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 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 the 2011 Italian ce ...

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). T ...

Early career and Jet

A native of

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

, 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 la ...

at an early age. In 1971, shortly before getting his Chemistry degree, he founded in Genoa, with fellow musicians

Piero Cassano Piero Cassano (born 13 September 1948) is an Italian keyboardist, singer and composer, a founding member of the Genoan band Matia Bazar. Early career and Jet Cassano started playing the piano at a young age. In 1971 he founded the progressive ...

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 The Sanremo Music Festival 1973 ( it, Festival di Sanremo 1973), officially the 23rd Italian Song Festival (), was the 23rd annual Sanremo Music Festival, held at the Casinò Municipale in Sanremo, province of Imperia between 8 and 10 March 1973. ...

with the song ''Anika na-o''.

Matia Bazar

In 1975, vocalist

Antonella Ruggiero Antonella Ruggiero (born 15 November 1952) is an Italian singer. Biography Antonella Ruggiero was born in Genoa, Liguria and made her first recording, ''Io Matia'' ("I Matia" in English), in 1974. Matia is the stage name under which Antonella Rug ...

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 re ...

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, earl ...

, leading the group through fifteen studio albums, seven participations to the Sanremo Music Festival, one

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

, world-wide tours, several lineup changes and national and international acclaim.

Personal life and death

After a long relationship with bandmate

(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 tissue (biology), tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from tran ...

in summer 1997, Stellita died from the disease on July 9, 1998, aged 50. He is buried in

San Giorgio di Nogaro San Giorgio di Nogaro ( fur, Sant Zorç di Noiâr, Central Eastern Friulian: ''San Zorz'') is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Udine in the Italian region Friuli-Venezia Giulia, located about northwest of Trieste and about south of ...

. 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). T ...

* ''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