Rosanna Nicolosi – Bass

This track was recommended by a Talkbass member. I have to admit that, whilst I was a massive fan of what was eventually called Fusion (I think it was still Jaxx-Rock when I was listening to it), I was never really a fan of Billy Cobham. Great player, it was just his records never really did it for me. Accordingly, this recording completely passed me by. The album was ‘Drum and Voice – Vol. 3’ and the track features Brain Auger on organ but also the rhythm section from the Italian band Novecento.

Novecento is an Italian band founded by Pino Nicolosi, Lino Nicolosi, bassist Rossana Nicolosi, and Dora Nicolosi (née Carofiglio) in 1984. Their music has gone through a variety of genres, such as Italo Disco (early work), Synthpop, Soft Rock, Pop, Rock, Jazz and Funk. The band was active in the 1980s and the 1990s and became popular with the debut single, “Movin’ On”, which sold more than 100,000 copies in 1984. The band went on to win the “Revelation of the Year” award during the national television event Azzurro 1984. Novecento disbanded in 1997. They briefly reunited in 2002 and again in 2008, when they scored significant success with the single “Cry”.

The interweb is pretty silent on this player which is a shame as she is clearly a monster. The sixteenth notes groove she holds together on this track is astonishing. It is not a complete transcription as it unravels during the last section. It is difficult to find where thing so wrong as there is a lot of repetition and everything is moving so fast that there is nowhere to pin anything down to reference where you are when you are trying to find a note. There is enough here to give you a chance of having a working chance of playing the tune but most of us will struggle with this groove at this pace. Another one of those players that we should have heard more of.