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Or how to reconcile with Italian music after a long period of foreign music obsession...
It was 1994, and having moved past a long metal binge and its surroundings, I found myself searching here and there for some musical stimulus of different origin, no longer content to consume the records of historical bands that shaped my adolescent musical taste with yet another listen. With Italian music, I was stuck in the early '80s, to "Titanic" or a bit more, but luckily a friend came along and invited me to lend an ear to a certain Vinicio Capossela, whom I initially thought was a Brazilian bossa nova singer, and he lent me the CD of "Camera a Sud," not imagining that this album would not only reconcile me with Italian music but also make me discover an artist of international stature, born in Germany but unmistakably Italian.
Twelve years later, and after at least a hundred listens to "Camera a Sud," I write this review with the very intention of paying tribute to a great singer-songwriter (which is not a dirty word, in this case), who enabled me to rediscover Italian music of (high) quality. After his debut in 1990, Capossela was pointed out as a sort of artistic godson of Paolo Conte, also given the presence of musicians from the entourage of the Asti singer-songwriter, then with the subsequent "Modì," his distinct personality was already beginning to emerge; the title track of that album is simply a masterpiece, and the rest also bears the signs of potentially enormous talent, on the verge of exploding.
And so here is "Camera a Sud," in which we already find a formed and mature author, a perfectly recognizable musical trait, despite the (obvious) influences and sources from which Vinicio draws (the singer-songwriter song of Tenco and Paoli, Balkan music, Caribbean rhythms, the more accessible jazz). The arrangements are beautiful, enriched by orchestral strings, and also admirable are the portraits, vividly drawn, of the characters inhabiting his repertoire: the wedding witness in "Il mio amico ingrato," the reveler returning home with his guilty conscience in "Tornando a casa," the lazybones reluctant to get out of bed in "Guiro".....
As Vano Fossati/Rocco Tanica would say, the journey of the tracks in "Camera a Sud" consists of colorful and exciting episodes, ranging from the description of abandonment which in "Non è l'amore che va via" is tinged with melancholy, and in "Furore" is rancorous, to the erratic rhythms of the gypsy-like "Zampanò," to the atmospheric jazzy slow of "Amburgo" (featuring a spine-tingling trumpet..) to the fiesta of "Che coss'è l'amor" or even more, in the Cuban son montuno of "Guiro" (with the double entendre "allor adesso c'ho son..").
I am still amazed after all these years how a piece like "Tornando a casa" can be so darn evocative, an ironic English waltz dedicated to all those who make "stratardi" in the evening... it almost feels like being there with the character of the song, and one almost feels solidarity with him... while the music captivates with its disarming beauty... and what about the seductive bossa nova finale that gives the album its title, if not that more than a song it seems like a painting, or better yet a real film, given its ability to incarnate with sound the diary of a sunny provincial day.... magical!
A flaw? Perhaps "Il fantasma delle tre" does not quite measure up to the rest, although it shows Capossela as a modern Fred Buscaglione, for the amused tone of the singing, but this is hypercritical reasoning, in reality, this album has class and sentiment, there is poignant melancholy and anger, there is genius and regularity, in short, it boasts all the greatness of one of the best living authors of Italian song.
Everyone will have their favorite Capossela, and, although "Canzoni a manovella" is a monumental album, my favorite will remain, barring future masterpieces, this stunning "Camera a Sud," a pure gem of the Italian songwriter tradition.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
04 Che coss'è l'amor (04:16)
Che cos'è l'amor
chiedilo al vento
che sferza il suo lamento sulla ghiaia
del viale del tramonto
all' amaca gelata
che ha perso il suo gazebo
guaire alla stagione andata all'ombra
del lampione san soucì
che cos'è l'amor
chiedilo alla porta
alla guardarobiera nera
e al suo romanzo rosa
che sfoglia senza posa
al saluto riverente
del peruviano dondolante
che china il capo al lustro
della settima Polàr
Ahi, permette signorina
sono il re della cantina
volteggio tutto crocco
sotto i lumi
dell'arco di San Rocco
ma s'appoggi pure volentieri
fino all'alba livida di bruma
che ci asciuga e ci consuma
che cos'è l'amor
è un sasso nella scarpa
che punge il passo lento di bolero
con l'amazzone straniera
stringere per finta
un'estranea cavaliera
è il rito di ogni sera
perso al caldo del pois di san soucì
Che cos'è l'amor
è la Ramona che entra in campo
e come una vaiassa a colpo grosso
te la muove e te la squassa
ha i tacchi alti e il culo basso
la panza nuda e si dimena
scuote la testa da invasata
col consesso
dell'amica sua fidata
Ahi, permette signorina
sono il re della cantina
vampiro nella vigna
sottrattor nella cucina
son monarca e son boemio
se questa è la miseria
mi ci tuffo
con dignità da rey
Che cos'è l'amor
è un indirizzo sul comò
di unposto d'oltremare
che è lontano
solo prima d'arrivare
partita sei partita
e mi trovo ricacciato
mio malgrado
nel girone antico
qui dannato
tra gli inferi dei bar
Che cos'è l'amor
è quello che rimane
da spartirsi e litigarsi nel setaccio
della penultima ora
qualche Estèr da Ravarino
mi permetto di salvare
al suo destino
dalla roulotte ghiacciata
degli immigrati accesi
della banda san soucì
Ahi, permette signorina
sono il re della cantina
vampiro nella vigna
sottrattor nella cucina
Son monarca son boemio
se questa è la miseria
mi ci tuffo
con dignità da rey
Ahi, permette signorina
sono il re della cantina
volteggio tutto crocco
sotto i lumi dell'arco di San Rocco
Son monarca son boemio
se questa è la miseria
mi ci tuffo
con dignità da rey
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Other reviews
By tiziocaio
"Because living is hard without even an illusion, a used dream, an invention."
"Vinicio manages to create a painting with gentle tones, borrowing from the pure spirit of saudagi, an understated way to pay tribute to that South."
By alfo
A tepid start for an absolute talent that would strip away in the years to come.
This album is historicized by its own words within the last glimmers of late modernity.
