Born in the Pianura Padana hinterland, this cheerful and sunny music has become Romagna’s soundtrack thanks to Raul Casadei’s orchestra. “Liscio is for the romagnoli like country is for the Americans or samba is for the Brazilians: a life style and a very popular music”. And we have to believe the words of the king of this music genre, especially because Raul, a sunny fifty-eight year old man with an exuberant temper who lives in Cesenatico (<I am born under the sign of Lion>, he claims proudly) – came from a theatrical family. His uncle, in fact, was Secondo Casadei, who went down in history as the founder of the homonymous orchestra. A name, a warranty and a quality trade mark made in Romagna! <My uncle>, remembers Raul, <set up the orchestra in late 1928. Then, the liscio characteristic sound was mainly based on two instruments: the sax and the clarinet flute, with its acidulous and festive sound>. So Raul, who was an elementary school teacher, started to collaborate with Secondo. He wrote songs and went to play with him. When Secondo died in 1971, the vox populi wanted Raul to conduct the orchestra.  <I was his natural heir –said Raul – thousands of Romagnoli wrote or came to me asking to carry on my uncle’s mission. So, I decided to leave teaching and now I throw myself wholeheartedly into this extraordinary music adventure!>. However, Raul Casadei was above all an innovator (the purists define him a ‘betrayer’). In 1972 he wrote ‘Ciao Mare’ and he sang the song the following year during the Festivalbar (yearly festival), obtaining an outstanding success: the song hit the top of the Italian hit parade and the “liscio fever” started off. This genre – very catchy and likable but very difficult to be played – was born originally in the hinterland, in that area of the Bassa Padana between Parma and Reggio Emilia at the beninning of the XX century, instantly becoming the masses’ culture! “Everybody likes it –wrote the musicologist Remo Melloni, “it works as a motivating force to get to know the notes and the music papers, and starts the process of music creation”. At the time, the little orchestras went around the villages and started the evenings with a special piece called “invito” (invitation), to warm up the public and invite it to dance. Only later the liscio moved onto the romagnola coast, losing purity and becoming very popular also with the tourists who spend the classical holiday month in the Riviera. <It’s not a case > as Casadei says < that twenty years ago the ballroom dancing was danced mainly by a rural public while today there are a lot of youngsters who dance it mixing fun to a pinch of transgression. All in all, the dance is better than the disco. And we don’t have to forget that the ballroom dancing has been a sort of ‘gym’ for the inter-class culture. Indeed, once only rich people could afford to go to dance. Common folks did not have this possibility especially because the working day was very long and there wasn’t the concept of spare time. The ballroom dancing gave this possibility to the lower classes and ‘democratized” the culture.
Today the Casadei Orchestra can boast over sixty years of activity, thousands of concerts, millions of kilometres up and down Italy and about thirty records and more than 400 songs, despite Casadei’s quitting in 1980 :< I had lived a very hard life, I was tired and I preferred giving way to the younger. But I carry on writing songs for the orchestra and I am responsible of the organization, which is not a little task>. Moreover, the volcanic musician from Sant’ Angelo di Gatteo has cast the umpteenth provocation: the latin-romagnolo. What is it? <It is Sunny Music, linked to Romagna beaches, and it comes from research I made into ballroom dancing roots and the different Latin and South American and Mediterranean ethnic traditions: so the clarinet mixed with bongos and maracas and married other rhythms>. Moreover, in order to spread his Sunny Music, Casadei has created the Nave del Sole (Sun Boat), a road showboat that offers three mini-cruises on the Adriatic with a menu based on dance, fun and show, naturally with all the Maestro’s old and new hits as soundtracks, as for example “La Canta,” “Simpatia”, “Amico Sole” and “Romagna Capitale”. What about the traditional ballroom dancing? <It will become archaeology while the modern ballroom dancing will become the national dancing music>. Casadei’s word