Program: Newpoli
April 28, 2022
City Winery
Newpoli is . . .
Carmen Marsico - voice
Angela Rossi - voice
Fabio Pirozzolo - tamburello & voice
Björn Wennås - chitarra battente & classical guitar
Dan Meyers - recorders, zampogna & percussion
Jeff Mcauliffe - bass
The award winning group was formed in 2003 by a group of Italian immigrants in Boston, MA. Now, over 15 years later, they have toured all across the states and at home in Italy. They have recorded five CD’s as of 2018. On their latest album Newpoli draws on southern Italy’s deep traditions and trans-Mediterranean connections to humanize migrants.
Newpoli’s Carmen Marsico, Angela Rossi and Fabio Pirozzolo grew up hearing the sounds and songs from their corner of southern Italy, Campania and Basilicata: the ballads and women’s songs vibrating with intricate ornaments, voices raised at church and in kitchens to the thrum of the tamburello. Yet over time, they and their musical kindred spirits in the Boston-based band began to hear other things, the microtonal and rhythmic moments that hinted at a wider musical world.
From bare field recordings to passionately arranged traditional and original pieces, Newpoli traces and expands these sounds on Mediterraneo. Chants, pizzicas, and tarantellas (the latter performed to counteract the stultifying effects of spider bites) cross paths with new songs, tunes and instruments, insisting we bond more closely with both neighbors and the newcomers in our midst.
The wider geographic resonances of very regional traditions mirror the fates of the people who moved around the Mediterranean, from North Africa and Greece to Italy and the Levant. These movements live on in today’s struggles and crises, as people seek new homes in the face of conflict and chaos, coming to southern Italy for refuge or fleeing the region in hopes of economic stability.
These stories move Newpoli and have helped forge the band’s sound, which they like to call “Mediterranean Pulse”/“Ritmi della terra.” “We’re not a strictly traditional band by any stretch of the imagination. If it sounds right, we’ll add a fretless bass or a guitar banjo to a song,” says Marsico. “That said, we compose originals while looking at the traditional style. This music has spoken to us, and we want our music to speak to our contemporaries about the present with that same strength.”
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