Fiamma Fumana Official WebSite

Carina l’esperienza di BandaBooster a Pescara! Tre giorni di prova e via, tutti sul palco del Teatro Sant’Andrea a suonare insieme: Mauro di Buen Retiro, Giovanna e Emiliano di Jam Esther, Luigi di Zendavesta, Enrico Lombardi, Tony Nevoso, Cisco, Giovanni Rubbiani ed io. Nella prima parte dello spettacolo abbiamo fatto cover, da Johnny Cash ai Muse, Da Brian Eno a Rino Gaetano, alternando le diverse voci soliste (tra cui anche quella di Cisco): nella seconda parte abbiamo suonato pezzi dell’album di Cisco e dei primi Modena City Ramblers, cominciando in trio acustico voce-chitarra-fisarmonica e venendo poi raggiunti dall’intera BandaBooster per il gran finale.

C’è stato anche un bis (Ninnananna…), ma l’abbiamo suonato soltanto Gio, Cisco ed io, senza amplificazione, seduti sul bordo del palco, con la gente seduta sulla moquette ai nostri piedi e a luci accese. Il custode del teatro aveva acceso le luci di prepotenza, si vede che voleva andare a casa!

Grazie a tutti, ai ragazzi dei corsi di Booster (sul progetto Booster trovate più informazioni sul blog di The Hub), all’organizzazione, ai miei vecchi amici e splendidi quarantenni Gio e Cisco. Bella serata, bella esperienza, alla prossima.

Sono a Pescara da tre giorni, con Cisco e Giovanni, a preparare lo spettacolo di Bandabooster. Scrivo giusto due righe perché siamo molto impegnati, ieri abbiamo fatto le due in sala prove. De resto si tratta di preparare uno spettacolo in tre giorni scarsi, con gente che non ha mai suonato insieme! Comunque è divertente. Adesso vado in teatro per le prove generali. Informazioni qui.

As anticipated, I’d like to tell you more about this show with Cisco and Giovanni Rubbiani. It’s very simple, really: since Cisco left Modena City Ramblers too he got us involved in his solo project, as songwriters and authors. We still really enjoy making music together, or simply hanging out together, after all these years! So I got Cisco and Gio involved in the last phase of a European development project that my company is doing in Pescara. We will prepare and perform a show together with the students of a training programme for young creatives. Performance day will be Saturday, December 1st. In between the show we will claim a little space to play some music as an acoustic trio, just Cisco, Giovanni and me. It will be a good excuse to spend some time together.

Fiamma Fumana are taking a break: we do not intend to play any more shows before 2008. Many people are asking me “So, what are you doing now?”

Lady Jessica, maybe inspired by Martyn Bennett, is producing an album of Arezzo folksongs generously sprinkled with elecronica, commissioned by IMAIE. She is using field-recorded vocal samples of farmers and craftsmen (maybe the same recordings made by Diego Carpitella and Alan Lomax over 50 years ago?), She is producing, and - if I’m not mistaken - ex-Fiamma Fumana Marco Bertoni will also be involved in mixing and mastering. I don’t know a lot more than this, I hope she’ll give us more details herself on this blog.

Roberta is very busy recording, too, In her case, she is recording no less than her first - and long overdue - solo album. We talk a lot about the songs, and she has played some for us (I’m a fan anyway, I used to go her shows even before she joined FF), but here, too, I prefer it is her to write about it.

Medhin is in a photography-and-commitment period: she is active in a NGO called G2, which rallies second-generation immigrants, those born in Italy of immigrant families. I think it’s a great idea, and I hope it does well. In fact I’d like to help out somehow.

Paolo is working in his own studio. Among other things, he is speaking about a project of N.O.A. with Fondazione Andrea Pazienza.

Me? I’m preparing a nice little show with two old friends, Cisco and Giovanni Rubbiani. I’ll write about this in a separate post.