A Journey to Listen to an Album from Every Single Country
7/198
Album: Gloria
Artist: Umberto Tozzi
Year: 1979
Length: 39:27
Genre: Pop / Europop
Out of all of the countries I will be visiting on this world tour for music exploration, Italy is one of the 2 that is more personal for me (which makes sense why I probably decided to visit it early. I will be waiting quite some time before doing the 2nd one). Although I am Canadian born and pretty westernized culturally, racially I am Italian. My mom comes from a small mountain village in the south of Italy, located in the province of Calabria, and most of my family on her side still lives in Italy. There has always been this desire in me to get more in touch with my Italian roots both historically and culturally. I’ve always felt I’ve identified more with my Italian side than I have with my French-Canadian side, even though I’m an incredibly westernized Italian. I was never fully integrated into the culture but there was a lot that was there thanks to my mom when I was being raised (the importance of family values, the food, a lot of the traditions). I’d love to say I’m more Italian than I really am, but sadly I never even learned the language (I only know what my mom has yelled at me when I’ve annoyed her), which is usually a basic necessity to being part of it culturally.
A big part with getting in touch with my Italian heritage was diving into the music of Italy, music I would find myself over the years absolutely adoring and revisiting quite heavily. Of course, having a parent who grew up in Italy helped expose me to many Italian singers. I’ve had my mom gush to me about Adriano Celentano, Toto Cutugno and Umberto Tozzi throughout my life. All I have to do is mention some of these guys and she’ll start singing one of their greatest hits. I remember as a kid, having to perform a rendition of “Tu Scendi Dalle Stelle” when I was in elementary school. My mom got so excited about that, I even wore nice dressy black shoes to please her. My mom and I still bust into our own renditions of “L’Italiano” by Toto Cutugno, gravelly singing “Lasciatemi cantare, Con la chitarra in mano” at the top of our lungs. “Azzuro” will always be a crowd pleaser at my house and “Gloria” just slaps so hard that there’s no way you won’t find us dancing and singing along. In an attempt to help me learn Italian, I had an 8-track cassette of kids songs that would have heavy rotation in my dad’s van on trips. To this day I still sing the likes of “La Mia Mamma La Va Al Merca” and “l’Inverno E Passato” (although we just called it the Coocoo song). It’s easy to see why Italian music holds a special place in my heart.
Of course, I can’t talk about Italian music without talking about the classic music of Italy in the form of the Tarantella. Now, Italy is very rich in musical history, bringing innovations in compositions, musical notation, scaling, harmonies and theatre, over a wide variety of genres such as Baroque, Classical and Opera. In Italy, music is a strong part of their ethnic identity and would often be used to talk about politics and society. However, I want to focus on the dance craze that invaded southern Italy and became an integral part of their cultural lexicon, the tarantella.
Every region has their own variation of the tarantella but at the base they have the same characteristics: A fast, upbeat temp, a time signature of 6/8 and often accompanied by tambourines, and played on accordions. I’d be hard pressed to find an Italian out there who doesn’t have an uncle or grandfather who had a button accordion and would crank out his own variation of the tarantella once in awhile. My late uncle owned one, which I now have in my possession and the music of Italy has definitely been a key factor in influencing me to want to learn how to play the accordion. The history of the tarantella is quite an unusual one too. Seems to have originated from the mythos that when people were bitten by tarantulas, they’d start to get infected and suffer from tarantism. It was believed that doing a certain ritual dance to a specific type of music would help cure them of tarantism, which basically gave birth to the tarantella as a dance. However strange it’s roots, there’s no doubt how much of a hold this dance has on Italians. If you want to see old Italian women run to the dance floor, all you need to do is start playing the tarantella. Never have I ever seen my mom move to a dance floor so fast then when the tarantella started playing at my cousin’s wedding. it is a sight to behold. I’m no exception as I find myself constantly listening to the classic Tarantella and other songs that use the form such as the classic “Funiculi, Funicula” and even the more modern and hilarious Roby Santini song “Giovanna e Angiolino”.
When it came to picking an album from Italy, I had quite a well of music to choose from and as always when it comes to a lot of these countries there’s the debate between finding something modern or more classical. With Italy, there felt like an obvious choice for me. Seeing how “Gloria” has been such a big song in my life that I absolutely love and Umberto Tozzi is well loved, I figured the album that “Gloria” was a no brainer. As I listened tot he album with my mom in the hopes of getting some insight into it, I found out that one of my cousins is not only a big Umberto Tozzi fan but has met him personally on many occasions to the point that Umberto knows her very well. Probably means that if I ever wanted to meet the superstar himself, I have an easy way of doing it! I didn’t get too much insight into his music, but I learned that Umberto Tozzi was a cultural icon for Italy through the 70s and 80s. He was one of the first to have a major hit overseas with “Gloria” that was so successful it even got an American remake, famously by Laura Branigan.
Listening to this album, though, it felt that, like most superstars, he was definitely more of a singles musician than an albums musician. Where the singles off the album are bangers, the rest of the songs do feel like filler. His biggest hit opens the album, which is an incredibly strong way to start it, but unfortunately only leaves room to go down from there. I never quite felt the rest of the album could ever hit the high that was “Gloria”. That doesn’t mean it was all bad though. The other dance songs on the album are a ton of fun, and there’s some genuinely sentimental moments on ballads throughout. You would think the mix of dance pop songs and slow ballads would make for a strange tonal shift and feel inconsistent and messy as an album as it keeps jumping back and forth, but they surprisingly all work well together and there is a nice flow to the album as a whole. Not bad, as the songs range from forgettable to great. The main pull of the album is clearly Umberto Tozzi the performer, whose vocals and delivery are really what sells each song, even the filler. I wouldn’t be surprised if people listen to this more because it’s Umberto Tozzi and less because of the songs themselves. That’s not a bad thing because Umberto Tozzi has a great voice and a charismatic presence that can be felt through the speakers. I can see why he became such a big thing.
As I continue my journey to getting more in touch with my cultural roots, I find myself feeling more like… myself, if that makes sense. One day I hope I will learn Italian, a goal that both me and my girlfriend (who is also Italian from southern Italy) hope to achieve. We both would love to go back and visit Italy again for a longer period of time, where we could integrate ourselves into the culture more (along with visiting family we never get to see). But for now, the best I could do is consume as much Italian media as I can. Along with the music, a big way my mom and I bond is by watching old Italian films, a lot from the neorealist era. It’s not only a way for me and my mom to connect but also scratches another itch of mine that I have and that’s my love for movies and film history. There’s something about those old Italian movies I really love and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s because of my desire to connect with my heritage that has me engaging so strongly. Regardless, it’s all held closely to my heart and that’s what’s important to me.
Camila’s Thoughts: Feel like I can become fluent in Italian if I listen to this full album another 3 times. Which I might actually do because I thoroughly enjoyed myself. His slow stuff was not my fave stuff, I feel like his fast paced / dance songs are where he shines. Added many of them to my Italian playlist.
-Bosco
Bosco's Modern Life 