Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino — Pizzica Indiavolata (2013)

 

 ^{Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino — Pizzica Indiavolata}
♣   “Pizzica can transcend linguistic and temporal borders.”  
Location: Lecce, Salento, Italy
Album release: 2013
Record Label: Ponderosa music and art
Duration:     54:26
Tracks:
01. Nu Te Fermare    (4:20)
02. Aremu An Me 'Gapà  (feat Ballake Sissoko)    (3:33)
03. Focu D'Amore    (3:49)
04. Bella Ci Dormi    (4:19)
05. Tamburrieddhu Mia    (3:47)
06. Questa Mattina    (3:44)
07. E chorà Tu Anemu  (feat Ballake Sissoko)    (5:09)
08. Itela    (3:09)
09. Sta Strada    (2:29)
10. Pizzica A Marino    (4:05)
11. La Voce Toa (feat Piers Faccini)    (4:09)
12. Tira Cavallu    (4:54)
13. Pizzica Indiavolata    (6:39)
Members:
• Mauro Durante: frame drums, violin, voice
• Giulio Bianco: zampogna, armonica a bocca, recorders
• Emanuele Licci: voice, guitar, bouzouki
• Maria Mazzotta: voice, tamburello
• Massimiliano Morabito: diatonic accordion
• Giancarlo Paglialunga: vox, tamburello
• Silvia Perrone: dance
Website: http://canzonieregrecanicosalentino.net/
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/canzonieregrecanicosalentino
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/canzonieregs
Description:
• Un excellent groupe originaire d'Italie du Sud (Les Pouilles) proposant un folk varié et nourri de multiples influences d'autres régions du bassin méditerranéen et qui profite ici de la présence de Ballalé Sissoko et de Piers Faccini. Ecoute agréable.
• CGS has recorded 17 albums and performed in the USA, Canada, Europe and the Middle East. In 2010, CGS was awarded Best Italian World Music Group at the Meeting of Independent Labels festival in Italy.
REVIEW
• Robin Denselow  (Editor rating: ****)
◦ The Guardian, Thursday 10 January 2013 22.40 GMT
• From Puglia in the south-east heel of Italy, here's a remarkable band who specialise in pizzica, the sometimes furiously rhythmic and often trance-like style associated with a folk dance said to cure victims of tarantula and snake bites. This is exciting, haunting music built around the insistent pounding of the tamburello frame drum, but with the percussion matched against solo vocals, sections of driving harmony and layers of instrumentation that include violin, bouzouki, bagpipes and accordion. Nidi d'Arac might be better-known pizzica exponents, with their blend of folk-rock and electronica, but CGS are bravely inventive veterans. Currently led by singer and multi-instrumentalist Mauro Durante, whose father founded the band in the mid-1970s, they mix tradition with experiment. The tamburello drums are almost always present, but there are fine, thoughtful ballads from Maria Mazzotta, and delicate kora solos from their virtuoso Malian guest, Ballaké Sissoko.
Fortaken: http://www.guardian.co.uk
REVIEW
By Lee Blackstone
• The Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino (CGS) can be rightly considered a cultural institution in Italy, and particularly in southern Italy. Formed in 1975 by the writer Rina Durante, the Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino has released seventeen albums of traditional music from the Salento: the region of Italy instantly recognizable as the ‘heel’ of the Italian ‘boot.’ Rina and her cousin, the noted musician Daniele Durante, were part of a cultural revival of the southern Italian experience.
• The agricultural region of the Salento has suffered due to poverty (and it still does: according to the U.K. Guardian newspaper of October 11, 2011, 580,000 people have emigrated from southern Italy in the past decade due to the dire economic circumstances there). It is also a region that is steeped in religion and magical belief. For ages, the poor South has been pitted against the more cosmopolitan North, which benefits from its proximity to the rest of Europe. Even in 1926, the writer Antonio Gramsci was to write of the condition of the South in terms of the rest of the nation; he called it ‘The Southern Question,’ where the population of areas such as the Salento were regarded as primitive and superstitious folk, exploitable by northern landlords, and totally at odds with modernity.
• The CGS play music rooted in an ancient tradition known as the pizzica tarantata – dance music for a trance ritual known as tarantism. In the highly patriarchal South, women who labored in the fields would claim to be bitten by a spider (‘taranta’); this would ‘set off’ a series of symptoms that, once diagnosed, required the hiring of musicians by poor families, in order that the victim could ‘dance out’ the poison. (Some men would also fall victim to the ‘spider bite,’ but predominantly, this phenomenon was one associated with women.) Once the woman had been brought out of her condition due to the characteristic beating of tamburelli (tambourines) and, usually, additional accordion or fiddle accompaniment playing on the off-beat, the afflicted tarantata would journey to the Church of Galatina to offer Saint Paul thanks (and to re-enact her possession inside the Church). This whole process was described eloquently by Ernesto de Martino in his landmark 1961 book, "The Land of Remorse" (or, alternately, The Land of the Re-Bite).
• de Martino regarded tarantism as a specific cultural phenomenon, a complex of action that served a purpose for those marginalized within Italian society. Many of the afflicted women were illiterate, unmarried, or married to someone that they did not wish to be married to. And, they were poor and powerless in a social system that benefitted men. de Martino noted that the tarantism phenomenon could be traced back to ancient Greece and a cult of Dionysus that was founded in the south of Italy; there were parallels between the female worship of Dionysus, and the percussive music that would throw individuals into a trance-state. But tarantism was dying on its own rocks; the Catholic Church viewed the ancient ‘pagan’ practice with great suspicion, and by the end of the 1950s, the tarantism event was in danger of being extinguished altogether. With many people moving out of the poor South in search of a better life, few people wanted to hear this ‘music of suffering’; what Luigi Chiriatti, Italian folklorist, musician, and one of the original founders of the Canzoniere Greconico Salentino, once described to me as a ‘broken memory.’
• The Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino is, today, a powerhouse outfit. The pizzica music is no longer regarded with the scorn of the past, and its revival has resulted in a major commercial success within the south of Italy, with festivals devoted to this music. In 2007, the Durantes handed over the group to their son, fiddler and drummer Mauro Durante, to carry on the tradition. Mauro Durante has had tremendous success, leading the GCS to be named ‘Best Italian World Music Band’ in 2010. From the sound on Pizzica Indiavolata, it is clear that the younger Durante is not afraid to bring new influences into the repertoire.
• Field recordings of Italian music have a raw, earthy quality, and to some listeners, singers may seem to be singing ‘out of tune.’ As in most folk revivals, bands and performers sometimes ‘smooth over’ these rough edges, or ‘blue notes,’ to make the music sound more palatable. And there is a smoothness to the CGS approach on Pizzica Indiavolata; this is a profoundly listenable and yet deep exploration of the Salento spirit, one that does not sacrifice its mystery. While the ‘spider bite’ is no longer regarded as the reason to engage in the dancing, the crises of the modern world present a new poison and new troubles to be faced. Hence, on the opening “Nu te Fermare,” the subject matter seems ripped straight from today’s headlines about the economic crisis: “you’ve graduated but there’s no work/have a master but there’s no work/and you’re left with only your imagination/wanting to buy a house, it’s an agony/wanting a family, it’s crazy/but if you stop, there’s melancholy/get up find a way keep on going don’t stop…” And the conclusion?: “how bittersweet is my land/and now I sing for my life/and now I play for my life/to cure myself from this disease.”
• Maria Mazzotta’s voice soars throughout this record, adding the gravitas and ecstatic release associated with the female experience and this music. The bagpipe playing of Giulio Bianco is thrilling to hear, as well, and he provides the Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino with another sonic dimension. Mauro Durante has also invested the CGS with a warmth on this recording that comes from the addition of guests such as Ballake Sissoko on kora (striking, on the instrumental “E chora’ tu anemu”), and singer Piers Faccini (singing in English – definitely something new for this genre of music – on the lovely “La Voce Toa”). And there are other surprises, as well; what sounds like tubs being thumped on “Pizzica Indiavolata,” the closing title track.
• What the Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino bring to the pizzica tradition is its profound melancholy, even when the music is at its whirling peak. This is a kind of sadness that bleeds into its own transcendence, and it is remarkable how much the band conveys this complex of emotions. Pizzica Indiavolata is a magnificent contribution to the ongoing southern Italian renaissance. – Lee Blackstone (Fortaken: http://www.rootsworld.com)
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INTERVIEW
George de Stefano talks with Mauro Durante of the Salentine ensemble
Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino.
Link: http://www.rootsworld.com/0603123/reviews/cgs-13.shtml
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Awards and nominations:
• 2010 – Best Italian World Music Band — MEI’s confab
• 2011 – Babel Med Music selection
• 2012 – globalFEST NYC selection
• 2012 – Womex selection
Discography:
• 1977 – Canti di Terra d'Otranto e della Grecia Salentina
• 1980 – Concerto 1
• 1983 – Come farò a diventare un mito
• 1985 – Concerto 2
• 1988 – Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino
• 1991 – Concerto 3
• 1994 – Sutt'acqua e sutta ientu navegamu
• 1994 – Mamminieddhu Zuccaratu
• 1997 – Ni pizzicau lu core
• 1998 – Ballati tutti quanti ballati forte
• 2000 – Canti e pizzichi d’amore
• 2000 – Carataranta
• 2001 – Pizzica pizzica
• 2002 – Alla riva del mare
• 2002 – Serenata
• 2010 – Focu d'amore
• 2012 – Pizzica Indiavolata

Nu te fermare
(M. Durante)
Si laureatu ma nu ce fatìa
specializzatu ma nu ce fatìa
te resta sulu la toa fantasia
ci uei catti na casa è n'agonia
ci uei faci famiglia è na follia
ma ci te fermi è na malencunia
ausate movite tira ca tira nu te fermare
movite minate la voce è forte falla sentire
quannu vai fore cangia sinfonia
quannu vai fore pare na magia
ca te rispettanu per l'arte toa
nu te fermare none nu te fermare
ausate movite tira ca tira nu te fermare
movite minate la voce è forte falla sentire
ulia cu me nda bau ma nu bulìa
ca me teni lu core e la sapìa
quantu si mara e duce terra mia
e mo sta cantu pe la vita mia
e mo sta sonu pe la vita mia
cu me la curu ieu sta malatìa
ausate movite tira ca tira nu te fermare
movite minate la voce è forte falla sentire
nu te fermare none nu te fermare
-----------------
you’ve graduated but there’s no work
have a master but there’s no work
and you’re left with only your imagination
wanting to buy a house, it’s an agony
wanting a family, it’s crazy
but if you stop, there’s melancholy
get up find a way keep on going don’t stop
find a way take a chance your voice is strong make it heard
when you go abroad the symphony changes
when you go abroad it feels like magic
when they respect you for your art
don’t stop don’t stop
get up find a way keep on going don’t stop
find a way take a chance your voice is strong make it heard
I'd like to go away but I don’t want to
because you have my heart and I knew it
how bittersweet is my land
and now I sing for my life
and now I play for my life
to cure myself from this disease
Aremu an me ‘gapa’
(lyrics: griko tradition; music: M. Durante; arr. M. Durante and L. Tarantino)
Su motti me torì m'eis es stannù
Ce motti ndè, esù me llimonà
Esena o pensieri-su stei addhù
Su stei ecino pu torì pinnà
Emena, ftexò, e' mm'ei mai ttu
Ce mai mu sozzi pì ti me gapà
Aremu an me 'gapà... aremu
Ise sekundu on ijo janomeni
Pu cino pu torì cino termeni
-----------------
Aremu an me 'gapà... aremu
when you see me you remember
and when you don’t, you forget
cause your thoughts are elsewhere
with the one you see the most
unlucky me I’m never here
and you can’t tell your love for me
who knows if you love me….who knows
you’re like the sun
your warmth only goes to the ones you see
who knows if you love me… who knows
Focu d’amore
(M. Durante)
Beddha lu primu baciu ca m'hai datu
nu terremotu pe la vita mia
era la notte pe uarda' le stelle
ma io uardava a tie focu d'amore
passau la luna me uardau lu sule
susu lu piettu tou persi lu sonnu
dammene beddha mia dammene tanti
de baci cu ddha vocca sapurita
dicu ca te la dicu annanzi a tutti
io me ne vantu de amare a tie
balla ca balla balla cu lu core
ca io sonu pe tie nu te fermare
mamma ce brucia lu focu d'amore
ca nu lu stuta l'acqua de lu mare
-----------------
beautiful first kiss you gave me
an earthquake in my life
we came at night to watch the stars
but It’s you I was looking at fire of love
the moon passed, the sun looked at me
I fell asleep on your chest
pretty girl of mine, give me, give me many
kisses with your tasty lips
I tell you, I tell you in front of everyone
I am proud to love you
dance dance dance with your heart
cause I play for you don’t stop
oh god, burning fire of love
that can’t be put out by the sea
Tamburieddhu mia
(traditional, arr. M. Durante)
Tamburru lu tamburrieddhu mia vinne te roma
ca me l'ha nduttu na napuletana
na na na na na na na
beddhu e' l'amore e ci lu sape fa
tamburru lu tamburrieddhu mia vinne te roma
iata ci lu canta e ci lu sona
na na na na na na na
beddhu e' l'amore e ci lu sape fa
tamburru lu tamburrieddhu mia ie' de cucuzza
iata ci lu sona e ci lu tuzza
na na na...
tamburru lu tamburrieddhu mia nu viziu tene
tutte le caruseddhe face ballare
na na na...
tamburru lu tamburrieddhu mia chinu te rose
guarda comu ballanu ste carose
na na na...
-----------------
tamburru, my tamburrieddhu came from Rome
was brought to me by a Neapolitan
na na na na na na na
great is love and the ones who know how to make love
tamburru, my tamburrieddhu came from Rome
blessed is the one who sings and plays it
tamburru, my tamburrieddhu is made of pumpkin
blessed is the one that plays and thumps it
tamburru, my tamburrieddhu has a vice
he makes all the girls dance
tamburru, my tamburrieddhu full of roses
watch how these girls are dancing

Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino — Pizzica Indiavolata (2013)

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