In the night between the 26 and the 27 of March by saying hi to the spring we lose a hour according to the western timetable. However, during the last night of  the Babel Med Music festival 2011, this effort was largely compensated by the emotional intensity of the Italian group Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino arrived to Marseilles through the project Puglia Sounds.

Downwards, regular and living beats overflow on the little drum’s skin, like a huge heart beating the chamade and dancing as it had a shiver in the name of love. Then an acute voice sounding a little bit nasal releases an intense melody that traces some loops. The spirit gets mad. They use a E tonality, beating guitar, accordion, bagpipes completing the harmonies con brio, the rhythm section and  the trail bringing from the land up to the sky. In the crowd, you can see the first reactions provoked by the uneasiness of the pizzica. Smiles come out, feet lift up from the ground, heart, bodies and soul mix with each other like in a turbine.

Mauro Durante & Silvia Perrone : Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino

Nevertheless, not everything was perfect! The sugars room, the biggest one among the three rooms staged for the Babel Med Music, showed certain  phonic changeableness. Indeed most of the times it offered its worst aspects. Luckily  the group Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino took its own sound engineer from Puglia with itself. He showed to know very well his musicians and to be used to the Italian hall’ inconveniences, he was able to face many problems concerning reverberation  and vibrations, quite usual inside the old  sugar bowl  of the Docks from the South.

The six young virtuous musicians and a naughty dancer with carmine veils on the stage dominate our emotions. It’s like a perturbation bringing us until remote periods.

This dance and rhythm seem to be connected to a pagan possession rite and that is still alive  in Southern Italy, in spite of the church interdiction. All this belongs to the ancient tarantula myth, whose injection inflicted to his victims a strong poison, that had as only remedy a savage dance in order to  annihilate its effects.

The Prims tried to transform the tarantella into  a noble music for the court by removing its rhythm and sense, however its initial conception survived by preserving in secret its healthy and attractive power.

 Maria Mazotta

Nowadays, tarantella has been thrown again all over Italy by some musicians and because of its festive attitude, it might be matched to the rave parties thanks to its rapture and bits. Anyway this music is lacking success and glamour style to become a proper international phenomenon. There are not so many musicians as Mauro Durante and his partners to conjugate a savage essence with a music with no imperfections.
Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino was found in 1975 by Daniele and Rina Durante, it is directed by their sons since 2007, who can also play quite well the tambourine, the violin and  even singing. Mauro’s friends can also play several instruments, first of all the little drum or also guitars like Luca Tarantino does, wind instruments by Giulio Bianco, accordion by Massimiliano Morabito, head voice by Maria Mazotta, a husky voice for Giancarlo Paglialunga and transcendental and sensual dance by Silvia Perrone.

Everyone preserves a well-defined space where timber and colors harmonize the tasty contrasts. This ensemble  shows to be able and inspired by respecting a large sound spectrum, with an unchangeable groove and thin shades.

Pizzica despite its wild rhythm, it makes room to the soft melody typical of love songs sometimes. They revise the classic repertory or create new pieces by using the Griko Salentino. This language that finds its roots into the ancient Greek is a memory of an antique affiliation of the region to the Hellenic imperialism. This linguistic particularity, nearly disappeared in other countries, does not prevent the group from reaching a perfect resonance with such époque Traditional instruments live with technological innovation, it is like if the Roots soul give their hands to a meticulous modernity.

In conclusion, we can say that even without losing its sensuality and provoking a state of constant uneasiness, Pizzica might result attractive and involving for the rest of the world such as it did with the Babel Med Music 2011 audience.