What is now called folk music arose from various sources, one of which was transcriptions by trained musicians that fixed older pieces and kept them in the repertory; Jordi Savall and other musicians from various countries have recorded these pieces. Occhi Turchini, by vocalist Pino de Vittorio and his Laboratorio '600 group, who have already recorded a similar album of Sicilian music, is an album of Calabrian folk music. It succeeds on many counts, and is of interest not only to those interested in old Italian traditions, ...
Read More
What is now called folk music arose from various sources, one of which was transcriptions by trained musicians that fixed older pieces and kept them in the repertory; Jordi Savall and other musicians from various countries have recorded these pieces. Occhi Turchini, by vocalist Pino de Vittorio and his Laboratorio '600 group, who have already recorded a similar album of Sicilian music, is an album of Calabrian folk music. It succeeds on many counts, and is of interest not only to those interested in old Italian traditions, but to anyone who wants to sample this entire movement: it's exceptionally well done. One of the strengths is the singing of de Vittorio himself, who takes a bit of a dramatic approach, albeit often one of low comedy. Many times, he's working with texts in the unusual Calabrian language (and even in Albanian), but he inhabits them and makes them fun. He also organizes the program intelligently, never falling into the rut of similarity that plagues so many recordings based on old...
Read Less
