UN BALLO LISCIO VOL. 2 – THE ALBUM

Almost 30 years after the first volume, Egea will release ‘Un Ballo Liscio Vol.2’ on 3 May, distributed by Universal, the new chapter in the artistic project by Riccardo Tesi and Claudio Carboni, featuring a new collective of 15 musicians from a broad musical multiverse and two exceptional guests: Tosca and Fresu. An album about the unconventional identity of a musical tradition that is changing and evolving and finding itself. It was 1995 when ‘Un ballo liscio’ was released, a work that even then stood out as a cathedral of original virtuosity in a stereotypical desert of the world of liscio and folklore. Today, we pick up where we left off. Still in Emilia-Romagna, a region full of tradition and authenticity, where music in the collective imagination is also and above all dance, dance halls and folk dance. The clichés handed down by older generations and past eras encounter international tastes and demanding standards and enter into dialogue with them. . The result is ‘Un ballo liscio vol.2’, a lively album that strikes a perfect balance between its origins and experimentation, the valuable heritage of the schools of Emilia and Romagna and contemporary cosmopolitan urban contexts. Folk dance truly becomes ‘pop’, structured by multi-layered musical elements and characterised by new sound combinations. Without prejudice, but with the beauty of the melodies, the instrumental virtuosity, the preference for sophisticated variations, evocative timbres and a very special way of pronouncing and articulating the phrases. The album is also being released to mark the 70th anniversary of ‘Romagna Mia’, which is not coincidentally the opening track and is masterfully interpreted here by Tosca.

Riccardo Tesi (accordion) and Claudio Carboni (saxophones) have put together an impressive ensemble consisting of Massimo Tagliata (piano and accordion), Maurizio Geri (guitar and vocals), Nico Gori (clarinet), Roberto Bartoli (double bass), Gianluca Nanni (drums and percussion), joined by the string quartet ‘Alborada’ with Anton Berovski and Sonia Peana on violins, Nico Ciricugno on viola and Piero Slavatori on cello. Finally, there are guests Tosca (vocals), Paolo Fresu (trumpet), Francesco Savoretti (percussion) and Fabio Galliani (ocarinas).

Fifteen tracks skilfully integrated into the pluralistic and cosmopolitan spirit of an artistic collective who come from the fields of classical music, jazz, folk revival and liscio, prefer strictly acoustic instruments and present a well-chosen repertoire on the album with a focus on Italian authors and the extraordinary interpretation of some great ‘classics’ of the genre.