CANZONIERE GRECANICO SALENTINO – “Ballati Tutti Quanti Ballati Forte”
Dunya/Felmay, 2004

From Salento in southeastern Italy (the heel of the “boot”) comes this fun exploration of tarantism, the famous 16th-century apocryphal illness that was supposedly derived from a spider bite and could only be fought off through ecstatic dancing (which was otherwise banned by the church. hmmm…). Now a new generation, possessed not by spiders but by cultural pride, has rediscovered the wild music of the tarantella. The upbeat songs on this disc are every bit as frenzied as the history suggests, but there are slower numbers too, just as good. Lyrics are in the regional dialects.

Fo’s picks: 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 13

1. super-fast violin, guitars, tamborine; happy chant-like vocal
2. relaxed tempo but still rather intense, drum beat, guitars, male/female duet
3. fast again, with more of a folksy, festival air, sawing accordion
4. relaxed and loose, sounds just like rural Mexican music!
5. slow group dance with upbeat chorus, shows Greek influence in the region
6. midtempo, forceful, with loud group vox; brief gentle moments in between
7. relaxed and gentle sailor’s song, swaying melody, group vox
8. romantic ballad: guitars and duo male vox; reminds me of Cuba
9. steady, a village march kind of thing: pretty music, chant vocals
10. sleepy sailor’s song with guitar/violin/duet vocal
11. another fast one, with accordion and sing-song vocals
12. gentle music but raucous vocals: like the end of a long night’s drinking
13. an accelerated lullaby: guitars, male/fem duet, very nice… then bursts out into 10 minutes of uptempo folk jamming! Whee!

[ Fo ] – 11/15/2004