Aldo Salvatore Stellita (August 2, 1947 – July 9, 1998), was an Italian bassist and songwriter, a founding member of the

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of t ...

n band

Matia Bazar Matia Bazar () is an Italian pop band formed in Genoa in 1975. The original members of the group were Piero Cassano (keyboards), Aldo Stellita (bass), Carlo Marrale (guitar, vocals), Giancarlo Golzi (drums) and Antonella Ruggiero (vocals). Th ...

Early career and Jet

A native of

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, Stellita moved to

Bolzano Bolzano ( or ; german: Bozen, (formerly ); bar, Bozn; lld, Balsan or ) is the capital city of the province of South Tyrol in northern Italy. With a population of 108,245, Bolzano is also by far the largest city in South Tyrol and the third ...

at an early age. In 1971, shortly before getting his Chemistry degree, he founded in Genoa, with fellow musicians Piero Cassano and Carlo Marrale, the progressive rock band ''Jet''. The band released an album, ''Fede, speranza, carità'' and unsuccessfully participated to the Sanremo Music Festival 1973 with the song ''Anika na-o''.

Matia Bazar

In 1975, vocalist Antonella Ruggiero and drummer Giancarlo Golzi joined Jet, resulting in a new band: Matia Bazar. During his two-decade journey with the band, Stellita was consistently credited for his pivotal role, writing the lyrics of virtually all the group's songs and being the overall creative force behind their musical experimentations, from progressive rock to

electropop Electropop is a hybrid music genre combining elements of electronic and pop genres. Writer Hollin Jones has described it as a variant of synth-pop with heavy emphasis on its electronic sound. The genre was developed in the 1980s and saw a r ...

pop rock Pop rock (also typeset as pop/rock) is a fusion genre with an emphasis on professional songwriting and recording craft, and less emphasis on attitude than rock music. Originating in the late 1950s as an alternative to normal rock and roll, ear ...

, leading the group through fifteen studio albums, seven participations to the Sanremo Music Festival, one Eurovision Song Contest, world-wide tours, several lineup changes and national and international acclaim.

Personal life and death

After a long relationship with bandmate Antonella Ruggiero (from 1981–89), he married Simonetta Carri, with whom he had a son, Jodi (born 1994) . Diagnosed with

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from transformed, malign ...

in summer 1997, Stellita died from the disease on July 9, 1998, aged 50. He is buried in San Giorgio di Nogaro. His place as a bassist in Matia Bazar was vacant for almost twenty years after his death, until Paola Zadra took it over in 2017.

Discography

With Jet

* ''Fede, speranza, carità'' (1972)

With
Matia Bazar Matia Bazar () is an Italian pop band formed in Genoa in 1975. The original members of the group were Piero Cassano (keyboards), Aldo Stellita (bass), Carlo Marrale (guitar, vocals), Giancarlo Golzi (drums) and Antonella Ruggiero (vocals). Th ...

* ''Matia Bazar 1'' (1976) * ''Gran Bazar'' (1977) * ''Semplicità'' (1978) * ''Tournée'' (1979) * ''Il tempo del sole'' (1980) * ''Berlino, Parigi, Londra'' (1982) * ''Tango'' (1983) * ''Aristocratica'' (1984) * ''Melanchòlia'' (1985) * ''Melò'' (1987) * ''Red Corner'' (1989) * ''Anime pigre'' (1991) * ''Dove le canzoni si avverano'' (1993) * ''Radiomatia'' (1995) * ''Benvenuti a Sausalito'' (1997)

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Stellita, Aldo 1947 births 1998 deaths 20th-century Italian musicians Italian bass guitarists Italian male songwriters Italian songwriters Male songwriters 20th-century Italian male musicians