Sergio Cammariere
Sul Sentiero

Sergio Cammariere embodies an excellent compositional ability, a piano touch akin to Keith Jarrett, and an uncommon interpretative sensitivity. The artist has arrived in the limelight at an age when singer-songwriters are already beginning to take stock of their careers, and this is definitely a testament to his estrangement or, at least, his non-conformity to the music business, despite his debatable participation in Sanremo.
The artistic maturity achieved long before his recording success has placed and continues to place Cammariere in a sort of limbo of Italian singer-songwriters. Therefore, the second album, in this case, had to be more than just a confirmation of his talent; it had to be the acid test of his creative vein: his debut masterpiece "Dalla Pace del Mare Lontano" was indeed too beautiful and reasoned. And Cammariere did not disappoint expectations; "Sul Sentiero" is a mature album, well-played, and rich in wonderful songs. The ground is his usual one of Jazz contamination of Italian pop music and given that these are generally lean times for modern music, Cammariere with his somewhat retro songs already seems like a classic, inevitably timeless. Thus, a very timely song like "Libero nell’Aria," actually a lucid excursion into the organization of a potential terrorist attack, seems to bring back the more dreamy and less conscious side of the mind, to a gangster story from the early twentieth century. An example of how music and social phenomena, somehow, tend to repeat themselves in the same forms. The lyrics, as for most tracks, are written by the loyal lyricist Kunstler, who, however, does not always reach the heights of his best work. Thus inevitably stands out the new collaboration with the poet Panella, who in "Niente" offers the best composition of the album.
The collaborations end with the melancholic and surreal lyrics of "Ferragosto," written by Bersani, where it's unfortunate to highlight a musical setting, decidedly in a minor key, by Cammariere himself. Despite the very few lapses in style, our talent emerges in masterpieces of composition and performance like "Lo Zio D’America," a compelling swing piece with an irresistible piano accompaniment.
If on one hand, the orchestration and arrangement capability is the finest the Italian scene can offer today, on the other hand, Cammariere now seems to navigate well on artistically more perilous grounds, and thus in "Nuova Italia" he follows the lead, without being outshone, of the great songs about the belpaese: a song in the style of De André, with a biting text on power and Italians. It is evident, moreover, how the musician pursues in every track his own reference models, seeking each time the solutions most congenial to his sensitivity.
Therefore, although following the trail of the Italian musical tradition, the album offers innovative ideas, sought mainly in the symbiosis between lyrics and music and, less often, in bolder musical compositions. An example is the splendid "Oggi," a vindication for the lyricist Kunstler, who in this case manages to compose better than the musician, and the latter to do even better than he had done previously in the melodic arrangement of a not quite ordinary text. The result is a timeless song, a classic, to be discovered and not rediscovered.
 One cannot fail to note how Cammariere, with his musical offer, somehow sets himself apart from the current music scene. "Sul Sentiero" is a very enjoyable album, recommended to anyone who loves well-played music, but in a sense alien to common sensibilities. These indeed remain the times where even sublime works like this one are left to fall into oblivion, but the boundary line of the area where the listener and the work itself manage to meet is not as marked as it might seem. And this is a limit of mine, of Cammariere, and of our times.