Albert Verrecchia (a.k.a. Albert Weyman and Albert Prince) is a French-born keyboard player, composer and record producer, long time resident of, and working in, Italy.
Life and career
The beginnings: Evy and "I Pyranas" Born in Paris and raised in an italian family of musicians, Albert Verrecchia started very young with his sister Evy (Évelyne) who was already recording. He got a band together for her in Paris, Les Problèmes and then joined Vigon et les Lemons, a R&B ensemble with an awesome horn section, that eventually became Evy's backing group.
Then Evy had them all move to Italy, where she got some popularity with the single "L'Abito Non Fa il Beatnik" (1966) – an Italian cover of Jackie Edwards' and Spencer Davis Group's 1965 UK number one hit, "Keep on Running" – and they started playing live in most of night clubs, both in Italy and in France as well as in North Africa, especially at the 'Titan Club' in Rome and at 'Bus Palladium' in Paris.
As The Lemons, furthermore, Evy's backing group featuring Albert backed Chuck Berry in his French concerts and got credits on Evy's third Italian single "Domani il Mondo Sarà nelle Nostre Mani". In that period Verrecchia also toured with Raffaella Carrà.
Later, in Rome, popular black jazz singer Rocky Roberts who had just split with The Airdales to go solo, chose the best musicians he could find in Paris to back him up, and one of the most influential Italian beat bands was born, "I Pyranas". Verrecchia played the Würlitzer Piano and a Hammond M3 with incorporated Leslie, while Alex Ligertwood was on vocals and André Ceccarelli on drums,. Later Robbie McIntosh (former drummer of Average White Band who later worked a lot with Santana) and Steve Ferrone also played in the group. Left Rocky Roberts, I Pyranas continued solo for several years with three successful albums released on RCA's ARC subsidiary label - Tanti Successi per i Pyranas (1968), Motivi di Ieri, Successi di Oggi (1969), Giulietta e Romeo (1970).
When they disbanded, Verrecchia began with a series of collaborations with many then up-and-coming artists, among these Alan Sorrenti – Verrecchia produced his debut album Aria (1972) contributing also as keyboardist and arranger using the alias Albert Prince - and Renato Zero. Verrecchia played keyboards and did arrangements on his first album, No! Mamma, no! (1972) - before mostly dedicating himself to write and direct film soundtracks in the following years.
Film soundtracks
In film soundtracks Verrecchia delivered what are regarded as his most interesting works to date, with Tecnica di un Amore (1973), which he composed for a still rather obscure Italian erotic drama directed by Brunello Rondi and starring Janet Ågren alongside Erna Schurer and Silvano Tranquilli, standing as his most praised outcome. Tecnica di un amore got a first vinyl release in 1973 by the Naples B.B.B. Records' label and was later reprinted on LP and CD in 2000 by Moving Image Entertainment.
Another Verrecchia highlight is the recently rediscovered Roma Drogata: La Polizia Non Può Intervenire (also known as Hallucination Strip), from a 1975 drugs-themed movie starring Bud Cort, Patrizia Gori, Annarita Grapputo, and directed by Lucio Marcaccini. It received a public release in 2007 (on the Cinedelic GDM label CD, thanks to Associazione Culturale Escalation's interest), Verrecchia made use of electric sounds instead of canonical orchestral arrangements, mixing soul, hard rock, blues style, experimental vocals and percussions, with heavy psychedelic influences.
For the instrumental part, Verrecchia recruited a group of young players: Cyan – an italo-English quartet formed by George Sims (guitars), Roger Smith (bass), Alberto Visentin (keyboards) e Franco Di Stefano (drums) derived from a former Patty Pravo backing band – the Baba Yaga – a female vocal trio who worked for RCA and had already backed singer-songwriters such as De Gregori (in Alice Non Lo Sa, 1973) and Dalla (in Anidride Solforosa, 1975) singing as well in a few soundtracks by Guido & Maurizio De Angelis such as Watch Out, We're Mad! (1974), in the track "Dune Buggy").
Roma Drogata: La Polizia Non Può Intervenire, both film and record, open with "We've Got a Lord", a soul ballad interpreted by Sammy Barbot featuring Baba Yaga. It was written by Évelyne who credited herself from this period on as Évelyne Lenton. The film opened showing the actual recording sessions of "We've Got a Lord". Other Verrecchia scores include: A Black Ribbon for Deborah (Marcello Andrei, 1974), Prigione di Donne (Brunello Rondi, 1974) and Season for Assassins (Marcello Andrei, 1975).