Pino Daniele
La Grande Madre

The Great Mother.

IndependentMente is still here. Yes, because now Pino Daniele has left the major record labels to embrace his independent label, to return to doing whatever he wants in his records, without pressures of time or musical choices.

What comes out of this premise is "The Great Mother" dated March 2012, 35 years after "Terra Mia": years filled with ups and downs, successes, and failures in between, but never an album exactly like the other.

Yes, because he has always loved to renew himself, experiment, and try new paths (even taking some hits), but his creativity has always overcome every obstacle to rise again and record a new album without listening to anyone, always forging his own path.

With "The Great Mother," from the single "Melodramma," it's clear that being commercial doesn't interest him much: decades have passed since the likes of "Io Per Lei, Che Male C’è, Dubbi Non Ho," made precisely to woo the public.. it’s the song that opens the album and is a piece that wants to blend music and recital at the same time, a good effort that will repeat in the third track in "Due Scarpe": also here a good performance where just piano and voice give life to a beautiful piece: one of the best. The title track "The Great Mother" has a Claptonian imprint: a blues that Pino hasn’t given us for years, with a non-trivial text that brings us back to the ever-open discussion for him of the land and Africa. Speaking of Clapton, one cannot fail to mention the next track which is "Wonderful Tonight": neither shameful nor praiseworthy, a tribute from Pino to his master with the lyrics translated into Italian, with the base slightly different from the original, but very recognizable..as it is a cover! Then there's the classic instrumental track, a real trademark of almost all of Pino's albums: "The Lady Of My Heart." Well, not much to say, but a lot to listen to.. "Searching Of The Water Of Life" is an entirely English song, produced for "Save The Children." We're approaching the end, but first, the real highlight for all longtime Pino purists..the jam session of "Coffè Time- 'O Fra": actually two songs in one recorded live and based on the musicians' improvisations..where you really feel the quality of those who accompany him. Closes with "I Still Love You": for me the jewel of the entire album. Guitar and voice as it once was, Italian/English lyrics, and with a great finale..worthy of a closure of an album. Missing from mention are 3 songs, namely "Niente è Come Prima, Piedi Nudi e Il Primo Giorno Di Primavera"... are the classic tracks of the latest years' Pino: with lyrics about love (sometimes banal and predictable) that unfortunately will be released as singles, instead of some other piece that surely deserves it more..but unfortunately, this is the market! On the radio, the little song plays more than the work!

A point in favor of Pino is having returned to playing with "flesh and blood" musicians, ditching all the computers that had become tiresome lately and sincerely even obscured the skills of our artist. Furthermore, the album contains 80 pages among: lyrics, scores of the songs, biography, photos, and curiosities.

What can I say.. an album that old-time fans, in my opinion, will welcome well.. let's forget about the usual talk of the first 5-6 albums.. let's look at now, the present: better than this could not be asked of a person who has done everything and has been producing albums for over 30 years.. they're still asked for songs in dialect, but as he says he could never again write something like in the past, and maybe already being aware of it is a good starting point for doing new things.. and then as I said before, he never releases the same albums. Light-years away from various "Electric Jam, Il Mio Nome, Iguana Caffè" and if anything, in some respects, closer to "Passi D'Autore e Medina": the best in my opinion of the last 10 years of career.

"The Great Mother" is an album that needs to be listened to several times to be able to appreciate it in its full qualities, surely it will stay in memory more than some recent predecessors..

Rating for Pino Daniele: 7

Gab.