Tozzi's biography		Masini's Biography

This collection had its beginnings almost twenty years ago, just after the mid-80s: Umberto Tozzi was already one of the top Italian singers – also famed abroad – and Marco Masini was a young keyboard player who accompanied Umberto in the concerts (including the unforgettable 1988 one at the Royal Albert Hall in London, of which there is a live album).
When the “Si può dare di più” project began to take shape (which was the song that won the Festival of Sanremo in 1987), Marco Masini, who was thereafter its arranger, sang the trial version which acted as a guide to Gianni Morandi, Enrico Ruggeri and Umberto Tozzi.

Umberto Tozzi and Marco Masini haven’t just known each other for a long time; their careers also had another important factor in common: Giancarlo Bigazzi.  An importance and a presence acknowledged in their dedication on this collection: “Umberto and Marco thank Giancarlo Bigazzi for his brilliant intuition”.  And we should also like to ask of those that write or speak of this album to not forget this quotation about the merits of Giancarlo Bigazzi: one of the key figures in the history of Italian song-writing, author, producer and man of music whose importance has never been adequately recognised.

But the occasion that led to bringing about this joint project, created under the auspices of Mario Ragni, was of a more recent date: a concert by Umberto Tozzi at the Olympia in Paris on 15 February this year.  Marco Masini, who was in Belgium at that time, heard about the Paris concert of his friend Umberto, and decided to go and pay him a visit.  Umberto asked Marco onto the stage to sing together “Perché lo fai”, one of Masini’s songs that is now considered an “evergreen” in France.  This resulted in such thunderous applause from the audience that the two of them decided to continue by singing “Gente di mare” and “Si può dare di più” even though it was quite unscheduled and there had certainly been no rehearsals.

And so, it was from that episode that the idea of recording an album together emerged: an idea that, along the way, followed an unusual and original route because the two friends and colleagues wanted, due to their deep admiration of each other, to “exchange” their songs.  Thus Umberto chose to sing, from Marco’s repertory, the songs he felt most likeable, and Masini did likewise with Tozzi’s repertory.  To add some interest, neither of the two revealed to the other which songs they had chosen and, considering that the recording was done simultaneously but in different places (Umberto Tozzi worked in Pistoia; Marco Masini in Poppi close to Arezzo), it was only a few weeks ago that either of them were able to listen to the results of the other’s recording.
Umberto Tozzi recorded Marco Masini’s songs “Perché lo fai”, “Ti vorrei”, “Disperato”, “Cenerentola innamorata”, “Ci vorrebbe il mare” and “L’uomo volante”; Marco Masini recorded Umberto Tozzi songs “Tu”, “Gli altri siamo noi”, “Ti amo”, “Gloria”, “Io camminerò” and “Qualcosa qualcuno”.
“This absolute freedom, with no influencing from the other, really worked” said Umberto. And Marco confirmed: “As soon as either of us heard the work of the other, we complimented each other”.  To complete the list of re-interpretations included in this album, the two recorded together “T’innamorerai”: and it’s worth remembering that, out of these 13 songs, 12 include the name of Giancarlo Bigazzi among the names of the writers.
These are all exceptionally well known songs: so there’s no need to talk about them one by one, but we shall just emphasise how, while respecting the nature and the structure of the original versions, these “cross-fed” interpretations do not completely alter the songs as we have known them up to now, but merely suggest a different perspective but equally exciting way of listening to them.
Lastly, the CD contains three totally new songs: “Come si fa...?”, the opening song on the CD, a real surprise for its musical atmosphere, the rhythmic pace and arrangement (arranged, like that of the other two new songs, by Tozzi, Masini and Mario Manzani), “Anima italiana” and “Arrivederci per lei”.  These three pieces – all signed by Tozzi and Masini except for the first one which also bears the signature of Manzani – have a difficult task: that of bearing comparison with the major songs that follow them, songs that have become classics.  But they stand up very well: also because the contrast between the voices of the two singers is exceptionally harmonious, and their interweaving, overlapping and confrontation is so effective that it would be wished that this project, begun almost by chance, would lead to something more than just one album and result in future shared activities.

But it’s early to write about this yet...

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