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Gigi Toma – tambourine and vocals
Primo Maggiulli – tambourine and vocals
Irene Toma – oboe, voice and dance
Dario Marti – guitar and vocals
Francesco Coluccia – accordion
Emanuele Massafra – violin
The Music of Salento: Pizzica as a Dionysian dance. Pizzica comes from the genre of Southern-Italian traditional dances that are usually called “tarantellas”. They are all ancient dances bound up with the cult of Dionysus – the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness, fertility, theatre and religious ecstasy – venerated in Southern Italy, especially in the Salento peninsula. In the past, during festivals in his honour, men and women went wild in public, fuelled by wine and these dances.
As time passed, Pizzica evolved and lost its link to the Dionysian festivities, becoming associated with the tarantula bite, for which this dance seemed the only cure. Salento has always been an agricultural area, and while working in the fields, farm workers often risked encounters with dangerous and poisonous animals, including tarantulas. The legend says that the traditional remedies could do nothing for the poor victims in a state of trance: in order to survive, they needed to dance following the rhythm of the traditional Salento tambourine.
Alla Bua was an expression used by the elderly people of Southern Salento (in taverns of Alliste and surroundings) to accompany work and love songs. Words were incessantly repeated, like a mantra, as a support for the main voice. The etymological meaning of Alla Bua seems to come from Greek language (an ancient dialect still spoken in an area of Salento called “Grecìa”, limited in about ten villages far from Alliste).
The first self-produced album of Alla Bua, Stella Lucente (1999), had a prevalence of traditional songs. The second album bears the same name as the group and was produced by the label Etnosphere. Thanks to flutist Pierpaolo Sicuro – composer of their songs until 2010 – the following album, Limamo, mainly presented original pieces with the exception of a couple of covers from the repertoires of Dolcenera and Fabrizio De André. In 2007 they self-produced Saratambula, their fourth album. In the summer of 2010 Alla Bua received the KALLISTOS AWARD from the Municipality of Alliste (LE), as the group represented the excellence of the folk music of Salento around the world. In May 2010 the group reached its maturity with the album Scattuni, alternating ethno-folk tracks with innovative and elaborate sounds. The highlights of their live shows are included in the CD Alla Bua Live (2012), followed by their last records Russu Te Sira (2013) and Salenticidio (2016).
Alla Bua Pizzica concert is part of the Salento Week in Hong Kong.
PROGRAMME
Chiazza
Pizzicarella
Scarparu
Taccaru
Kalinitta
Saratambula
Santu Paulu
Lucernaru
Lu Rusciu Te Lu Mare
Arandu
Te Sira
Fior di Tutti i Fiori
Aremu
Mattunaru
Purginu