Banda Bassotti
Así es mi vida

Angelo passed away the day before yesterday, and at least he was spared the account of another day of useless suffrage for the dead of Piazza Fontana in Milan, the ones he sings about in «Luna Rossa».

Angelo helped to found one of the historic groups of musical (and not only) antagonism in Rome, the Banda Bassotti. For those who live in Rome and its surroundings and nourish certain ideas, this is the band par excellence, never mind The Band.

However, first and foremost, Angelo is a worker, just like all the others in the Banda, all people who translate sweat and daily bread into words and music: when it's said of someone that they sing and play the things they do and know, the Banda Bassotti inevitably comes to my mind. This, without a doubt, is the reason why it is such a deeply rooted experience in a certain social fabric of Rome and anywhere else where the same air blows: to say, there was a moment when the Banda was close to working with Joe Strummer, if you know what I mean, then nothing came of it.

The proverb says that those who can do things, do them, and those who can't, teach others how to do them: the Banda Bassotti has never set an example, they've simply done things. In Nicaragua, there are areas where there's no hospital or school within hundreds of kilometers: the Banda then takes a plane and goes to build a building to host a school and children who come from everywhere, joining their arms and tools with those of the local workers, they earn nothing at least according to common narrow-mindedness – at most Paolo, another of the band, gains by falling in love and finding a beloved partner who is a treasure – while today it works that someone else sets up a phone number and doesn't even think about sharing. There's a need to raise funds to try to get people out of a Roman jail who ended up there for protesting, launching smoke bombs and clamors for sacred reasons, because some reasons are just sacred and that's it: the Banda is thousands of kilometers away, but they give a call and say they're coming back to Rome the day after tomorrow to lend a hand, and the day after tomorrow in Rome with the Banda there are 10,000 souls, never seen anything like it, and not just saying it, I haven't seen it because I wasn't there.

But I've seen the Banda in action many other times, and always where there are barely 100 souls, let alone 10,000, but they are there as if nothing happened, exhausting themselves with commitment and passion, never asking for anything in return, only with the hope of making a few souls understand that there are always different ways to tell a story.

In the end, for a semblance of a review, if you don't know the Banda, I would like to recommend an album that for me is beautiful and it's called «Así Es Mi Vida», a collection of traditional revolutionary songs from everywhere, as if to say there's much to do, even where you wouldn't even imagine it. The Banda tried to do something, they got their hands dirty, as they say, because to quote them and reiterate word for word the farewell to Angelo, those who fight will never be slaves; so the Banda will continue to do things, I have no doubt, even without the great Angelo, even with more strength and commitment.

Maximum respect for certain people, regardless of the music which, in the case of Banda Bassotti, counts for less than zero.