By Francesco Belli
In an epoch of boxed music, always the same, with rhythms and sonorities which sound like coming out of a free software, it is always a pleasure to attend a concert, more a sensory performance, which takes us back in time, to when music was considered a divine art.
Vinicio Capossela is a musician, an artist who plunges his roots in the past, in the traditions of an Italy that now exists in the folk festivals only; he is an artist who joins myth and everyday reality, who melts down tradition and musical research, who blends together folklore and pop to make a unique product in the Italian music panorama. Well, in his swing/jazz style he reminds Fred Buscaglione (one of the most influential Italian singer-songwriters of the 1950s – Author’s Note), but this is surely a compliment for anybody in the music industry! Furthermore, Capossela adds Balcan and Mediterranean nuances to his music, that make it a real World Music.
Vinicio Capossela landed to London with his music circus on 20th February 2008, with a first intimist evening at the Italian Bookshop, where with the collaboration of David Hutcheon – Mojo’s journalist who ‘discovered’ Capossela in Albion – and Paolo Nelli – Italian writer living in London – music and literature were the topics, as they represent the two faces of the same coin or better the two facets of that may-sided artist that Capossela is. We met a shy Vinicio, constantly seeking his balance between tradition and innovation which takes him to admire Tom Waits and Adriano Celentano going through Renato Carosone; Céline and Dickens going through Kerouac: all of them innovators in their own genre but with deep popular roots, like with Capossela. His 18 years of music career, and not just in the music field, flow away questions by questions and in talking not just about music but his book also, Non si muore tutte le mattine (One does not die every morning – Author’s Note), taking place in a dark and rainy Milan which reminds Dickens’ London in an almost unique style for the Italian literature.
Only music is the master on 21st February at Dingwalls in Camden Town. The tickets are sold out since more than a month, the people crowd around the entrance, many have no tickets and are ready to do anything to get one: they pray, they moan. And prayers and moans are indissoluble elements of traditional feasts, of a noble and epic music which is the one of the Menestrello d’Irpinia (Irpinia’s Minstrel – Author’s Note)… and the cult begins! Vinicio comes on stage, acclaimed by his fans, alternating hats and masks that take us back to a mythological era; and accompanied by the Minotaur and the Medusa we venture along the streets of Troy, whilst music flows and the Hatter (as Mad as it has to be) drags his followers in an orgy of notes and screams, a music-circus lyricism which, we are sure, we will be soon seeing and hearing again in London as this music, Vinicio Capossela’s music, can cross any border.
Copyright 2008 GIORGIOSTUDIO Ltd – All rights reserved
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