Grifone

A primadonna in contemporary Italian folk, Maria Mazzotta lives between her hometown Salento and the French Pyrenees. She has a strong and yet gentle vocal presence, plays tambourine, sings in various languages and can adapt her versatile tastes to various genres, ranging from trad to popular songs. The music glistens with imaginative empathy on Grifone, where Mazzotta teams up with the Toulouse quartet Pulcinella, featuring keyboards, accordion, glockenspiel, saxophones, double-bass and drums, and who fuse bass-driven funk, Balkan rhythms, musette nuances and prog rock-infused digressions to create wide and infectious textures.

Opener ‘Pizzicarella’ leads the way into the swirling, explosive pizzica dance realm, while the stornello ‘Nazzu Nazzu’ has a warm jazz feel. Elsewhere, ‘Avanti’, the tarantella ‘Diavoletto Indiavolato’ and ‘Grifone Suite’ display the fast-tempo, free-wheeling mingling of styles, with Mazzotta's intense voice interwoven with the combo's sustaining groove. Contrastingly, ‘Lule të-Bukura ka Tirana La Griffure’ heads east embracing Albanian modes. Mazzotta's heartfelt and dramatic singing is fully exposed on the smoothy traditional serenata ‘Bella ci Dormi’ and on the newly-composed, intimate ‘Cosa Resta’, whereas the chanson-styled ‘La Foule’ pays homage to Édith Piaf. The album is the perfect convergence of diverse musical perspectives and proficient musicians.