Chetro & Co. and The Parade records

At  the beginning of the eighties there was  a great flourishing of small record companies in Italy, whose policy was often that of meeting the demands of the public that the majors could not reach.

In Rome were born different labels that often revolved around the RCA  and which exploited the same recording studios and distribution channels. Among others  we find  Help,  Apollo,  Picci,  Delta, Mimo,  Spaghetti, It and Parade.

Now I wish to spend  few  more words on this latter,  Parade. The quality of the small but valuable  label's repertoire is definitely due to  Vincenzo Micocci, art director of the Italian RCA who, left Rome to cover the same role at the Ricordi Records in Milan;  during the  spring of 1966 he returned  to work on a new recording project. The idea of Micocci was on the one hand to continue the research for new talents, on the other to propose to the blooming Italian cinema industry and ever-growing public, their most interesting  soundtracks as well.

So he founded Parade along with Ennio Morricone, Nico Fidenco and lyricist Carlo Rossi. And Micocci, who was constantly in search for young talents,  did not betray  expectations: one of the first 45 rpm was to be released by  a young Neapolitan singer and composer, Edoardo Bennato. The activity continued in the subsequent years, and among other  artists discovered and proposed to the public Alunni del Sole, Calipop and Chetro & Co. of  Ettore De Carolis, one of the few Italian psychedelic bands.

Ettore De Carolis - Marsia Solinas - Gianfranco Coletta

This Roman group composed by Ettore “Chetro” De Carolis (guitar) and Gianfranco Coletta (voice and guitar) followed by Gianni Ripani (bass guitar) and  Gegè Munari (drums). The group released for Parade a single: Danze della  sera (psychedelic suite) b/w Le pietre numerate, with a wholesome sleeve which could be opened in four parts.  While Le Stelle had in Mario Schifano their most important supporter, Chetro & Co. were assisted by Pier Paolo Pasolini, whose verses picked from a poem called Notturno  from the book L’usignolo della Chiesa Cattolica, were used as lyrics on  Danze della Sera.

Both tracks propose peculiar sonorities thanks to the aid of arch and wind instruments, which together give a unique hypnotic style, perhaps more onirical than psychedelic and of clear oriental influence. There is  careful care in each  aspect : worthy to notice that on Danze della Sera, De Carolis used “la violaccia”  an instrument created by him which had 6 to 10 drone strings and which resembles a hurdy-gurdy (a medieval instrument).

On flip you’ll find Le pietre numerate, an acid beat march which brushes sounds as if they were colors on canvas.  The song has the musical equivalence on sleeve, of clear Beatles’ influence, proposes on a sort of a psych trip:  Dylan together with Allen Ginsberg, Fellini, Totò and Pasolini who plays football, Mandrake and other heroes of comic strips.

Through a careful  listening, however, one can trace back the genesis of the track, which is a tribute to Milestones of Miles Davis (1958, the theme and harmony of the name-like track are traced with a happy hand by the Roman group. Emblematic is the presence of a photo of Miles Davis with trustworthy John Coltrane on the aforementioned collage. On the Milestones album both of them started to explore modal jazz which had an enormous impact on the 60s’ psychedelic sounds, just think about Byrds’ Eight Miles High.

Unfortunately the record did not have the recognition it deserved, too avant-guard for the time and evidently daring on lyrics.  It was censored by RAI Tv : “Danze della sera” was cancelled from the highly popular radio program “Bandiera Gialla” for the lyric “Ormai sono quasi nudo per venire a te” (I am almost naked ready to come to you).

A critical reviewer wrote these words: “With the complicity of Pier Paolo Pasolini, Chetro & Co. have made ​​an awful mess in their attempt to create a self-styled intellectual-psychedelic track. It is boring, anti-commercial and of little effect. Danze della sera  contains a lyric by Pasolini that would be  quite meaningful and deep, if not  put down into music ".  This was the  welcome resulting from backwardness and unpreparedness  of  critical reviewers of the time. 

The adventure of Chetro & Co. begun and ended with this 7-inch. Gianfranco Coletta then became part of the first formation of the Banco del Mutuo Soccorso. De Carolis devoted himself to a more straightforward folk and also arranging some of Francesco Guccini and Claudio Lolli’s records and composed radio and television themes.

In the suffocating Italian rock scene of the time a gem like this 45 has become over time a much sought after record by lovers of Italian progressive and psychedelic music.  True masterpieces such as the above were  Le Stelle of Mario Schifano, Senza orario senza bandiera of New Trolls or the first psychedelic lp  of Le Orme titled Ad Gloriam.

Gianfranco Coletta nel 1967