As many as 150,000
music and dance buffs from around the world will converge on the
southern Puglia region for the annual Taranta Night festival
Saturday, celebrating the dazzling folk music traditions of the
Salento area.
"This music has an extraordinary magnetism," renowned
composer and violinist Giovanni Sollima told reporters at the
presentation of the 17th edition of Italy's biggest music
festival.
"We are all going to be overwhelmed by the rhythm".
The Taranta is a hypnotic folk dance first created by women
working in the tobacco fields of Puglia.
As the artistic director of the extravaganza, Sollima
arranges and interprets classics from the local musical
tradition, directing a group of nearly 30 musicians from Salento
together with exceptional guests from Italy and abroad.
Leading Italian musicians this year at the frenetic event
include Roberto Vecchioni, Antonella Ruggiero, Alessandro
Mannarino and the Mancuso brothers.
The festival also celebrates the fusion of Salento's music
with other musical genres and features a constellation of guest
artists from outside Italy including Nigerian troubadour
Bombino, known as the "Jimi Hendrix of the desert," Israeli
mandolin wizard Avi Avital, singer Lori Cotler and tamburello
virtuoso Glen Velez.
"I have spent my life studying this instrument in the
world," Velez said. "It has been really important for me to come
south and see this tradition. Playing with these masters of the
tamburello is a dream. And the temperature is like in Texas so I
feel at home".
This year's edition of the festival is dedicated to the
late Latin American author Gabriel Garcia Marquez "for his
commitment to placing value on memory".
Avital said the festival also carries a message of peace
for the strife-torn Middle East.
"Music always carries a message of humanity and peace,
values of which I consider myself an ambassador during these
times," he said.
Puglia Governor Nichi Vendola echoed that sentiment.
"Fundamentalism is rampant in the world, contaminating
popular music, rhythms and sounds," he said.
"The Taranta night is about rediscovering convivial
values," he said.
The festival's orchestra will go on a world tour and is
slated to play Bethlehem on December 23, organizers said.
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