Musica Stampata – Issue 1 (January 2021)

In The Wild Metropolis. Has There Ever Been A Black Music in ?

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 . 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, , Carlo Savina, , 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. According to witnesses of that time, his figure seems to have represented a real source for certain kind of sounds for the next generation, who had the chance to learn from him both the basics of instrumental settings and American culture. There were, on the one hand, TV shows and, on the other, figures working in discos as the outposts of these African American sounds in the eighties. Disco music with its rap components in 1979 sounded like something new to casual listeners, but it was not enough: breakdance sounds introduced electro music. This kind of music needs a huge setting to be played properly and the presence of a producer and of a studio is paramount. The figures that maintain a strong bond with the USA are, among others, the editor Piero Colasanti and the Goody Music Record store, a branch of the US Sam Goody records, for the import of black American records.6 This allows us to include an additional aspect: the urban context. Let us pretend that our reader is taking a walk through the streets of Rome, starting from Piazzale Flaminio near Goody Music store. Their walk continues to Via del Corso, home of another interesting place: the Babilonia fashion shop in which, back in the days, thanks to the owners, there was a console and Ice One himself playing there every so often. The central position made the fashion shop an easy hang out spot for young people interested in the sounds that they – let us admit it – have listened to from the aforementioned TV shows. Here they experienced a reproduction of those scenarios, thanks to the fashion style, and of the sounds, thanks to the DJ presence. But let us now go on with our walk. Towards Piazza Venezia, we see on the left Galleria Colonna (today called Galleria Alberto Sordi) which was, during the eighties and nineties, a special place for Roman break-dancers thanks to its characteristic floor. These were very vivid years and many local and national journals talked about and documented this young

5 The exhibit actually took place in 1979. See Francesco Carpenè, “‘The Fabulous Five’ e ‘Arte Di Frontiera’: L’ingresso Del Writing Nelle Gallerie d’arte” (Tesi di laurea triennale, Venezia, Università IUAV di Venezia, 2013), https://www.academia.edu/10280750/_The_Fabulous_Five_e_Arte_di_Frontiera_lingresso_del_writing_nelle_gallerie_ darte. 6 The store will later become independent from the American franchise. 4 phenomenon. Our walk in the center of Rome is now getting dense. The people that our reader meets are relatively young. Let us observe them more closely. During this period, the interest towards breakdance was very solid, to the point that a connection with scenes from other cities developed. Side by side with Roman boys and girls, there was an emerging generation of kids, young sons and daughters of the diplomatic corps of the Democratic Republic of Congo. This component was important in the observation and in the transmission of specific codes in hip hop culture. Regarding the fruition of this, by then, self- conscious form of music, dance and art, it is necessary to look again at the structures and environments in which they took shape. The music environment itself and – going back to the introduction – the political context. Let us now develop the latter further. Those years saw a growing occupy activity from left wing figures, with Forte Prenestino being the most significant of these occupied places. This is an important watershed in our description, since a large part of hip hop scene found its home in these places during the nineties. This raises an interesting point: it was indeed these new generations who attempted at rebuilding a bridge between the political side and hip hop culture, by taking it into these places. Subcultures coming from North America and United Kingdom were not immediately welcomed in these recently occupied places, and the path of acceptance by Autonomia Operaia was long and complicated. We have seen how rap music, towards the end of the seventies, appeared as a different form of disco, not truly appreciated in left radical circles. Here comes the work of Radio Onda Rossa, when some people coming from the hip hop scene of the eighties wanted to transform this music into a vehicle for important and urgent matters. While writing was, for instance, used by the (all-female) 00199 Crew, rap became important for Militant A and Castro X, eventually members of Onda Rossa Posse and, respectively, Assalti Frontali and AK47. Italian posse is a phenomenon which cannot really be discussed in this short article, but it has been certainly a real bridge for the assimilation of certain languages and, in turn, their transformation into local dialects. 7 The mechanism, discussed above, is partially overthrown: there are no longer spectators watching on their screens fragments of African American cultures, but it is now the press watching and reporting back what these young kids are doing. And not just the press: the movement grabbed the attention even of academics, like the sociologist and philosopher George Lapassade, who arrived at La Sapienza University – at the time occupied – with a bunch of breakers and rappers from Paris.8 Moreover, in 1989 Francesco Adinolfi (Alessandro Portelli’s pupil) defends the first thesis about hip hop in an Italian university, later to be published as a book.9 The histories coming from the Italian hip hop scene in the nineties are quite diverse and widely documented, and therefore it is fair for us to leave it aside and to continue delving into our research about black music in Rome - if there has ever been one. We have seen the circulation of funk and disco music in clubs and discos, during the seventies and eighties, although there is more to it. During the eighties the elements of soul, funk and jazz were also seen through the lenses of another very British scene: Mod culture. Born in England in the sixties, Mod culture undergoes a rebirth in the eighties. These scenes too have been widely documented, but precisely by digging into this history we identify two main characters: Eddie Piller and his friend

7 See Paolo Fazzini, All’assalto. Le Radici Del Rap in Italiano (Home Movies Doc, 2015). 8 See Georges Lapassade and Philippe Rousselot, RAP. Il furore del dire (Bepress, 2009). 9 Francesco Adinolfi, Suoni dal ghetto: la musica rap dalla strada alle hit-parade (Costa & Nolan, 1989). See also Vincenzo Patanè Garsia, Hip hop. Sangue e oro. Vent’anni di cultura rap a Roma (Arcana, 2002). 5

Gilles Peterson, who in 1987 founded the Acid Jazz label. But what is going on in Rome at that time? We already discussed some of it, but let us take another walk through downtown Rome, but instead of going to see the breakers’ spot at the Galleria Colonna, let us turn into Piazza Capranica, near the Pantheon. In the early eighties this was the place to be for the Roman mod scene, a young scene but nonetheless able to build a solid connection with international counterparts, and vital enough to raise highly talented bands. The African American influence came here from Paul Weller’s projects, first of all the Jam – although still with a punk rock attitude style – and of course the Style Council. In 1984, after a Style Council’s gig, the Underground Arrows and the Pub are born. These bands found Rome as their environment: a city in which different scenes and styles merge into each other, in clubs and squats, in apolitical and naïve ways. Maybe it was precisely this sort of melting pot that gave birth to new bands – in a very similar way to the London scene experienced by Eddie Piller and Gilles Peterson – like, the Downtowners, an original ska/reggae band, and the Mobsters of Roberto Corsi (the future artistic director of the Circolo degli Artisti in its most highly prolific period, in the mid- nineties). During this prolific period Incognito, the James Taylor Quartet and Jamiroquai arrived in Rome, from London. The attention from major labels is growing and, after the success of Jamiroquai, (managed by Eddie Piller), even BMG Ricordi steps in. Rome is not less prolific than London: the Beating System’s cassette and the Babyra Soul’s records are the most important instances, among others. The Beating System has been important in the reconstruction of many young kids’ experiences of coming to Rome from African countries. After all, Kevin Etienne – cousin of Valerie Etienne – is the lead singer of the band. This band, more than other bands, represents what will be eventually defined the acid jazz movement, thanks to the aforementioned label.10 It is from this milieu that more mature band Gazzara emerged. On the other hand, the Babyra Soul founded by lead singer Barbara Ottaviani are produced by the Roman DJ Giancarlino. This figure is our key to comprehend how in the mid-nineties the acid jazz sound was fairly handled by DJs.11 Though the moment was deeply inspiring and vibrant, and despite the interest in the scene from one of the most important Italian labels, Ricordi Records, Rome never turned “mainstream”. During the mid-nineties, moreover, acid jazz became a specific sound and its involvement with rap music started to dissolve little by little. Traces of a standardized acid jazz form – but also artistically solid – comfortable with the Italian mainstream guidelines, can be found in the work of Marina Rei. During the same period, the hip hop movement reached its peak and Irma Records from Bologna presented the different voices of the prolific movement of the nineties. And as the nineties comes to an end, so does our brief research. It is time for us to answer our initial question: can we legitimately call black music these artistic forms in Rome between the seventies and the nineties? Why did we choose this historical period? These years have a powerful strength, the one of those that define a transition. As we have seen in this short essay, there were many different voices and observing the same phenomenon produced different perspectives. The witnesses of these decades refuse to talk of a conscious “transmission of a black American music culture”, they would rather talk of a spontaneous and naïve form of aggregation, especially prolific of course during the eighties and the nineties. Those who observe this micro 1968 in 2020, however, want to codify and systematize it, without conforming it or turning its richness into a simplified

10 Meanwhile, examples of this kind of sound appear in the US, too: the Jazz Matazz series by Guru (from the Gang Starr) and the Roots are two names worth mentioning. 11 On this topic see Francesco Gazzara, Storia dell’acid jazz. I gruppi, gli ambienti e gli stili del movimento che ha cambiato l’immaginario musicale del nostro tempo (Meridiano Zero, 2017). 6 museum exhibition. The aim is to preserve and document what happened while building a little map for those who want to retrace the steps of these older generations, who did not want to be our teachers, and yet were so generous with all of us.

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Bibliography Adinolfi, Francesco. Suoni dal ghetto: la musica rap dalla strada alle hit-parade. Costa & Nolan, 1989. Ben Matundu, Napal. Crash Kid: A Hip Hop Legacy. Drago Arts & Communication, 2019. Carpenè, Francesco. “‘The Fabulous Five’ e ‘Arte Di Frontiera’: L’ingresso Del Writing Nelle Gallerie d’arte.” Tesi di laurea triennale, Università IUAV di Venezia, 2013. https://www.academia.edu/10280750/_The_Fabulous_Five_e_Arte_di_Frontiera_lingresso_ del_writing_nelle_gallerie_darte. Fazzini, Paolo. All’assalto. Le Radici Del Rap in Italiano. Home Movies Doc, 2015. Garsia, Vincenzo Patanè. Hip hop. Sangue e oro. Vent’anni di cultura rap a Roma. Arcana, 2002. Gazzara, Francesco. Storia dell’acid jazz. I gruppi, gli ambienti e gli stili del movimento che ha cambiato l’immaginario musicale del nostro tempo. Meridiano Zero, 2017. Lapassade, Georges, and Philippe Rousselot. RAP. Il furore del dire. Bepress, 2009. Martinelli, Alberto, and Alessandro Cavalli, eds. Il Black Panther Party. Torino: Einaudi, 1971. Savona, A. Virgilio. Gli indimenticabili Cetra. Sperling & Kupfer, 1992. Ternavasio, Maurizio. Il Quartetto Cetra, ovvero, Piccola storia dello spettacolo leggero italiano. Lindau, 2002.