Joe Vescovi

Joe Vescovi (1 January 1949 – 28 November 2014) was an Italian progressive rock keyboard player, considered as one of the prominent musicians of the 1970s Italian progressive rock scene, best known for his work in band The Trip and Dik Dik. A self-proclaimed imitator of Keith Emerson, Vescovi was popular for his histrionic stage presence and eccentric clothing as much as for his virtuoso keyboard playing.

Born in Savona, Vescovi founded his first rock band, "The Lonely Boys", at the age of 17; with this band he played in Germany and the Netherlands, without achieving much success. After returning to Italy, he played for a while in a band called "Toto e i Tati" led by a yet unknown Toto Cutugno. In the late 1960s Vescovi eventually joined the progressive rock band The Trip from Turin, somehow as a "replacement" of Ritchie Blackmore, who had left the band to join Deep Purple. Blackmore would later consider Vescovi as the keyboardist for his band Rainbow, although David Stone would be chosen instead. Vescovi is often referred to as "the leader" of The Trip, both because of the heavy influence of his keyboard playing style on the sound of the band, and because of his frontman role in live performances. This became even more true from 1972 on, after founder Pino Sinnone had left and the band had changed into a musical trio closely resembling Emerson, Lake, & Palmer in both instrumentation and style. After The Trip, Vescovi joined the Italian prog rock band Acqua Fragile and later Dik-Dik, one of the most popular Italian pop-rock bands ever. He also collaborated with Umberto Tozzi and founded two minor bands of his own, "Tarrot" (who were hired by ex-Premiata Forneria Marconi Franz Di Cioccio to play the musical score for the 1982 film Attila flagello di Dio) and "Night Fudge".