NEWPOLI
Tempo Antico
Beartones
* * * *
What is it Joni Mitchell sang? “You don’t know what you’ve
got/till it’s gone.” Translate that into Italian and it could be the official
motto for the octet Newpoli. Ten years ago a group of Italians left their homeland
for Boston’s Berklee College of Music. A few lineup shifts and a couple of
albums later and we get Tempo Antico, the
ensemble’s third album. As the handle
Newpoli suggests, the ensemble specializes in songs and tunes from Napoli and
points south. For those unfamiliar with Italian music, place it in the
live-large/live joyously niche occupied by Quebecois, Klezmer, and Cajun music.
Italy is a land prone to drama, and you’ll hear that on this record–soaring
operatic voices, wild tarantella dance cadences, lyrical canzones…. The 13 tracks on Tempo
Antico are often madrigal-like in presentation, as befits material largely
drawn from the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. It is not, however, “ancient
music” as that term is used in classical music. The musicians of Newpoli might
have fancy education and impeccable credentials, but they are also keenly aware
of the fact that Neapolitans were/are not known for slavish devotion to
decorum, that the tarantella is an up-tempo (6/8 and 18/8) folk dance, and that
peasants sang these songs as well as opera singers. Nor are they interested in
preserving music in amber–you will hear Arabic and Greek influences in
arrangements in which piccolo shares musical space with violins, accordions are
as dignified (or not) as flutes, and tambourines give contrabass a run for its
percussive money. Best of all, Newpoli made sure the music would unfold with
unstuffy freshness by recording it live in an acoustically balanced church (in
Swampscott, MA). This is a zesty album of unbridled joy. This reviewer accepts
no responsibility for anyone who sheds shoes, suits, and inhibitions while
partaking of it.
Rob Weir
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