Carolina Bubbico
Una donna

THE REVIEW

Puglia. Lecce. 1990. Carolina Bubbico is born.

Puglia. Lecce and surroundings. 2015. "Una donna" is born, the second album by the singer-songwriter Carolina Bubbico.

It's the first time I talk about an Italian artist, but I do it with extreme pleasure at a time when various Emma/Alessandra/the next from the media caldron are all the rage, what's left of the Elisa that was, the comeback of Gianna Nannini, or my ever-green neighbor of Romagna authenticity, Lavra Pavsini.

Indeed, in 2015, besides conducting "Il Volo" (and winning the festival as an orchestra conductor) and Serena Brancale at Sanremo, the Apulian singer finds the time to create an excellent product: "Una donna."

The daughter of Luigi Bubbico (pianist, conservatory teacher) and Irene Scardia (pianist and composer) is accompanied on this path of 9 tracks (only one cover, "Superstition" by Stevie Wonder) by an extraordinary musician like Luca Alemanno (electric bass, now at Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz for the 2016-2018 triennium, on tour with Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter), the creative drummer Dario Congedo, her brother Filippo Bubbico (guitar, vocals, production), and a big band with Emanuele Coluccia (tenor sax), Raffaele Casarano (soprano sax), Alessandro Dell'Anna (trumpet), Gaetano Carrozzo (trombone), Roberta Mazzotta (violin), Nico Ciricugno (viola), Federico Musarò (cello), and Clara Calignano (flute).

As mentioned, eight of the nine tracks are original compositions, all written, arranged, and sung by the upcoming 28-year-old Apulian, also a multi-instrumentalist (bass, double bass, violin, cello, drums) and capable of being independent in "Snob Fox," an electro-swing track, through the skilled use of the loop station and launchpad.

Let's start from the end, namely the "super version" of "Superstition" with vocal harmonic layers, where a funky bass line and Carolina's wonderful lead voice, refined, precise, never obvious, weave in. A really tasty reinterpretation, especially considering whom she is going up against: it's never easy to cover the legend of black music.

There are melancholic and refined ballads like "Signorina distanza" or the ternary intro of "Quando fuori piove" that introduces the album to a sleek atmosphere, with well-written lyrics and non-trivial metrics, leading to the single "Cos'è che c'è," perhaps the most jazzy-pop song (Simona Molinari style, to give you an idea), with an arrangement that widely uses brass, taking us back to music from 50 years ago, but in color.

Decidedly introspective are "La vita è tutta mia," convincing with the string platform contrasted by Congedo's beat, and "Le mani ti raccontano," whispered, light, yet always alive and interesting.

I conclude with the funky "DistrattamAnte" and emphasize the "A," as she did at the concert in Cutrofiano, which changes, and not a little, the meaning, and with my favorite song, namely "Etilady," with the electric guitar of Luca Colombo (also a session musician for Lionel Richie, Al Jarreau, Phil Collins, Rebecca Ferguson, Michael Bublé, and James Blunt) and an arrangement by the stage band of absolute technical and compositional value.

An album that flows quickly in less than 36' of listening and that I "sponsor," because Italian music, fortunately, is not just the one that passes through the radio.