L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2019 www.italoamericano.org L'Italo-Americano 2 I s there anything better than a song, when it comes to tell us about a specific era? The music, the lyrics, the rhythm, the passion, the swing of the moment. A merging of emotions and memories, that remains etched in time. A song is a sort of summary, an icon able to cruise through decades unscathed and to propose once more, with just a handful of notes, the mood of a time, the spirit of a historical moment. But songs are not only the soundtrack of an epoch. They build our memories, because we tend to tie to music, to a simple refrain or to the lyrics of a song, bits and pieces of our own personal history. Songs bring us back to childhood, to our most glorious moments and to times when we needed them to soothe our sadness; they bring back hugs and emotions, events and situations buried in time and space, they give us back people. If we look into our memories' box, we'll certainly find a few songs. Songs that'll tell us a story, soon to be filled with details, faces and feelings. Then, if you wait for a little while and extend your horizons, you'll start remembering all that moved and happened around you, including who sang that song. A whole world will come to life, a world made of faces, emotions, contexts and more music will come to mind. Because that's what music does: it brings along a lot more than itself. Are you planning a trip to Louisiana? Then, you must visit the New Orleans Jazz Museum because, there, you'll get the opportunity to discover a piece of the Italian American cultural and musical heritage. The exhibition The Wildest: Louis Prima Comes Home (open until the 15th of May 2020) tells, through a collection of images, precious recordings, musical instruments and stage costumes, the incredible story of this trumpeter, singer, songwriter and interpreter, who stole Louis Prima, the Italian American swing legend we need to rediscover From the director the heart of New Orleans, New York, Las Vegas, Hollywood and… Italy. His music, profoundly American, but intimately tied to his Italian roots, left an indelible mark in Italy. It was to start a whole new musical genre that was to become essential for the development of Italian music itself and that characterized a whole period of our music history. A third generation American, Prima considered himself Sicilian. One of the greatest musicians of the 20th century, he never failed to show off his Italian roots, even though the jazz, ragtime, swing and jive that ran through his veins were nothing like Italian music, opera or melodrama: they were the powerful and lively sounds of the 1930s, the same Louis Armstrong had been exporting around the world. They spoke of a place, the US, that was extremely alluring, captivating and millions of years ahead of Italy. Louis Prima is an important piece of American music history and, because of the pride he showed for his being Sicilian, it is also a fundamental piece of the Italian American's. As a matter of fact, when you consider the way many of his songs were born, his clearly Italian inspiration is the true keystone, the real stroke of genius in his music: in a time when big bands led the way and competition had the name of Duke Hellington and Glenn Miller, he wnet back to the old Neapolitan and Sicilian songs his father used to sing when he was a child. Those sounds, so distant in time and space, are recreated by his talent: jazz, swing and boogie-woogie give a new lease of life to traditional Neapolitan music of the golden period, that between the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. Dialectal citations, morsels of Italian, a language that had been for years scrutinized with prejudice, especially during the war, pepper his lyrics in English. It's a new genre, one that was to give him glory: theaters sold out, tours traveled through the whole country and he was even invited to play at the White House for F.D. Roosevelt's birthday, by the First Lady in person. That was just the beginning: in 1961, Frank Sinatra asked him to sing with him Old Black Magic to John Fitzgerald Kennedy. After that, a series of successful songs, TV and cinema appearances, million- dollars contracts, successful collaborations and, more importantly, international recognition, the most valusble price for every artist. And we shouldn't forget the linguistic and genre revolution he started. Before his Angelina, Please no Squeeza da Banana and Felicia no Capicia, Italian American lingo (pizza, veal parmegiana, pasta fagiole, antipasto) never left America's Little Italys. Now, it reached the whole nation, opening the doors to artists of enormous caliber who were to follow in his path, like Perry Como, Vic Damone, Tony Bennett, Buddy Greco, Phil Brito, Dean Martin. Italy was to take an opposite road. The American world, with its swing and exotic accent found its way into our music, first thanks to US soldiers during the war, then thanks to artists like Renato Carosone who introduced American sounds to Neapolitan music tradition, and created a stage persona as powerful as that fashioned by Prima on the other side of the ocean. Fred Buscaglione the crooner with his bad boy look à la Clarke Gable, as portrayed in Eri Piccola Così. Nicola Arigliano with his language mix, as seen in I sing Ammore: this is just another couple of examples. All this only confirms our initial thoughts: when the musical heritage that lies within us with its bag of memories decides to come back to the surface, it does it with a whole lot of emotions and memories. It's a sound trace of what rests within our mind and soul, something we elaborate through time and that shapes the music taste of those who grew up listening to their parents' vinyls. This is more than embracing a vintage music trend, this is discovering timeless classics, able to bring new life to history. Enters Lena Prima, daughter of Louis and Gia Magione — the feminine side to her husband Louis' jazz — a woman raised with her parents' music both in her head and her heart. Enters Lena's Italian American roots, and the essentiality of preserving the Italian American musical heritage not only in the history of music, but also among Italian Americans. Lena Prima keeps on feeling proudly Italian American just like her dad, and she invites us all not only to discover his music genre — which is her own, too — but also to claim the importance of our own roots, history and identity. Simone Schiavinato, Director NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS SELLING HOMES THROUGHOUT THE BAY AREA Adele Della Santina "e Right Realtor makes all the dierence." 650.400.4747 AdeleDS@aol.com www.AdeleDS.com CalBRE# 00911740 Expert in preparation, promotion, and negotiation!

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