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Rating: Virgilio Savona was not only a member of the Quartetto Cetra, but also a versatile and imaginative artist, whom the Club Tenco decided to honor this year with a tribute album featuring live performances on the Ariston stage in Sanremo by some of the most important musicians in today’s Italian scene. Thus, a good, excellent, and flavorful production is rediscovered, with peaks of satire and sarcasm of absolute value.
An example is the opening track of the album, “Troppi affari, Cavaliere!” (a more relevant title than ever), a song from 1954, therefore written in unsuspecting times, which is revisited here by the Piccola Orchestra Avion Travel in full alignment with Servillo’s and his companions’ production. Petra Magoni with Ferruccio Spinetti on double bass performs “Il cammello e il dromedario”, a little tale from 1963 about the meeting between a rich dromedary and a poor camel. The rich dromedary regrets having only one hump, so “if you sell me one of your humps I’ll give you a fortune.” The camel responds, “No thanks, I’m not interested in your fortune, because I’m poor but handsome and brawny, so… I bid you farewell!”
The rhymes repertoire, one of the most successful in the history of the Quartetto Cetra, is tackled here by Carlo Fava with “Le burle”, about Pinocchio’s nose. Amusing and charming pieces include “Sette piccole streghe”, on the seven musical notes, proposed by Samuele Bersani with the accompaniment of the Balentes, and “Però mi vuole bene” sung by Leonardo Manera (from Zelig to Club Tenco), the story of a deluded woman who thinks her sweetheart loves her so much, to death, enough to throw her off the Eiffel Tower. Roberto Vecchioni, a good literature professor, chose a poem by Quintus Horatius Flaccus, a Latin author, set to music by Savona himself in 1970, “Dove andate”, antimilitaristic and against weapons. The 1970 track was recorded by Giorgio Gaber, if it’s worth as a comparison.
Alessio Lega and Mariposa present a piece about Giovanni Meslier, a parish priest in a Champagne village, who starved himself to death because he couldn’t obtain justice in a dispute with a powerful person. After leaving his goods to his parishioners, he wrote a political and religious testament, “l testamento del parroco Meslièr”, still relevant today, a strong invective against the rich, leaders, princes, and powerful people of every kind and race.
Notably, all participants in the tribute performed the pieces while fully respecting their style, for example, Caparezza is very credible in interpreting “Sciabola al fianco, pistola alla mano”, a classic picture of an average man who turns into a bully because he wears a colonel’s or general’s uniform. Pietra Montecorvino (Eugenio Bennato’s wife, let’s not forget), offers a sweet ballad also sung by Mina on “Studio Uno” in 1961, “I ricordi della sera”, which are nothing but an elderly person’s youthful memories. Our grandparents often told us “Scherza coi fanti ma lascia stare i santi”, but the protagonist of “La vocazione” as a boy wanted to become a priest and sought absolution from sins, as a student became a socialist and thought that an artist’s duty was to sing the revolution, now that he sees the “zeta” of his life, his role has become more confused and he no longer knows which side to be on. Still, another well-executed rhyme by Stefano Vergani.
For some time now, the Severini brothers’ band, Gang, has been accompanied by the Marche folk group La Macina, with Gastone Pietrucci’s voice. What is offered is a piece that brings together short fragments of freely interpreted Spanish folk songs, “E’ lunga la strada”, a piece on the differences between rich and poor, even at death. The album closes with “Evviva lo scopone”, a piece translated into Occitan by Lou Dalfin. It’s a piece in the style of “Il Riccardo” by Giorgio Gaber (in the sense that the topic is more or less the same).
Congratulations, therefore, to all the artists involved in the project and also to the members of Club Tenco for once again managing to produce a beautiful, sincere, and passionate tribute.
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