Artist

L'UOVO DI COLOMBO

Toni Gionta (vocals)
Enzo Volpini (keyboards, acoustic guitar, vocals)
Elio Volpini (bass, guitar, vocals)
Ruggero Stefani (drums, percussion, vocals)

Based in Rome, L'Uovo di Colombo was another of those bands that just made an album without their record company support, so the band disappeared soon after the album release. Enzo Volpini and Ruggero Stefani had previously played together in I Fholks with future members of Reale Accademia di Musica, while Elio Volpini had been a member of Flea (on the Honey).

L'Uovo di Colombo is a great album, with the very good voice of Toni Gionta (his real surname was Tartarini and he was later the singer with Cherry Five) backed by a keyboard/bass/drums trio in perfect Le Orme style with occasional use of acoustic and electric guitar. The solid rhythm section and competent keyboard playing give the album a very high quality and the eight tracks are all perfectly enjoyable.

Two album tracks were also released as a single,  the opening track, L'indecisione and the instrumental guitar-driven Turba, but with no success. Among the other album tracks, a mention for Consiglio, with keyboards in evidence and a very good vocal part. 

After the band's demise, drummer Ruggero Stefani joined Samadhi, then Mediterraneo and Gli Alunni del Sole.
Elio Volpini went back to his old cohorts of Flea to form the jazz-rock outfit Etna. 
As said before, singer Gionta changed his name to Tony Tartarini and was briefly involved in Cherry Five.

A new line-up of L'Uovo di Colombo has been formed by Elio Volpini for a new album, Schiavi del tempo, issued in 2024, including some remakes of old tracks (three from L'Uovo di Colombo LP, one from Topi o uomini by Flea and three from the 1975 album by Etna) and three new compositions, mostly in a jazz-rock vein. The group also features with Volpini, Stefano Vicarelli (keyboards), Sabrina Scriva (bass) and Lucrezio De Seta (drums).

LP
L'Uovo di Colombo	EMI/Columbia (3C064-17889) EMI/Odeon (3C064-17889)	1973	gatefold laminated cover - available on two different labels but same catalogue number
	AMS/BTF (AMSLP 18)	2010	reissue of the 1973 LP with gatefold cover
	BTF (VMLP 179)	2016	reissue with gatefold cover and green vinyl – later reissued on blue and red vinyl
	EMI/Columbia (3593414)	2021	volume 10 in the Universal "Prog Rock Italia" series - gatefold cover - exists with red, clear (99 copies each) or black vinyl (899 copies)
CD
L'Uovo di Colombo	Mellow/EMI (MMP 195)	1994	reissue of 1973 album - now deleted
	VM2000/Vinyl Magic (VMCD 072)	2000	as above - now deleted
Schiavi del tempo	Hemiola ()	2024	self-produced 200 copies album on CD-R support
	Ma.Ra.Cash (MRC 131)	2024	as above, remastered edition with different artwork - digipack cover - 300 copies
SINGLES (with picture sleeve)
L'indecisione Turba	EMI/Columbia (3C006-17892)	1973	both tracks from the album

A rare album on blue EMI/Columbia label, housed in a distinctive laminated gatefold cover, L'Uovo di Colombo was first reissued in Japan in 1989 (Crime/King NAS 1419) and only in 2010 in Italy by AMS and again by BTF in 2016 with coloured vinyl.
Some copies were released on the Odeon label (sometimes with a small sticker applied on the Columbia logo on the cover, otherwise a different cover with the Odeon logo was used), these were probably released at the same time as the Columbia ones due to shortage of labels, or intended for export, and had the same catalogue and matrix numbers.
No counterfeit exists.
The album was reissued on CD in Japan in 1989 by Crime (292E 2028) and in Korea in 2011 with mini-LP cover by the Media Arte label (MI-0019).
The 2024 CD Schiavi del tempo, self produced in 200 copies and sold out in a few weeks on the Bandcamp site, was reissued again in 300 copies with a different artwork.

L'Uovo di Colombo - LP
L'Uovo di Colombo - detail of the cover with Odeon sticker
LP label (Columbia)	LP label (Odeon)
LP label (with Odeon sticker)
L'indecisione - 7" single
Schiavi del tempo - CD (first and second issue)

Many thanks to Artur Siim, Guilherme Tofani, Claudio Pescetelli, Jean-Baptiste Duvignaud, Hubert Jakobs, for some of the pictures and information included in this page.