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Title: Lost Tapes Vol. 8 Gianni Quin Jolly
Group: Gianni e i Quin Jolly
Anni: 1954/1955 © 2021
Graphic: 3Heads Agency
English translator: Rosangela Iovino
Discover, digitalization, sound track selection, editing: Livio Minafra
Mastering and restoration sound engineer: Gianluca Caterina, Fonoprint
Casa discografica: Angapp Music – It
Prodotto e finanziato da: Livio Minafra
Gianni Galavotti, aka Gianni Quin Jolly, singer, drummer and arranger, was born in Vigarano Mainarda (Ferrara) on September 28, 1927. He began his career with the Ugo Orsatti orchestra playing drums in historic places in the Ferrara area such as Porta D’Oro. Before long he formed his own group with Este musicians which he called “Gianni and the Quin Jolly”.
In the 1950s he moved to Milan performing in the best night clubs including Gatto Verde, El Caprice, to name a few, alongside artists such as Peppino di Capri, Bruno Quirinetta, Fred Buscaglione, Peter van Wood, Bruno Martino and Fred Bongusto. Meanwhile, together with his group, he signed very important contracts with record making Parlophon, Decca and Smeraldo Records, which will give him celebrity as far as the USA.
His initial sextet featured some musicians from the Orsatti Orchestra, like clarinetist / saxophonist Athos Poletti. Other musicians of Quin Jolly’s early line-up were accordionist Ivo Vezzani, pianist Evasio Roncarati, violinist Gaetano Edmo Bonetti, double bass player Franco Moretti and in some circumstances the singer Elio Bigliotto.
Later on, starting from ’56, other musicians took over: Joe Cusumano (guitar), Geppe Benetti “Geppe D’Este” (piano), Filippo Pellicani (tenor sax and clarinet), Fortunato Parise (trumpet), Enzo Sgarra (trumpet), Giuliano Natali (tenor sax), etc.
The recordings of vol. 8 of the Lost Tapes series (Angapp Records), contain music compositions together with the musicians of the first hour of 1954 and 1955, namely Vezzani, Poletti, Roncarati, Moretti and Bonetti.
Among the successes of those years, recorded on 78 and 45 rpm, are mentioned Mambo Alfabetico, Venus, Baffi, Piccola Italy, Songo Americano, Pernabuco, etc. Besides playing all over Italy, Gianni toured Spain, Egypt and Portugal, too, even collaborating with jazz musicians of the time such as Gianni Basso and Oscar Valdambrini.
In the 1970s, together with the manager Morselli, he reassembled the Achille Togliani Orchestra, touring Italy far and wide for 15 years. The 1980s saw him as a producer of orchestras for Tony Dallara, Nilla Pizzi and Emilio Pericoli. With the complicity of the guitarist Giuliano Natali and a lover of Brazilian and Latin American music, in the 90s he revived the Italian group famous in the 60s for the Mexican repertoire, Los Marcellos Ferial. The last few years see him alongside his son Marco, he, too, a talented drummer, in unforgettable evenings of dance music.
Gianni Quin Jolly died on August 26, 2003 at the Sant’Orsola-Malpighi hospital in Bologna.
Gianni e i Quin Jolly
Gianni Galavotti “Quin Jolly”: voice, drums, percussion
Athos Poletti: contralto sax and clarinet
Gaetano Edmo Bonetti: violin
Franco Moretti: doubel bass
Ivo Vezzani: accordion
Evasio Roncarati: piano
spercial guest: Elio Bigliotto voice