RECORD REVIEW

Italian Soul

Anthropologists have found that second- and third-generation immigrants often feel drawn to return to their cultural roots. This certainly explains the success of Celtic music here in the United States among Americans of Irish and Scottish descent. (They’re certainly more nostalgic about their music than they are about the food from the British Isles.) Italian immigrants, on the other hand, have long preserved their culture through culinary efforts; but during the past century, there have been remarkably few recordings of Italian folk music widely available here in America. If two new releases are an indication of a trend, this situation may be changing.

Alessandra Belloni’s Tarantata is an album dedicated to the often misunderstood, ancient Italian dance of the spider. It is a wildly erotic dance of purification, traditionally performed by women to cure the mythical bite of the tarantula. The album is full of southern Italian folk songs arranged traditionally for violin, accordion, flute, guitar, tambourine and voice. It evokes the ecstasy associated with these distant Italian villages and bygone days of village healing ceremonies. The melodies are both moving and at times haunting. Belloni’s voice does take some getting used to and at times is overly dramatic for an album whose magnificent music should be able to stand on its own.

Tarantata also includes some interesting trans-Atlantic tarantatas, including "Canto di Stani’Irene" (Song of the Mermaids) and "Inno al Brasile" (Song for the Sacred Tree) inspired by Belloni’s trip to Bahia and Recife, Brazil, where she found remarkable similarities between the Italian and Brazilian songs to the goddesses of love and the sea.

For a general introduction to the magnificent world of Italian folk music, The Rough Guide to the Music of Italy is a perfect place to start. The 18 tracks explore divergent styles ranging from the polyphonic tenores style of Sardinia to sexually tinged tarantatas of Naples. The CD is full of gems. Elena Ledda’s stunning ballad "Cassisia Agghja Œinto" magically flows into the energetic tarantella of "Musicalia." It’s a wonderful introduction to the music of the contemporary greats of Italian folk, including Neapolitan stars Daniele Sepe and E Zezi, Tuscany’s Ricardo Tesi and Sardinia’s Tenores de Bitti among others.

The Rough Guide’s only limitation is that most of its material is drawn from the catalogue of a single company, Feimay, and, as a result, sacrifices magnificent voices such as Lucilla Galeazzi found on other record labels. Still, the Guide and Alessandra Belloni’s Tarantata are wonderful introductions to the magical and passionate world of Italian folk music.

Dan Rosenberg writes about music for Metro Times.