Duello Madre -

Duello Madre was an Italian jazz-rock band that released a self-titled album in 1973 on Produttori Associati.

Members: Marco Zoccheddu (guitar, vocals), Pippo Trentin (saxophone, flute), Bob Callero (bass), Franco Lo Previte (drums, percussion)

Background

Duello Madre (Italian for “duel mother”) formed in Genoa in early 1973 when guitarist/singer Marco Zoccheddu and bassist Bob Callero teamed with drummer Franco Lo Previte and reedist Pippo Trentin.

Zoccheddu and Callero hailed from Osage Tribe, which cut the 1972 album Arrow Head on Bla Bla Records. Marco also had unrecorded stints in Nuova Idea and the Garybaldi precursor Gleemen. Lo Previte played beforehand on An Escape From a Box (Fuga Dall’Involucro), the 1972 second album by Circus 2000. Trentin came from Le Impressioni, which cut two singles on It Records.

Duello Madre (album)

Duello Madre released their singular album in October 1973 on Produttori Associati. Zoccheddu and Trentin co-wrote three tracks: “Aquile Blu,” “Otto,” and “Duello,” the last two feature guest percussionist Mario Lamberti.

Duello Madre also contains one solo composition apiece by Zoccheddu (“Momento”) and Trentin (“Madre”), both with keyboards by the album’s producer, Gian Piero Reverberi.

A1. “Aquile Blu” (6:59) opens with spacey, frosty synth layers (in D), followed by a quiet passage of guitar and voice. Callero takes over with a 10/8 bass ostinato (3+3 in C), interjected with flowing sax and gruff, choppy guitar.
A2. “Momento” (5:30) starts as a jazz jam in common time with a brisk 3/8 bassline, which soon clears for a quiet passage of acoustic guitar and flute. The jazz section resumes with sax and wailing guitar leads.
A3. “Otto” (6:00) is a mono-key jam (in G) with a drum-rolled bass figure; layered with coy, remote sax lines and (later) faint, pinched wah-wah leads.

B1. “Madre” (10:30) has a ramshackle sax/drum intro, which clears for balladic sax lines, colored with soft Fender Rhodes piano. Midway, an ominous bassline materializes (in F#) with faint, glowing Fender. Trentin dominates with a mid-paced sax riff, then improvises (in A♭) as the tempo accelerates for the penultimate passage (in Cm), where Marco shreds with fast yet lyrical guitar runs. The track ends with wordless female vocals and muted bass.
B2. “Duello” (7:59) starts with a brisk, arching bass ostinato in 12/8 (6+6 in G); soon joined with faint, billowing sax and buzzing guitar drones. All three are gradually drum-swept in volume and intensity. Midway, Marco asserts with a searing Crimsonoid riff, mirrored by bass and sax. They spiral upward to the speedy third passage: a fuzzy fretboard cadenza with running bass.

Sessions occurred at Fonorama Studios in Milan, where Reverberi produced Duello Madre in sequence with Felona e Sorona, the 1973 fourth album by Le Orme.

Duello Madre appeared in a gatefold sleeve with inner-gate photography by Gianni Nunnari and graphic illustrations by Rutger Van Der Velde, whose imagery depicts a silhouette beside a giant stone foot inside a narrow blue cell. Velde also rendered the foot color-painted and bird-infested (inner) and crumbled at the base of a giant hand (back).

After Duello Madre

Callero (credited as Olov) joined Il Volo, which cut two albums in 1974/75 on Numero Uno.

Lo Previte played on the 1975 Arista release Blink, the first of four albums by jazz-rockers Nova, who subsequently hired American drummer Narada Michael Walden.

Duello Madre first reappeared on CD in 1993 on Mellow Records. In 2020, archivists Vinyl Magic pressed the title on red vinyl.

Discography: