The Outsized Importance of Celso Valli
The musician, performer, arranger, composer and producer partook in prog rock, disco, musica leggera and classical crossover. Discover some of his most iconic (and underground) disco productions.
Equally at ease with symphonic orchestras and synths, Celso Valli (1950-2025) was a leading figure in Italian music, with his contributions spanning a wide variety of genres, including disco, funk, Italo disco, prog rock, pop, and even classical crossover. Valli was, in equal measure, a musician (a conservatory- trained keyboardist), arranger, and producer.
There is no single description that can fully capture his style across such a broad spectrum of production, but Valli’s true talent lay in his ability to “upgrade” new and underground musical trends and weave them into popular culture without ever making them sound forced. His earliest and most underground disco productions, for example, blended rock, pop, Afro, and Latin beats with seamless experimentation—giving life to something that felt entirely fresh.
As a performer, he started off as a keyboardist, and joined the prog-rock band Ping Pong. He was also part of the Italian-American disco quartet The Passengers, best known among mainstream audiences for “He’s Speedy Like Gonzales” (1979) and “Hot Leather” (1979). He was also part of Tantra, where he yielded the exotic and futuristic-inspired “Hills of Kathmandu” (1980), which reached n.2 on the US Disco Chart for three weeks in 1980. As a composer, he penned the space-jazz-funk hybrid “Sessuologia” (1975) for Paolo Zavellone, professionally known as El Pasador. He also composed and produced the now legendary Disco Fizz LP by Azoto (1979), with “San Salvador” being the best known track, combining latin, early disco, and Italo-disco influences, Neon’s “Skydiver” (1981), which has a rock-like instrumental base and disco-like vocals.
When it came to arranging and producing, he was behind some of the most notable tracks of the 1980s. He arranged Mina’s “Morirò Per Te” (1982), composed by Pino Presti and notable for how it both paid homage to the Philly sound and also anticipated tropes of 90s Eurodance by juxtaposing soaring, disco-inspired vocals, to an electronic and synth-laden instrumental base, and for Mina, he also penned the tracks “Musica d'Argentina,” “Ballando ballando” e “Perfetto non so.” In terms of mainstream successes, he arranged Marcella Bella’s “Nell’aria” (1983), RAF’s “Self Control” (1984), Matia Bazar’s “Ti sento” (1985) as a producer, and Fiorella Mannoia’s “Quello che le donne non dicono” (1987). He also channelled Moroder and Cerrone to arrange Adriano Pappalardo’d “Hi Fi,”(1979) the B-side of his mainstream success “Ricominciamo.”
Into the 1990s, he became known for power ballads and classical crossovers: in 1994, he arranged Giorgia’s “Come saprei,” co-authored and produced Gerardina Trovato’s “Vivere,” (reprised by Andrea Bocelli and covered by Laura Pausini as “Dare to Live”) and produced Patty Pravo’s “E dimmi che non vuoi morire” in 1997. He also collaborated with Ornella Vanoni on her 1992 album Stella nascente, where he arranged both the mid-tempo title track and the Italo-disco-inflected “Ci vorresti tu.” Longtime collaborations with the likes of Andrea Bocelli and Eros Ramazzotti cemented this direction.
However, being a newsletter dedicated to Italian disco culture, we want to celebrate Celso Valli’s brilliant disco productions—some widely known, others more hidden gems—but all equally deserving of renewed attention in today’s cultural landscape. These are some staples in my DJ sets, and no matter in what city or context I play them, they are deeply loved by the people on the dance floor.
Macho “Not Tonight” (1980)
With a stunning homo-erotic artwork as the cover of the album, this track falls under a style usually referred to as “rosco”, a hybrid between disco and rock music - trying to bring together two genres “at war” at the end of the 70s. The electric guitars dance around a heavy disco bass and bouncing synths in this “made in Bologna” project that, when released, caught the attention of international audiences.
Lucrethia and The Azoto 14,008 “Hey There” (1978)
Almost every disco music lover knows Valli’s masterpiece “Disco Fizz” under the production name of Azoto. Recently even electro-house music master Felix The Housecat has featured a sample of “Any Time Or Place” in his latest single “Anytime”. In addition, the ever growing popularity of its lead single “San Salvador” has always outshined the previous efforts that Valli was making with the previous releases. Presenting it as a collaboration between mystery singer Lucrethia “Hey There” deserves a second chance and its a valuable tassel to understand the evolution of the Azoto project, peaking the following year.
Celso Valli “Pasta E Fagioli” (1977)
Pasta e Fagioli is the first—and only—single that Celso Valli released under his own name in 1977. The track is a small masterpiece: rooted in disco-funk, yet unlike anything else from that era. It takes cues from the American sounds of the late ’70s, but blends them with distinctly Italian flavors, echoing the musical textures we often heard in the erotic comedies of the time. The song remains above all a shining gem of Italian disco culture, still sparking curiosity, still making people move on the dance floor.
Cassandra “Disco Panther” (1979)
Previously featured in an article dedicated to italian queer disco culture Cassandra is a temporary disco stunt of iconic Italian trans gender actress Eva Robin’s, who started her career as Amanda Lear ‘s backup singer in one of her tours. Her single “Disco Panther'' produced by Celso Valli an is a stellar disco track that features a Moroder-esque synth work and a wink to the famous Pink Panther theme melody - a very clever combo to express Eva’s feline-like nature.
Pop Welcome “Call Me In America” (1980)
In 1980 Italian TV aired the dubbed version of Welcome Back, Kotter, the American series that gave a very young John Travolta his first big role, the stepping stone that led him straight into Saturday Night Fever a couple of years earlier, in 1977. For the Italian edition, the producers turned to Celso Valli for the opening theme, and he came up with Call Me in America: pure disco beats, tailor-made to ride on Travolta’s new disco superstar aura.
Adal- Scandy Super Band - Piraña (1979)
Who doesn’t love a 140 BPM disco track packed with a funky brass section, analogue synths, and sexy female vocals? Piraña was a one-off project by Celso, yet it stands as one of those key puzzle pieces that helped shape his style. All the musical and production elements we hear here would go on to reappear in many of his later disco and Italo disco productions, becoming trademarks of his career.
Mandrillo And Muppets Band – Pick Pack (1979)
Along the same lines as the previous single Piranha, Pick Pack follows a similar arrangement formula—though at a much slower BPM. Still, it’s a killer pick for any disco-friendly dance floor.
Tantra “The Hills Of Katmandu” (1979)
Now a staple in the setlist of any DJs across styles, this Celso Valli masterpiece is iconic on multiple levels. First, its structure: echoing the rise and fall of actual hills, it alternates between synth-driven ascents and calmer, more serene descents—the sensual and the spiritual, the synthetic and the human. Then there’s the length of the original version (16 minutes and 20 seconds!), a true disco odyssey: trance-inducing and floor-filling. And finally, the concept itself, Tantra, a double album of extended tracks designed to soundtrack an entire disco night. Notable side notes include a Spanish edition (Tantra en Español) and Patrick Cowley’s stellar 1988 reimagining of The Hills, a version that still sets dance floors on fire worldwide.