Italian jazz saxophonist and composer James Senese has died at the age of 80, a close friend, Enzo Avitabile, said via social media on Wednesday.
Senese co-founded jazz-progressive rock band Napoli Centrale, who enjoyed considerable success in the 1970s, before starting a long and fruitful partnership with late Neapolitan singer-songwriter Pino Daniele.
"Words are not enough for such great pain," said Avitabile.
"Thank you for your talent, dedication, passion, research.
"You were an example in music and in life".
"With James' death Naples has lost its Vesuvius," said Avitabile, 70, a saxophonist, composer and singer-songwriter who often worked with Senese.Another frequent collaborator, 79-year-old drumming great Tullio De Piscopo, said "Naples mourns a giant, a brother, an artist who with his saxophone gave voice to the heart and anger of our city."Another Neapolitan icon, 68-year-old singer-songwriter Nino D'Angelo, said "his sax was an inimitable sound, he was for me the Miles Davis of Naples".Senese, born in Naples on January 6, 1945, to an Italian mother and an African-American US army father from North Carolina who returned to the States and never came back, began his career in 1961, when he founded the group "Gigi e i suoi Aster" in Terzigno with his friend Mario Musella. A few years later, the two formed the band Vito Russo e i 4 Conny with Vito Russo, recording for Aurelio Fierro's King label. In 1965, the Showmen project was born, bringing the soul and rhythm & blues sounds of Otis Redding, James Brown, and Marvin Gaye to Italy. The group achieved success with the song "Un'ora sola ti vorrei," winning the 1968 Cantagiro. After the band's dissolution, Senese and drummer Franco Del Prete formed Showmen 2 in 1972. The turning point came in 1974 with the formation of Napoli Centrale. The band also included a young Pino Daniele, who was hired as bassist at the beginning. With Pino Daniele, Senese would form a supergroup that would define an era: with Tullio De Piscopo, Rino Zurzolo, Joe Amoruso, and Ernesto Vitolo, he would accompany the Neapolitan singer-songwriter on his early hits and would play with him again on the album "Ricomincio da 30." In 1983, the dissolution of Napoli Centrale marked the beginning of Senese's solo career. Among his most notable works are "Hey James," dedicated to his American father, and "Zitte! Sta arrivanne 'o mammone," featuring guests such as Lucio Dalla, Enzo Gragnaniello, and Raiz. In 2011, he received the Armando Gill Lifetime Achievement Award. The following year, he released "È fernuto 'o tiempo." Napoli Centrale returned to the scene in the 1990s and, with a new lineup, released the album "'O Sanghe" in 2016, co-written with Del Prete and winner of the Targa Tenco award for best album in dialect. In 2018, they celebrated their 50th anniversary with a double live performance recorded in Sorrento. That same year, they reworked their songs for vocals with the group Soul Six. Finally, in 2021, they presented their twenty-first album, "James Is Back," at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome. Senese also enriched his career with film credits, including "No Grazie Il Caffè Ci Rende Nervosa" with Massimo Troisi, "Passione" by John Turturro, and "Una Festa Estepicata" with Vincenzo Salemme.
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