Vittorio De Scalzi, founder of the New Trolls, died at the age of 72

The musician Vittorio De Scalzi, singer, multi-instrumentalist and composer known for having founded the progressive rock band New Trolls, active between 1967 and 1997, died at the age of 72. De Scalzi had suffered from pulmonary fibrosis a month after recovering from Covid. The last performance of him dates back to last July 15 in Sanremo with the Sanremese Symphony Orchestra conducted by Roberto Izzo. The announcement of the disappearance was published today on the artist’s Facebook page: “Vittorio De Scalzi has left us, has joined his Aldebaran. Thank you all for the love you have shown him in all these years. that caress of the evening is overflowing … ‘he will listen to you “. The post is signed by his wife Mara and sons Alberto, rapper, and Armanda (the third daughter, Alice, died in 2005 at the age of thirty due to a cerebral thrombosis). Tomorrow, Monday 25 July, at 6 pm, at the headquarters of the Club Tenco – Premio Tenco in Piazza Cesare Battisti in Sanremo, the funeral will take place in a secular form. “All those who want to say goodbye will be able to do so until 11 pm”, the family said. Born in Genoa on November 4, 1949, De Scalzi approaches music at a very young age thanks to the teachings of his mother pianist. In the mid-60s he founded I Trolls with Pino Scarpettini, with whom he recorded the single ‘Behind the fog’. In 1966 he made his debut as a soloist with the pseudonym Napoleone in a record, made for the record label Arc entitled ‘Forbidden to those older than a few years’. In 1967, after the brief experience of The Trolls, he constitutes the New Trolls, laying the foundations for a successful career, characterized from the beginning by the intention of concentrating on an original repertoire. With De Scalzi (vocals and guitar), the ensemble includes Nico Di Palo (guitar), Gianni Belleno (drums), Giorgio D’Adamo (bass) and Mauro Chiarugi (keyboard). In the same year the band opens the concerts of the Italian tour of The Rolling Stones and plays in jam sessions with musicians such as Stevie Wonder. Within the De Scalzi group he is the author of many songs, including the hits’ Visioni ‘,’ Una mine ‘and’ That evening caress’. At the same time, the musician engaged in research work on traditional Genoese music, writing songs in dialect. With the collaboration of Fabrizio De André and the poet Riccardo Mannerini, he composes the songs of the first album of the New Trolls, the concept ‘Senza tempo senza Bandiera’, of which Mannerini is the author of the lyrics and the musician, arranger and producer. the New Trolls took part in seven editions of the Sanremo Festival: in the 1996 edition they performed in tandem with Umberto Bindi interpreting the song ‘Letti’, written by Bindi himself with Renato Zero. Parallel to his activity with the New Trolls, De Scalzi has been active as an author for other performers, including Mina, Ornella Vanoni and Anna Oxa. Another important trend is represented by the Player Jones, a tour mostly focused on his collaborations with De André; the relative lineup contains the revival of the album “Senza tempo senza Bandiera” plus other songs by New Trolls and some by De André, who in his first tour (1975-1976) had been supported by a band made up of other members of the New Trolls (Ricky Belloni, Gianni Belleno, Giorgio D’Adamo and Giorgio Usai). In 1973 De Scalzi participated in the collective album “L’Arca”: the two songs he sang were then published in the single “Le api” in the name of Vittorio by New Trolls & The Plagues. In 1991, the year of the Sampdoria championship, together with his brother Aldo, he released the album “Sampdoria – Il grande cuore della Sud”, consisting of ten songs. In 2001, supported by the Turin Philharmonic Orchestra directed by Maurizio Salvi, he made the live album “Concerto grosso Live”, consisting of repertoire pieces from the New Trolls, it was distributed as an attachment to the newspaper La Stampa. In 2008 De Scalzi released his first solo studio album, “Mandilli”, released by Aerostella and made entirely in Genoese dialect. Three years later it was the turn of the second album “The eyes of the world”, made by setting to music, with the collaboration of Marco Ongaro, some poems by Riccardo Mannerini. De Scalzi is also a founding member and member of the Slow Feet Band with which he released the album “Elephant Memory”. In 2018 he released the album “Due di noi” with Di Palo. In 2021 he released a box set celebrating his career entitled “Once upon a time I played in the New Trolls”, containing “The story of the New Trolls” and “Concerto Grosso” , the DVD “The player Jones – Live” and an autobiography edited by Massimo Cotto.