“The true voice of my Romagna goes away”. Mirko Casadei, son of the unforgettable “king of smooth” Raoul, remembers Edgardo Gelli, who tragically died late Monday afternoon in a road accident in Fermignano, near Pesaro, in the Bivio Borzaga area. According to what was reconstructed by the Carabinieri of the Urbino Radiomobile Aliquota, Gelli – who on 20 November would have blown out 87 candles, a native of Corniolo (Santa Sofia) – is overwhelmed and killed by an SUV while crossing the road, in a rather dark spot and below. a heavy rain. The driver immediately stopped to give help and alert 118. The rush to the Urbino hospital in an ambulance was desperate, but for Gelli there was nothing to do.
A pupil of the famous Bolognese singing teacher Ada Scaglioni, for a year he stayed with the dance orchestra “Ely Neri” and for five years with “Silvano Prati”, his saxophone teacher. In 1966 the group “Edgardo Gelli ei Mattatori” was born, composed by the same (sax-voice), Giorgio Cortini (keyboards), Pier Giuseppe Flamigni (clarino), Alberto Parmiani “Padre Mariano” (drums), and Adolfo Berardi “Ado Raldi” (guitar-voice).
Thanks to his popularity, Gelli made his debut in October 1969 with the Casadei orchestra. In addition to “Romagna mia”, he recorded “La mia gente” and “Verso casa mia”. In June 1974 he left the Casadei orchestra, founding an orchestra that bore his name flanked by Franco Perini (keyboard), Adamo Dormicchi (drums), Alfredo Pagliardini (trumpet-guitar-bass-voice), Giorgio Giacomi (sax-clarino ), Tony Psotti (accordion), Claudio Santini (trombone), Gino Santini and the singers Fiorella, Titti and Tiziana Paci.
In 1986 he joined the “La Storia di Romagna” orchestra, while in 1988 he was protagonist in the “I Fratelli della Romagna” orchestra with Marco Lascialfari, Antonello Guerra (clarino-sax), Riccardo Casacci (sax), Ivano Pescari (accordion- keyboards), Anna (piano-keyboards), Silvano Grilli (drums) and the singers Viviana then Elisabetta and Gioia. In 1992 Gelli returned to the quintet composed of Fabrizio Palazzi (accordion-keyboards), Gianiuca Grossi (keyboards-voice), Dante Balducci (trornba) and Simota (solo voice). Gelli also participated in several editions of the Festivalbar and the Sanremo Festival. Last February the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, wrote him a letter of thanks, received a letter of thanks from President Sergio Mattarella for having brought “Romagna Mia” to the world.
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