Italian music, the one we grew up with, must note another sad and dramatic mourning. After the sudden and recent death of former Marlene Kuntz drummer Luca Bergia, we are forced to mourn Rudy Ruzza, bassist of Statuto. With Rudy I worked on some records of the band. Sunny, jovial, sarcastic person, top-level bassist, sort of our own John Entwistle for his impassive presence on stage, in composing a precise and infallible rhythm with the drummer Giovanni Naska, to accompany the words of Oscar Giammarinaro and the guitar of Alex Loggia (who alternated in the group with numerous other instrumentalists).
Rudy’s disappearance takes place just before the release of a celebratory album by the band from Turin, for the fortieth anniversary of their career. Nice story collects the recording of a recent concert in their hometown, in which the band traces their four decades of career, with the addition of some unreleased studio works for the occasion, which confirm their freshness and vitality. A (beautiful) story that was born with an indissoluble link with the mod culture, in 1983 at its dawn in Italy, and which was often expressed in the squares, which in every city became a meeting point for subcultures, eager to also aesthetically affirm the own identity, existence, presence on the territory. There was no internet, chat, cell phones, often some of the boys and girls didn’t even have a phone at home. The street dimension was necessary to organize, count, manage activities, meetings, travel to other cities.
IN THE SQUARE
The Turin mods found their “homeland” in Piazza Statuto. And just in homage to their mod identity, the band decided to call themselves Statuto. The square is still a meeting place for the whole local mod scene (still numerous and active) but also for all those who happen to come to Turin and know well that every Saturday in the late afternoon, there, they will find someone from the circle, so for more than Fourty years. The same kind of dedication, stubbornness and conviction that has always characterized Statuto’s career. Passed through ups and downs, problems and resurrections, after less fortunate periods. Underlines Oscar Giammarinaro (with Giovanni Naska Deidda, founding member of the band and always present in the four decades), regarding the difficulties encountered, especially in contexts often at a very high record level: «Sometimes at a professional and managerial/financial level, we have certainly been too superficial and naive in signing some contracts and trusting the wrong people. From an artistic and ideological point of view, however, we have always done what we felt like doing, with total freedom and instinct».
The band thus passes from the first self-productions, to the major disc majors and to the Sanremo Festival. The first 45 rpm I God/Balla it was produced by the writer and others in 1986, making money by selling rare Northern Soul tracks at mod nights (duplicated on two stereo tape recorders) or by charging tickets of a few thousand lire at the concerts we organized. The proceeds ended up in the disc, whose cover was glued by hand with Vinavil, one by one. Times in which self-production was primitive, pioneering but above all lived on enthusiasm. The 45 sold well, another one came out, the band first settled down with Toast Records and landed in 1992 at Emi. In the meantime, two musical excellences passed through the group. Xico, on bass, better known later as Ezio Bosso, who became the brilliant composer and conductor we met, and Davide Rossi, keyboardist, who later rose to worldwide fame as an arranger and violinist with Coldplay, Depeche Mode, Siouxsie, Duran Duran, Robert Fripp, Vasco, Zucchero etc. Prerogative of the band, also due to an incessant live and recording activity which is not always easy to keep up with, the interchangeability of the components, passed by dozens around the founding nucleus. Thanks to Emi they arrive in Sanremo with the ironic and unforgettable We won the Sanremo Festival, irresistible ska song. A sound that immediately characterized their sounds (which they shared with more energetic mod rock songs, like Jam, but which sometimes also looked to swing, pop rock, beat, rhythm and blues, soul) and which were among the very first to play in Italy faithfully to the original groove and not in the caricatural way proposed by characters such as Donatella Rettore and Alberto Camerini.
Among the prerogatives of the Statute, ideological political positions always clear and direct, alongside the weakest, for social justice, against the powerful. They pay the consequences when in Garibaldi is back rather explicitly attack the Northern League which, at the time, in 1993, was growing dramatically, being excluded from radio programming. Musically they move towards the Brit pop of Oasis and Blur, and then return to the ska roots. In 1997, they also landed at the Meeting of friendship between the Italian and Cuban peoples in Havana, where they played in the Plaza de la Revoluciòn in front of two hundred thousand people. In the meantime they continue to cultivate another great passion: Turin, to which they often dedicate songs and tributes, finding the support of the club and the players themselves, including the legendary Paolino Pulici who also appears in one of their videos. The list of albums and collaborations gets longer, as well as that of concerts and social support activities (from events for the families of the victims of the Thyssen Krupp tragedy to those for the redundant and redundant workers of Fiat in Chivasso and Mirafiori), affecting one of the most incisive fight songs of recent years, At the factory, along with the Gangs. They also dedicate themselves to a «rock» work (in reality musically it remains in the usual ska/soul/beat vein) with Class love and pay homage to Northern Soul on the album Like a clenched fist in which they revisit some classics of the genre in Italian (including High speed, in favor of the No Tav movement). A long story that doesn’t want to end and probably never will, especially in the hearts of those who have always followed and loved them.
THE MEMORY
Oscar Giammarinaro wanted to remember his friend Rudy Ruzza as follows: «Rudy Ruzza joined the Statuto in 1989. After Ezio Bosso, we needed a bass player with professional intentions and we had placed an advertisement. Rudy showed up dressed in a leather jacket and long hair. We tried it anyway and he fully convinced us in terms of musical ability but we explained to him that to play he had to cut his hair and dress in a mod style. He accepted and since then he has always kept the commitment, not only aesthetically but acquiring knowledge and technical musical competence in all the genres listened to by us mods. His dedication and sense of belonging to the Statute was total. In November he had been operated on for colon cancer and was undergoing a cycle of chemotherapy which was giving good results. He had managed to play encores in the concert where we recorded the live 40th anniversary album. And precisely for the 40th anniversary tour he was working not only musically but also organizationally, collaborating with our manager Francesco Venuto in the meticulous search for festivals and summer situations where he could play. He felt fine but to be sure that any health problems with him could create problems for us on the tour, he had pre-alarmed our Ennio Piovesani. Unfortunately his heart got too tired and he suddenly left us while he was sleeping. Just for him and because he wanted it that way, the Statuto will not stop and for the 40 years of activity they will go on tour and will come out with the album that contains his last concert with us ».