Pino Daniele
Bella 'Mbriana

Talking about Pino Daniele is a daunting task for me, almost embarrassing, and it becomes even more so when the subject is "Bella 'Mbriana". The album, recorded by EMI in the distant 1982, is an open window into the soul of a Neapolitan musician who has reached his technical-compositional peak and wants to sing about Neapolitan melancholy in the most elegant and dispassionate way possible. It is therefore difficult to decontextualize this album and discuss it from the most neutral position possible: it is the ultimate purpose of the work that induces one to remember with melancholic nostalgia the atmosphere of the challenging early 80s in Naples, struck and tormented by the dark shroud of corruption, omertà, and the people's impotence that sees in storytelling, singing, and philosophy its outlet (these are the years of the violent resurgence of neapolitan power, of de Crescenzo's and Troisi's films). A sort of popular wisdom spreads, leading to a cohesion and a sense of belonging to a common cause, involving both the ordinary people and intellectuals.

The album's title is emblematic: "Bella 'Mbriana" is the domestic spirit at the heart of the ancient Neapolitan legend. It is a story of everyday life in this city, seen however from the disenchanted gaze of an ordinary citizen. Pino casts vivid splashes of color that, like an expressionist painting, shape the truest and purest physiognomy of the city.

The album features alternating clear and evocative flavors (enhanced by the collaboration of the big Wayne Shorter) with saturated guitars with decidedly rock tones (I am referring to tracks like "Tutta 'nata storia", "Tarumbò", "Mo basta") but also lucid blends of genres, as in "Ma che mania", which features funky and Latin rhythms. The compositional level can be sensed from the very first languid track, "Annarè", or from the third, "Bella 'Mbriana", which gives its name to the album and presents itself as an exquisite anticipation of world jazz, where South American rhythms marry sophisticated harmonies and melodies with a distinct Mediterranean taste.

But it is only with "Io vivo come te" and "Toledo" (the latter being Pino's only instrumental piece) that the peak is reached: the tones are decidedly shorterian, the harmonic texture is increasingly complex and sophisticated, and immediate references to Santana, the brazen energy of Latin jazz, and the calm tradition of rock are evident.
There are inevitable tributes to blues, such as "I Got The Blues" (which includes a delightful solo by the great Alphonso Johnson) and "E po' che fa".
It closes with the slow "Maggio se ne va"; it ends with a note of sadness that gives a strange sense of incompleteness to the album, like a promise of redemption.

In any case, without a doubt, "Bella 'Mbriana" is an important album, standing at the pinnacle of the compositional career of a great artist, who becomes an interpreter of the "magna" international fusion, managing to touch points of very high compositional and emotional level. The energy has a strong impact on the listener, who is catapulted into the true essence of living in a city like Naples, full of sieges and traps, a city that forces its children into a continuous and rigorous survival of the fittest, a continuous struggle "sulament' pe' magnà".

"Bella 'Mbriana" is the evolution of the raw cry for help in "Terra Mia", an intellectual surpass, the full awareness of what one has become: one has not succeeded in changing Naples, but produces music that is increasingly high and sophisticated. I don't know if this is a cause or an effect of the Neapolitan "mal di vivere", but the fact is, this album remains a milestone in the Italian history of the 80s.