CASALE MONFERRATO. He not only devoted himself to the beloved hurdy-gurdy Maurizio Martinotti, but he played many other instruments, from the dulcimer to the mandola, to the harp.
He was also a composer, a passionate researcher on the culture of the peasant world (he collaborated a lot with Professor Franco Castelli), organizer (the “Folkermesse” festival had been his most famous creation) and cultural popularizer.
For some time, however, a serious illness prevented him from playing: he died yesterday, at the age of 68, from the after-effects of an operation suffered in the autumn. He started from rock in the Branko group, West Coast fans, before being infected by the passion for folk at the end of the 70s. Piedmontese folk and not only -, then there was a sort of inconvenience, the appointment was skipped and he founded his own group, the Ciapa Rusa. And their records have become milestones of this genre. There was a bit of rivalry with us: they were from Casale, we were Mandrogni. And the reference repertoire was basically the same. Then every problem was overcome and a great friendship was born ».
As a hurdy-gurdy Martinotti had made school: many in Italy had approached this instrument by listening to him or seeing him play. Ironic, cultured, intelligent, he had not stopped after the dissolution of Ciapa Rusa, at the end of the 90s, and had launched Tendachent, in the name of an innovative folk more contaminated with rock and electronics, which left us four albums. With the Ensemble del Doppio Bordone he was the author of two albums on Christmas. Many relationships and collaborations in particular with Spain, especially with Catalan musicians in particular, and concerts throughout Europe.
Under the aegis of the Folkermesse festival, which he himself had conceived in Casale, Martinotti had created, among other things, “Transitalia”, in June 1997, in Vercelli: in a single show he had managed to bring together over twenty new folk artists from various Italian regions. With great names, from the Tenores di Bitti to Dodi Moscati to Ambrogio Sparagna. And the mise en espace had been entrusted to Moni Ovadia.
Over two hours of original and well-structured musical journey between Monferrato and tarantella, Venetian nursery rhymes and Marches ballads, respecting the specificity of each product. The specialized magazine blogfoolk.com recalls, among its many initiatives, “The” Songs of the rice lands “on the repertoires of rice-growing lands,” The Journey of Siberico “on the theme of the Via Francigena, the European Youth Folk Orchestra, the first youth orchestra European traditional music, the project of the super group Le Vijà and the one on partisan songs “And on earth we will make freedom”.
With Valerio Cipolli the development of the FolkCub-Ethnosuoni record label, the female folk award dedicated to Teresa Viarengo, musical collaborations with Enzo Avitabile, the Mediterranean utopia with Urbàlia Rurana ». And above all “Pau i Treva” or “Peace and Truce”, a show commissioned by the Catalan government with Piedmontese, Provençal, Catalan and Arab musicians: at the center the theme of peace and brotherhood among peoples.