In the Wild Metropolis. Has There Ever Been a Black Music in Rome?

Musica Stampata – Issue 1 (January 2021) In The Wild Metropolis. Has There Ever Been A Black Music in Rome? By Jumgal Fever DJset1 Abstract Is it possible to talk of an Italian black music? Is it possible to do this as for the city of Rome? Scattered traces of African American culture, or rather cultures, are today everywhere in our imagination, and Rome is without doubt one of its interpreters. But before delving into this, how did this culture come about? Has it found fertile ground? This short essay is only a first step along this research. For now, necessarily, we chose not to talk about some important aspects such as, for example, the reggae scene. Going over the historical events that helped the forms and traces of African American music circulate in the city of Rome between the seventies and the nineties is a difficult task for several reasons: the literature in recent years has been inconsistent due to the diverse waves of interest for this phenomenon and many essays were produced before 2007, year of the proper explosion of the rap music in Italy. Navigating it would have been impossible without the guidance of two competent people: Francesco Gazzara and David Nerattini. To them goes my appreciation for helping me put together the part of this complex puzzle, for sharing with me their knowledge, their memories and their stories with generosity even if they did not meet me before. Thank You. Following the traces – we must of course use the plural – of an African American culture in Rome between the seventies and the nineties is not that simple. We must talk about different voices, perhaps disconnected between each other, and – most of all – we must consider a social and political texture that, in the seventies, is literally exploding. As it is well known, political movements faced an extremely vivid period, both on the radical left and right wing, a period that put politics at the core of Italian life. The culture that came out from this context must be considered through this highly powerful lens. American music is not a novelty in Italy: in the fifties the Quartetto Cetra reproduces the Boogie-Woogie style, like “Pietro Wughi il Ciabattino”, and Bill Haley’s rock’n’roll,2 while in the sixties we notice rhythm’n’blues style in the complessi (bands) of the period. Moreover, Rome is the so-called Hollywood on Tiber, welcoming many sonorizzazioni (library music) and movie soundtracks authors. In the fifties and the sixties Piero Umiliani’s work is deeply influenced by jazz, and so are Amedeo Tommasi, Mario Nascimbene, Carlo Savina, Armando Trovajoli, Piero Piccioni. These are musicians coming from an academic and classical background: once they have metabolized the swing’s rhythm section, approach their style to blues and jazz. In the seventies, we cannot forget that the Quartetto Cetra wrote a song called “Angela” for Angela Davis. Besides, it is interesting to mention the film, coming from the same context, by Nanni Loy Sistemo l’America e torno (1974). In 1 Jumgal Fever is a duo posse since 2007. Their vinyl-based selections of funk, soul, jazz and hip hop music were born in the squats, in the clubs and in the skateparks of Rome. 2 We are talking about “Rock Around The Clock”, which became “L’orologio matto. On this topic see A. Virgilio Savona, Gli indimenticabili Cetra (Sperling & Kupfer, 1992) and Maurizio Ternavasio, Il Quartetto Cetra, ovvero, Piccola storia dello spettacolo leggero italiano (Lindau, 2002). 2 the movie, a very young Paolo Villaggio must recruit a basketball player, and while in the USA he learns about the stories and actions of the Black Panthers Party. Loy’s movie has a clearly political intent and Villaggio’s involvement is probably related to his radical left political ideas. So, have we finally found the continuity between African American context and the Italian cultural movement? Does the solution to our questions lie in the proximity between the Italian left side and the Black Panthers movement? Not at all. Their marriage is neither long nor strong in the seventies. The diffusion of funk, disco and soul music (the most bourgeois part of black music, so to speak) found its ground in the Roman clubs, gaining less to zero interest from radical left parties. That kind of music is so far away from the Italian left radicals, mostly interested in progressive rock and identifying with the music of the cantautori (Italian singer-songwriters). On one hand we have clubs and music selection based on the American sound and, on the other hand, we have the left-wing musical taste. As we can see, the reception of music in certain Italian contexts immediately turned into a political issue. Those were not neutral spaces, but rather cultural expressions of a complex society, deeply immerged in the political choices. In the Roman clubs’ context, African American music got in touch with right wing ideas and, in the richer neighborhoods – traditionally leaning towards the right wing – you might listen to the funk and disco sound of the seventies. Must be noted that the records that these – largely unaware – young rich kids listened to were not at all superficial and commercial. Rome was characterized by a distribution of refined funk records and by a sophisticated taste. DJs needed a specific space for the production and consumption of music, and Italy was not ready. In this scenario, clubs and DJs played black American music, while comrades listened to progressive rock. The African American matrix (its consequences and its battles in the USA) were in a paradoxical and overturned situation.3 Meanwhile, TV and movie composers were producing a kind of music which could be defined, without doubt, as funk: Umiliani, Piccioni, Trovajoli, Tommasi were working with funk themes from American movies of the seventies (like Shaft by G. Sparks). Funk sounds and “black” music altogether, were therefore circulating through big and small screens, in addition to the already mentioned local clubs. In the late seventies rap music and breakdance were exploding in the USA. Those were the years of Grandmaster Flash’s “The message” and some TV channels – now in color – broadcasted the sounds from the spectacular America. In 1979, Italian TV channel Odeon broadcasted a very popular show, Tutto quanto fa spettacolo, screening break-dancers. This dance style became an interesting vehicle for the transmission of African American sounds. In 1983, only four years later, dance recitals of breakdance were occurring at the Stadio Olimpico, hosted by the Giacomo Molinari’s gymnasium, featuring a very young Crash Kid, eventually becoming one of the most influential break-dancers in the world.4 Moves and rhythms were, at the same time, circulating on TV: in 1982, Jeffrey Daniel from the Shalamar appeared on Rai 2 and in the 1983 the TV show L’Orecchiocchio presented to the Italian audience the Magnificent Force breaking crew, who met in New York with TV author Massimiliano Verni. Moreover, Gianni Minà hosted the Magnificent Force at the Teatro Tenda Mancini in 1984. But why are these aspects so interesting to our research? Because it is this cultural environment that introduced the styles, sounds and rhythms to the Hip Hop 3 This reconstruction is more for the reader’s benefit, rather than a thorough depiction. It must be noted that since 1969 the Collettivo CR, possibly the first Italian radical left collective to produce studies on the Black Panthers, was active. For a Marxist perspective see also Alberto Martinelli and Alessandro Cavalli, eds., Il Black Panther Party (Torino: Einaudi, 1971). 4 Napal Ben Matundu, Crash Kid: A Hip Hop Legacy (Drago Arts & Communication, 2019). 3 Roman scene, just about to flourish. It must not go unnoticed, furthermore, that these were the same years of the documentary Wild Style (C. Ahearn, 1983), of Beat Street (S. Lathan, 1984), of Afrika Bambaataa’s world tour and of the Roman ‘Fab 5 Freddy’ exhibition at the Galleria La Medusa.5 This is a very relevant passage because the presence, in such a disarticulated form, of hip hop allows us to separate black music from the clubs of the seventies and from the rich neighborhoods. But it is important to highlight the fact that rap arrived in Italy through the notes of “Rappers Delight” by Sugar Hill Gang, a tune that uses the famous song from Chic, “Good Times.” At a superficial listen, this is simply a modified version of a disco song, so something quite simply recognizable as a club track. However, the strange external presence of rap is twofold: the club on one side and the street on the other side, making of the song a linking space not codified and tested yet. Let’s delve into the first aspect. We have previously talked about the disco and funk music distribution in Roman clubs and their role in linking the entertainment sphere to the genuine interest of Roman DJs for black sounds. Key figures were the Micione brothers (Piero and Paolo) and Marco Trani. The latter, in particular, was not only an important figure because of his work, but also for having been a role model to Ice One, one of the most important Roman DJ since the eighties. The guidance provided by these older DJs to Ice One allowed him to meet breakdance and, eventually, graffiti – at a time when the connection between these different art forms was not so clear in Italy (nor in the US, for that matter). Ice One’s interest made him a forerunner to a point where he became a source for the hip hop sounds.

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