PICTURES

THE GROUP

LA MACINA
Gastone Pietrucci: vocals
Roberto Picchio: accordion, vocals
Marco Gigli: harpsichord, guitar, vocals
Adriano Taborro: guitar, mandolin, vocals

THE GANG
Marino Severini: vocals, guitar
Sandro Severini: electric guitar
Francesco Caporaletti: bass
Paolo Mozzicafreddo: drums
Fabio Verdini:

organ, keyboard

INFORMATION

DATE:
13 JULY 2004
 

TIME: 9,15 PM

PLACE:
Courtyard of Honour, Torrechiara Castle

MACINA + GANG

Roots & wings - traditional song and the force of memory

In 2004 the Italian rock singer who has proved to be a revelation is a gentleman with white hair and beard. His name is Gastone Pietrucci and, together with his group La Macina, he’s been working rigorously and with non-negotiable passion for thirty years in the traditional music of Italy’s central region, with one eye focused on his native Marches.
Gastone, with his raw, warm and powerful voice, is a true and genuine legend of traditional Italian music but only now is his name circulating beyond his fan base, having made a recording together with one of the most highly respected Italian rock groups, fellow Marches group the Severini brothers’ Gang: two cases of pride put together, a “glue made of memories” and two reagents who together emit power and tenderness; because tradition, as Confucius said, isn’t keeping watch over the ashes, it’s knowing how to nurture the sparks and keep the fire going.

Combining the traditional roots of Macina and those more progressive ones of the Gang hasn’t presented any problems, the acoustic and electric sounds permeate each other extremely naturally: the electric guitar allows the accordion or the mandolin to emerge without creating any interference and the same applies to the voices of Marino Severini and Gastone Pietrucci.
“The method for producing the CD Nel tempo ed oltre, cantando (title taken from a verse by the poet Alfonso Gatto) was the same as always, the syncretic (merging two styles into one) and classic one of popular culture which has always learned to live with its own vanishing point and for this reason, each time, manages to create and recreate together with the gifts of beauty and practicality, making use of items the dominant culture discards. Storytelling is above all about understanding. And it’s the sharing of memory which keeps the sense of sharing what we have in common, namely identity, intact. The caretaker of memory is the person who passes on hope for the future to the youngest ones. Storytelling in song is remembering, but in the tale there is emotion and that is the key to creating a new collective imagination. Indispensable for the future” (Marino Severini, The Gang).
 

Translation by Sarah J Hyde - www.thelanguage.biz
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