ombra di claudia sull'erba

Claudia's

last update 19th September 2006

Music

There has always been music in my house. When I was little my father listened to tons of jazz, which I still find hard to digest. I much preferred the 60s and 70s rock that came out of a huge valve radio. The "meeting" with folk-rock champions, Fairport Convention came in 1974, when my sister bought their record NINE. I have never deserted them since then.

fairport convention 1999In the photo Fairport Convention in 1999.

While at High School my passions ranged from Madness' ska to Duran Duran's pop, from the Doors' rock to Adam Ant's New Romantic, from Level 42's fusion to Bob Marley's reggae. And with the passing of time my horizons have widened so as to include American folk-music and bluegrass, hard rock, ska-punk, techno.... I still love folk music above all, but I'm far from being a "purist"; in fact I much prefer cross-overs between different genres.

While at middle school I started studying classical guitar but, in spite of the many years of lessons, I never became terribly good; I was easily distracted from regular practice by school or by my other interests! Anyway, I have always had a passion for holding an instrument in my hands and it was love at first sight again when, by pure chance, I happened to try a flat-back mandolin. It was the end of the 80s and I was playing with a terrible "Anglo-Celtic folk" band called The Hobbits..

The adventure with Witch's Brew started in 1994 and sadly finished at the beginning of 1999. Our repertoire included anything from traditional American songs to classic rock, from Scottish or Irish songs to Bob Dylan. It was with this band that I learnt to play the mandolin my way, regardless of music scores or genres. While waiting to find another band to play with, I have experimented with multi-track recording using my computer. Here's one example!
Cap and Bells (a small Real Audio file of a poem by Yeats that I have put music to and played.)

witch's brew 1998 The Witch's Brew 1998

I have always loved going to concerts too and, thanks to a Bergamo promoter, Gigi Bresciani, and to Carlo Carlini of Only a Hobo, I have met many fine musicians.

A few years ago , thanks to an old friend of mine, Maurizio, I also started going to a bar in Cantù, called All'unaetrentacinquecirca, where I have seen lots of excellent concerts.

Although I always practically ingnored Italian music, in the past few years I have seen many concerts of a local band, Sulutumana. Although they are not so close to what I usually listen to, I really love to see them. I hope they become very famous!

Since the band experience finished I haven't really been playing live with anyone except three years ago, when I got on stage again for three quarters of an hour with Alessio Brunialti, the living Juke-Box. He plays guitar and sings very well and we played together at All'unaetrentacinquecirca, on November 29th 2001. But it remained a one-time experience.

From music to dancing...it's a short step. The end of 2002 started seeing me at many folk-dancing gatherings, especially the live music ones with Spakkabrianza.

I have become exceedingly lazy lately; age starts to show and I haven't been to so many gigs or dance nights lately. I'm also listening to very little. We'll see what the future brings.

Here are links to some of my favourite music sites. See if there's anything you may like!