He was, for all, the 'King of the Smooth', Raoul Casadei.
The man who transformed Romagna folklore into a genre recognized and appreciated in every corner of Italy.
That on that sort of national anthem ',' Romagna Mia 'written by his uncle, Secondo Casadei, has built a legendary career in the name of joy, sunshine and authenticity typical of his land.
He passed away at 83 - he turned 15 on August 15 - after being hospitalized, on March 2, at the Bufalini hospital in Cesena for Covid
.
As his daughter Carolina had said, he was fine, until they saw a low saturation on the oximeter.
Doctors noticed some pneumonia and advised him to be hospitalized.
After about ten days of fighting the virus, conditions worsen.
It is the curtain that sadly falls on a life marked by music, by family affections, with its great 'tribe' gathered in the 'Recinto Casadei' of Villamarina di Cesenatico and by the legacy of the orchestra founded by uncle Secondo in 1928.
"Artists like Raoul will never die will always remain alive in his music and in his songs that travel through the air and continue to exist", said
Mirko Casadei
, Raoul's son who inherited the leadership of the orchestra from his father, in a voice message sent to the Emilia-Romagna Tgr Rai.
"Today - he said - is a sad day for Romagna, for all of Italy, for popular music".
Inventor of 'lissio' - as they say from Bologna downwards - and author of 'Romagna Mia', a manifesto-song with over 4 million copies sold that did not hesitate to put a guitar in the hand of a teenage Raoul by letting him participate to the shows of the Casadei Orchestra in the dance halls and clubs in Romagna.
"In the Sixties - said Casadei on the eve of his 80th birthday - I was an elementary school teacher. Then I collected my uncle's inheritance and in the early Seventies I had an incredible success. Alone I sold more records than all those I they were in my record company ", Produttori Associati, which boasted people of the caliber of Fabrizio De Andre '.
I was doing 300/350 concerts a year.
Incredible ". A success played on the soft and cheerful notes of Romagna folk and on an innate ability to speak, from the stage, with the public. Conquered by that intertwining of joyful sounds and good feelings, by the story, in music, of the values of 'friendship and love. In 1984 the adventure of the' Nave del Sole ', a sort of floating' dance hall ', with the' Re del Liscio 'and his orchestra - in whose ranks Moreno also performed for a decade Conficconi, fresh 'Moreno il Biondo' from the Sanremo Festival with Extraliscio - to cheer the boat trip. Topped with piadina, a glass of Sangiovese and a plate of roast 'sardoncini'. Left after 40 years, from 1960 to 2000 the guide of the band to his son Mirko - who continued on the path of contamination mixing the smooth with the rhythms of ska and taranta, Casadei, among the many awards received, was awarded, in 2019, the 'Romagnolo Award of the Year' and participated in the film 'Tutto Liscio',
released in 2019, in which he played himself in a cameo.
Among his best known songs 'Ciao Mare', 'Romagna e Sangiovese', 'Simpatia', 'Musica Solare' and 'Romagna Capitale'.
