UARAGNIAUN
Skuarrajazz

Fy 8008

8021750800827
Dunya Records
Italia

 

The fourth album for UARAGNIAUN, a key group in the research and rediscovery of Southern Italian folk music. Continuing on the path which began with Canzoni dell’Alta Murgia (1990), followed by Uailì (1990) and Octofolium (1998) Maria Moramarco, Luigi Bolognese and Silvio Teot have enlisted a wide range of esteemed collaborators for this latest chapter in their personal reinterpretation of the folk music of Puglia and in particular of the Murge region, a geographical area with peculiar ethnic characteristics and a unique vocal style.
And it is of course the magnificent voice of Maria Moramarco, with her profound knowledge of the local repertoire, which provides the guiding thread along which the pieces on the album are strung: songs about the trials of daily life, the rites and social occasions typical of the peasant world, work songs and religious songs, lyrics and narratives, lullabies and dirges.
The consistently high standard of Skuarrajazz is testament on the one hand, to the depth of fieldwork carried out by the interpreters, and on the other to their musical excellence in performing and reinterpreting a traditional folk repertoire with a contemporary sensibility that nonetheless does not compromise its spirit or dilute it by mixing in other musical styles and genres.
The album springs from the direct and close contact that the members of the group have with their community, and the freshness of the music presented allows the listener to put themselves in touch with a bygone peasant culture which is still rich with surprises. In Skuarrajazz they can enjoy typical narrative songs such as Brunette which recounts the story of a girl forced into a reparatory marriage, Pugliese tarantellas the likes of of O re re, or the ditties of Murgia represented here by Quande jè belle.
If with Skuarrajazz UARAGNIAUN demonstrate exceptional rigour in their reworkings of traditional folk music, they also reveal themselves to be an extremely ‘open’ group, who feel the need to seek out and work with other musicians on the same wavelength. The artists assembled on this occasion show a remarkable unity of purpose and a common sensibility that makes Skuarrajazz, despite its multiform elements, a truly solid and cohesive work.