Artist
ARMANDO PIAZZA
Very few people probably knew these album until some
years ago, as they went totally unnoticed at the time.
Armando Piazza was a singer-songwriter from Naples and released these albums
with curious titles on the local B.B.B. label (that also released the Showmen
2 album), selling them by himself in
concerts and through magazines. The albums contained acid-psych
ballads, all english-sung and mainly based on acoustic guitar but sometime with
good use of electric instruments, they're also notable for the help of american
musician Shawn Phillips (who lived in Naples for some years) on guitar and bass.
A welcome reissue by Akarma couples both albums on a single CD.
(the trolley icon 
lets you order the CD from BTF website)
| LP | |||
| Suān | B.B.B. (BSLA 0002) | 1972 | laminated gatefold cover with attached four-page booklet |
| Naus (ars mensuralis) | B.B.B. (BSLB 0011) | 1973 | laminated single cover |
CD |
|||
| Suān/Naus | Akarma (AK 1027) |
2001 | reissue of 1972 and 1973 album on a single CD - mini gatefold cover |
Both albums are rare to find, especially the first, and
have probably been released in very small quantity by the small B.B.B. label.
The albums were poorly distributed in shops and were privately sold at the time
by Piazza through Ciao 2001 and other magazines.
An odd addition concerns the cassette tape version of Suān (cat.no. NL
PP 22), issued with two different covers and that contains che omits the track I
met a woman. The second edition is credited to Shawn Phillips and Armando
Piazza, and was probably issued later, when Phillips was well known in Italy.
Second album Naus (subtitled Ars mensuralis) had a laminated single cover. The catalogue number on both cover and label is BSLB 0011, but on the matrix is BSBL 0011. The difficult numbering system adopted by B.B.B. on their records had even confused them!
No counterfeits exist, nor foreign issues.
 |
|
Suān - LP |
 |
|
Suān - cassette tape, two different covers |
 |
|
Naus - LP and label |
Thanks to Giuliano Semprucci for pictures and information on the cassette version of Suān.
