game is beautiful when it is serious” and does not follow trends. The project boasts the blessing of Casadei Sonora Edizioni, a label connected to Secondo Casadei, one of the greatest exponents of the history of smooth dancing in Italy, protector of the most classic and pure forms of the genre. After his farewell in 1971, the genre projected itself forward in search of new reinterpretations to engage a changing audience. The Very Agevole Orchestra does not want to reverse course, but to start again from where smooth music stopped, that is, from its most authentic forms, free of Latin rhythms or electronic contributions. “There is nothing bizarre or experimental in what we do – underlines Gabrielli – ours is a respectful homage that does not follow trends, we make smooth and dance music just as it was done in the past. The dance to which we are referring ends in 1971 with the death of Secondo Casadei, Raul's imagination is made up more of showbiz, singers with bare thighs and entertainmentwe are interested in the original, Secondo's smooth, which he raised the popular nobility allowing half-illiterate farmers to feel part, through music, of something high and important, technically elevated”.
“We like it smooth!” is the first album of unreleased songs by the Orchestrina, which in 2014 had already published a collection of performances of ballroom classics entitled “Agevolissima! vol. 1” for La Tempesta Dischi. The Very Agevole Orchestra is officially born in 2012 on the occasion of a wedding. The original source of inspiration was listening to some classics by maestro Secondo Casadei recorded by the legendary orchestra “La Storia di Romagna”. The members that compose it are friends who have ventured into this language only and exclusively out of passion, with no other purpose than the desire for discovery. “It is music that has a smell – concludes Gabrielli – smell of food, of summer, of life. It is a synaesthetic music that also has to do with other worlds, has almost Balkan and mariachi references. For us it is music that has something magical capable of going beyond time.”