Zucchero
Zu & Co.

I wanted to write this review of Zucchero's latest talked-about album, Zu & Co, to answer (partly to myself) the questions that arise from listening to this record.

Zucchero, as everyone knows, after 20 years of career decides to gather the duets (some) of his career, adding some unreleased ones, into a single CD. I will not make a "chronological" analysis of the album. Let’s start by saying that the three tracks that can surely be credited to Zucchero are Dune Mosse with Miles Davis, Muoio per Te with Sting, and Wonderful World with Eric Clapton.

Dune Mosse is a piece composed by Zucchero in ’87, which comes to life in a new Jazz arrangement, with Miles’s solos taking the lead. The evocative power of Zucchero’s voice (in this piece) matches the poetic and very evocative tempo of the text (voyage deep in your eyes, from deluded get out...). Davis’s trumpet solo is exceptional. Muoio per Te features a guitar arpeggio accompanying a percussive singing that recites a very musical text, written by the Emilian artist at the time for a piece by Sting, "Mad About You". The alternation between Italian and English (Sting) fits perfectly, and the piece sees continuous counterchants intertwining. Wonderfully. Finally, Wonderful World, where Eric Clapton sings with overdubs (he counterchants himself) and the piece, already known for its beauty, proves to be as strong as it is catchy from the start, when Sancious's organ introduces the tune invented by the Zucchero - Clapton duo. The solo by the Cream guitarist is typical of "Slowhand," incisive and musical.

After that, Zucchero's album shows some huge gaps, especially in the inconsistency of the tracks. Moving from Dune Mosse and Muoio per te to "Indaco degli occhi del cielo" and then going lower to "Il grande Baboomba" is not easy. "Indaco..." is a simple and significant text for the artist, but it lacks that evocative power we already noticed in his career and, wanting to remain in this album, in the first two tracks. The music is a rearrangement of "Everybody's got to learn Sometime" by the Korgys, stripped of that progressive vein which all in all would have been a new opportunity for Zucchero, unfortunately missed, because the piano has the same sound as Van Morrison and is played and accompanied by the voice in the same manner. As Zucchero said in Madre Dolcisissima: "Nothing new...". The worst leap of the album, where I personally almost risked everything due to the bad surprise, is from Wonderful World to the following "Pippo" with Mister Tom Jones. I confess it was one of the tracks that intrigued me the most after reading the tracklist and that led me to purchase it. Well, nothing remains of the old and brilliant Pippo that drove us all crazy as 16-year-olds. If not a tacky interpretation of a Tom Jones increasingly riding the wave of Disco Pop pieces of rare ugliness, and an unrecognizable Zucchero relying on complete flatness of music, practically without instrumental support. Not to mention the pitiful duo intermezzo between the two singers speaking to each other repeating "yeah, oh yeah, I've got it...".

Speaking of highs and lows, which constitute the key of the album (as will be understood!), one moves from this Pippo to Hey Man with B.B. King. However, the song suffers evidently from a performance by the Bluesman that is not studio, but Live. This suffers in comparison to Sugar’s warm and perfect singing. Frankly, inserting a live recording (taken from a performance where the two sang together) in a studio album without referencing the Live where it was taken from is incorrect. Fortunately, the track holds its own, in the lighter rhythm and the softness of the Hammond organ accompanying the guitar solos of B.B. King (Lucille). In conclusion, Zu & Co. is an album that raises many doubts about Zucchero’s future: what path to take? We certainly answer the one of Dune Mosse, but listening to the suffering of the arrangements of most of the "re-edited" tracks, the future worries. Zu & Co. ultimately showcases an interpretative ability of Zucchero even superior to the past when he made a sensation with Diamante and Senza una Donna (the voice is more mature, intense, cavernous and expressive), but with evident artistic limits, which will have to find an answer, and probably a judgment (from the public and critics) from the next album of unpublished pieces, which, by the way, we haven't seen since 'Shake' in 2001.

Another album with highs and lows, certainly with some well-crafted pieces (I think of the Soul of Ahum and the irresistible eclecticism of Baila), but with really worrying signals about the artist’s artistic intentions. Are two clues already proof? We shall see.

Tracklist:

01. Dune Mosse with Miles Davis 02. Muoio Per Te with Sting 03. Indaco Dagli Occhi Del Cielo with Vanessa Carlton (feat. Haylie Ecker) 04. Il Grande Baboomba with Mousse T. 05. Like The Sun with Macy Gray (feat. Jeff Beck) 06. Baila Morena with Maná 07. Ali D'Oro with John Lee Hooker 08. Blue with Sheryl Crow 09. Pure Love with Dolores O'Riordan 10. A Wonderful World with Eric Clapton 11. Pippo - Nasty Guy with Tom Jones 12. Hey Man - Sing a Song with B.B. King 13. Il Volo - The Flight with Ronan Keating 14. Così Celeste with Cheb Mami 15. Diavolo In Me - A Devil In Me with Solomon Burke 16. Senza Una Donna - Without A Woman with Paul Young 17. Il Mare with Brian May 18. Miserere with Luciano Pavarotti & Andrea Bocelli