Il cammino della Musica

The new journey: 1 Song 4 People

Admin — 2012-03-15T20:36:34+01:00

Il Cammino della Musica & OltreVela presents:

HELP US TO FINANCE THE PROJECT AND TRAVEL WITH US : CLICK HERE!

A sailor, a musician, a music searcher:
melting the cultures of 4 nations during a journey by sailboat

A musician more aboard at each stop:

the creation of a multi-cultural crew

One mission:

composing the integration’s soundtrack

AND ONCE BACK HOME WE'LL TELL YOU ABOUT OUR JORNEY THROUGH A MULTI-MEDIA SHOW

The route: Italy, Montenegro, Albania, Greece

ACTIVITIES:

documenting the traditions of every Country we’ll pass by

telling Italian emigrants’ stories

overcoming cultural divisions and

enhancing the rerritoy

THE INVESTIGATION: Diego and I will leave the next summer to investigate on the places we’ve chosen. Our aim is to look for the musicians (a Montenegrin, an Albanian and a Greek) who will come with us on the sailboat in 2013, for the real 1 SONG 4 PEOPLE!

JOURNEY FINANCING: to finance this journey we’ll use some crowdfunding website. Using this system, anyone who likes our idea will be able to finance it with a little sum of money: he will be given some prices, according to the sum he decides to give. All of the prices have the function of sharing the events and the spirits.

THIS IS THE LINK: HELP US TO FINANCE THE PROJECT AND TRAVEL WITH US

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Reportage BRAZIL: thanks to the poverty! Roberto Mendes and the Chula

Admin — 2012-03-14T22:42:54+01:00

Chula, Samba de roda, Samba carioca: three music genres that are very similar and put together the taste and the character of the whole Brazil. A music that everybody in the world likes, knows and envies, it express itself through the energy of the syncopate rhythm, the saudade of the song and the sensuality of the dance. A music that has its roots in the black Africa and grows its character in the Brazilian territory with the slaves’ songs.
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Walking through the stalls of Santo Amaro da Purificação, I’m going to discover with Roberto Mendes the origins of the Samba in a country that has been able to transform the poverty in a strongbox of cultural and musical richness. Roberto says: “Santo Amaro da Purificação is a family, I think that it’s the only place where the poverty has been generous... because we have wonderful songs and a delicious food. Who can prepare a good dish with pork ears, skin and feet if not the necessity to do it? Only the necessity can create a good kitchen like the Reconcavo bahiano one. In this way the fajoulada bahiana was born, invented by the slaves that mixed the things that white people didn’t use. The food determines people’s culture and their sound is the Chula”. VERSIONE IN ITALIANO - VERSIÓN EN ESPAÑOL
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HISTORICAL SOURCES: The Chula is considered the antecedent of the traditional Samba like all the Brazilian genres, it’s the result of a syncretism of different musical cultures. In the XVI century the Portuguese began to deport to the so called Reconcavo Bahiano Region – that includes only few towns of the Bahia State, among those there’s Santo Amaro de Purificação – the first Angola slaves, the promoters the Bantu culture. In the XVIII century was the turn of the Sudanese slaves of the Beni culture. The mix between these two African cultures, with the Portuguese and in part with the aboriginal ones, gave origin to the Portuguese Chula Aldea, that is a labour song used in the sugar cane fields and during the parties that the slaves had after many forced labour hours. A musical richness generated by the poverty and the labour of a population that had sound and rhythm in their blood and was able to translate every labour movement in a rhythm, every moan in a song. Some sources say that the Chula later generates the Samba Carioca thanks to the migration of the bahian blacks to Rio de Janeiro in the XIX century

THE CHULA: according to Roberto Mendes the Chula is a “behaviour translated into a song”. The words are about love, nature, the rhythm is snappy and syncopated, the dancing is lively and sensual, but at the same time it's elegant. One day I asked to Roberto how can words, rhythm and dance of this genre be so cheerful, if they are the result of many trials, injustices and a miserable life lost working for the colonizer owner. Roberto answered me in a simply way, as it was the most obvious thing of the world: “African People never renounce to the cheerfulness and they live the sadness in a different way compared to other people. The Chula is generated by the necessity to sing in order to maintain this cheerfulness”.

DURING THE PARTIES THE SLAVES SANG songs in honour of the women who created, with the instrumentalists, a circle, and inside of it they danced at the Samba rhythm. That's why they give it the name “Samba de Roda” that literally means “Samba in circle”. Roberto tells me that years ago only the women used to dance the Chula and, according to the tradition, they can dance only when you play, while when you sing, they accompany the song with the claps of their hands. Today it seems that these details are not longer taken into account, so the Chula and the Samba de Roda are often associated to the same dance.

THE FOLLOWING MP3 IS A CHULA DO RECôNCAVO written by Roberto Mendes and played with the group "Roberto Mendes & Coisa de Pele": Roberto Mendes (violão), Arinaldo Nascimento (Rebolo), Sinho do Cavaco (cavaquinho), Dagmar Ferreira (repinique), Didhe Prado (pandeiro). The title is Linda Morena. Roberto Mendes is considered one of the most estimated Brazilian composer and guitarist of the last twenty years. He's a great expert of the musical tradition of his home country. Roberto is the only Brazilian guitarist who uses a particular and difficult technique to play the Chula do Reconcavo and the Samba de Roda. He wrote pieces and collaborated with very famous artists like Gal Costa, Caetano Veloso, Paulinho Boca. He travels always into America and Europe, but he always can't wait to come back to his beautiful and simply Santo Amaro da Purificação.

Translation and subtitles by: Anna Finotti

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Thanks to: Roberto Mendes, "Roberto Mendes & Coisa de pele" Ana Paula Guede

Report CUBA: Buena Vista Social Club- The heirs of Compay Segundo

Admin — 2012-03-13T18:26:27+01:00

IN A TRIP TO CUBA whatever the reason for the trip, it's inevitable not to remember one of the most known Cuban musicians in the world, whose fame is related to a film that made an entire generation dream. The film is entitled Buena Vista Social Club (Wim Wenders 1999) and the main protagonist was Maximo Francisco Repilado Muņoz, known as Compay Segundo, the Cuban old man with a cigar in his mouth and music in his blood, who became,with his group, one of the icons of Cuban music thanks to this film. VERSIÓN EN ESPAÑOL - VERSIONE IN ITALIANO

THE IMMORTALITY OF A MYTH: his death in 2003 made his image and some of his songs, like "Chan Chan" and "Las flores de la vida", immortal.

Today it is the "Grupo compay Segundo" whose leader is Salvador Repilado, Compay Segundo's youngest son that continues his music and fame...

BACKGROUND: I got to know them in Italy when I was working for the group who was on an Italian tour. At the time the project was managed by my guitar teacher Massimo Scattolin, who together with other musicians and the collaboration of various Italian Symphonic orchestras, compiled/realized the cd "100 aņos Compay" (Indiewizard 2008).

DID YOU LIKE THIS VIDEO? YES - NO

THE "OLD" BUENA VISTA: some of the musicians come from the old group, like the clarinetist RAFAEL INCIARTE; I met him in the barrio where he lives, in Cohimar, in the south of La Habana, and thanks to him I could live unforgettable moments with the "Trio Heming". As well as Rafael Inciarte, also Haskell Harmentero at the clarinet, Hugo Garzòn as main singer/t the first voice, Rafael Fournier at the percussions, are part of the "old" group. I met Salvador Repilado in his luxury villa in a beautiful barrio in La Habana.

THE CUBAN DREAM: it has been a strong emotion to meet my Cuban friends in their home, in their magic Cuba. It's here that you can understand why this music attracts thousands of amateurs and music lovers. Here, where the atmosphere is immune to the erosion of time. Recently I saw the film "Wim Wenders" again and I found in it the same Cuba I found in my trip. The light, the means of transportation, the atmospheres, the colors and the ideas are unchanged and unique ingredients. Magic and at the same time paradox of this beautiful country..

THANKS: Salvador Repilado, Grupo Compay Segundo, all the staff of "Casa Compay Segundo, Massimo Scattolin( Indiewizard).

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The roosters of Sant'Antonio

Admin — 2012-03-13T17:58:09+01:00

"Don Don open to Sant'Andoine, Don Don open to Sant'Andoine!" After repeated in almost 15 different houses for three days, you wont be able to remove it from you're head for almost a month!

17 January; I am in Penna Sant’Andrea (TE) "the most important village of the province in the world" like Augusto always say, virtuous blasphemer of the saint, that all year long waits with impatience this date, releasing the tension on the costumers of his bar, in the little plaza of the village. His bar is most certainly the worst bar of the province of the world. If you go there and survive, you wont be able to stay with out it. It's already the fifth time in this trip that I turn up there, and without exception I get out with my soul damned and my liver pulped. Today instead Augusto's bar becomes the place of departure of the Sandandonaijre, the group that I will follow during the ritual of the begging that characterize the feast of Sant'Antonio Abate. VERSIONE IN ITALIANO

We leave at an imprecise our with a number imprecise of musicians; the cert thing is the humid cold weather. Augusto chooses a way, Roberto rubs his hands before putting some broken gloves, then warms up the little organ by playing some notes e then we go in the quarters beneficing houses, families and domestic animals, singing about Sant’ Antonio fighting against the devil.

Bonasera bbona ggende, che vivete allegramende; ve salute Sand’Andonie, prutettore condr’a lu Demonie. (Good evening good people, that you live happily; Sant’ Antonio, that protects you from the Devil, salutes). It’s with these verses that they are welcomed in the houses; people are waiting for them; they know that if it wasn’t yesterday or the day before, today will be their turn. Some of them made a chicken fat up so they could give it to group; it’s the maximum gesture of grace for the group that brings the benediction of Sant’Antonio and the happiness of this festivity. Some cook succulent banquets to offer to the group. “Lu cellitte” are the traditional delicacies with the shape of birds. Three or four songs are dedicated to each family, then the group fills of gifts the basket, leaves singing the “don don” e walks (always more staggering) towards the next house.

press "cc" for subtitles

The Sant’ Antonio is a ritual of prayer that has a lot of importance in the pagan tradition; it takes place in the period of agricultural break, when the arms can rest waiting for the spring. It’s a ritual of good luck for the harvest, for the health of the domestic animals and of the family. It’s more importantly a way to stay all together: in a little community the ritual restores and strengthens the human relationships, because it is based on a religious-playful aspect, on the exchange, on the joke, on the chat, on the demonstrations of careness and affection.

The pagan and religious aspect blend making more human the soprannatural and at the same time more soprannatural the human. Gianfraco wares a vest and performs Sant’ Antonio. He tells me the legend, transmitted by Atanasio, of this Saint born in Egipt proponent of a life of strict asceticism. He's always represented with a little pig at his side. The Antonians infact cured with the pigs lard the “Sant’ Antonian fire”. The period of the calendar where is placed the saint's feast day coincides with other peasant rituals like the pig slaughter, the fires in the winter Solstice and so Sant’ Antonio is the protector of the domestic animals and of some diseases. It’s still usual custom to put an image of the Saint in the barn.

This ritual, that was in danger of exctinction, today is reinvingorated; it’s not rare to see other groups of kids in the streets with “ddu bbotte”(little organ) and a “battafoche”(friction drum); it’s an indication of revitalization of tradition filled with modern social codes, maybe because of the need to find an identity.

When the “Sandandonaijre” finish their tour is almost night. Even this year they have accomplished their mission. Augusto’s car is fill of roosters. The group will eat them in some months (I ate the ones of last year). Our livers ask pity but our heart is light and waits for the next Sant' Antonio.

In the mein time the worst bar of province of the world will remain, like the heart of who manages it and goes there, always open.

Thanks: to all of the sacried roosters, to Lj Sandandonaijre, to Antonio’s bar and mostly at his “vocalucci”, to Tonino Fabri, mayor of Penna, to Gianfranco Spitilli (http://bambun.webnode.com) and his cowbell, to Antonio and his family and theyr restaurant Zà Beata, that hosted us and made us put on weight in our worst moments.

Subtitles by: Giulia Forlivesi

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