Nino Buonocore
Libero Passeggero

This is a CD that my daughter, 19 years old, often and gladly listens to (strange tastes, right?), she is tender and sunny as is right for her age. Given her unusual musical taste, I propose that she write a few lines, just to see her point of view, on an artist particularly dear to me. At this point, the response is almost predictable: "...dad, you’re still here, come on, I don’t have time, they’re waiting for me". She indeed has no time, but she finds the time to listen to a profound and delicate artist like Nino Buonocore; and here I start to question whether I am the one who no longer has time to listen to songs about love. I decide to write a few lines, lines that have nothing to do with a review where the songs are dissected or the technical aspects of the musicians are analyzed.

No, what I feel compelled to say is that Buonocore, at a certain point in the day, relaxed me, put me at peace. Perhaps there is a fear of dealing with a work where the driving force is love, fear for someone like me, having no poetic inclinations, that it may seem trivial, but I don't care, music here more than ever is a panacea for the soul. Memories of an August in 1990 spent in Sardinia arise, where in our wandering from one end to the other, my wife and I, in the company of our daughter, then 4 years old, listened until the tape of the cassette wore out, "Sabato, Domenica e Lunedì", an album that contains tracks like "Attimi", "Fatti Così" and "La Mia Casa è il Mondo", tracks I find again together with others from his repertoire, such as "Abitudini", "Troppo Sole", "I Treni D'Agosto" and so on. I find them again fifteen years after that August, but the emotion they express is always the same, it must be for their undeniable beauty, the songs always maintain their jazz structure, but only in acoustical form, Buonocore is accompanied by six musicians who embody the spirit of the tracks as best as possible, polished, soft, touching the soul.

Calling it a collection doesn't seem appropriate to me, even though aside from some unreleased tracks (among all I mention "Vita Scombinata"), there is a re-proposal of his past songs, this seems more to me like a project where Buonocore, with even more passion, reclaims some of his melodies, to give them back to us with greater emotional intensity. Now, I smile when I see my daughter listening to the CD simply because she likes the songs, I am almost tempted to introduce her to Elliot Smith, I put "Figure 8" in the player, and in her carefreeness, in less than a second, she retreats to her room and jams Tiziano Ferro.