Etta Scollo
Etta Scollo (* 1958 in Catania , Sicily ) is an Italian singer. She currently lives in Berlin and Sicily. Her musical program combines Sicilian tradition, pop avant-garde and jazz influences.
Biography and artistic career
After studying art and architecture in Turin (from 1980), which she dropped out, and training in singing and dance at the Vienna Conservatory (from 1983), she won first prize at the Diana Marina Jazz Festival . Etta Scollo then worked with the blues musicians Eddie Lockjaw Davis , Memphis Slim , Joachim Palden and champion Jack Dupree . In 1988 she landed an Italian cover version of the Beatles song Oh, Darling! a number one hit in Austria . Numerous tours and appearances in Austria, Germany and Switzerland followed. She had two more hits in the Austrian charts with Sole, sun, soleil (1989) and Insieme Fairplay (1990, in a duet with José Feliciano ). Her participation in the Austrian preliminary decision for the Eurovision Song Contest in 1994 was unsuccessful . With Amico Pierre Scollo only reached seventh and thus penultimate place.
She made her way to Hamburg in 1997 , where she met her long-time musical companions: Ferdinand von Seebach ( keyboards , trombone ), Joe Huth (bass), Boris Match (keyboards, cello ), Martin Druzella ( drums , percussions ) and Frank Wulff ( Ukulele , singing saw , hurdy-gurdy , jew's harp ).
Since 2006 Etta Scollo has intensified her collaboration with the guitarist Hinrich Dageför (including Dagefoer and Ougenweide ). With the cellist Susanne Paul , who has played in her band since 2009, she also performs as a duo under the name Scollo con Cello .
In a period that she herself felt as an artistic crisis of its own, Etta Scollo also became active in the theater and opera . In the musical performance of Johann Wolfgang Goethe's Faust II (2009, music by Karsten Gundermann ) she played the role of Helena. The following year she played and sang Alice in the opera Alice in Wonderland at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo . Also in 2010 she arranged the music of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Rigoletto for a contemporary production at the Neukölln Opera in Berlin.
It has become a concern of Etta Scollo to combine music with literature and poetry, be it on her last albums ( Il Fiore Splendente , Cuoresenza , Lunaria ) or on stage. Since 2014 she has been presenting Italian love songs and love stories in her program Parliamen d'amore together with Joachim Król (2015 also with Rolf Becker ).
Albums
Etta Scollo and Io Vivro
Etta Scollo's first two albums (1989 and 1991) were made during her years in Vienna and were particularly successful in Austria. Catchy, lively and danceable pop sounds , rhythm & blues , soul or echoes of gospel music still dominate here . At that time, her singing was still strongly influenced by the idea of using her large vocal range as powerfully as possible. She sings some of the songs in English. “Stai” (1990) became the theme song for the Tatort episode Schimanski's weapon . In addition to her own compositions, she covers songs by the Beatles ("Oh Darling") or Isaac Hayes ("Soul Girl", actually "Soul Man").
Blu:
After moving to Hamburg, Etta Scollo also made a significant change in style and mood with the album Blu: (1999). It brings significantly more complex arranged songs, most of which she wrote herself or together with the composer and musician Christoph Maria Kaiser . The British producer and arranger Wil Malone was won over for the orchestral arrangements. a. Scollo's Italian colleague Gianna Nannini also produced. The traditions of Italian Cantautori and jazz influences now come to the fore in their music . This is especially true for Scollo's singing style. In contrast to the early recordings, their phrasing is now closer to jazz: they are now more at the service of composition and arrangement and are in part already used like an instrument. The song "I tuoi fiori" was used for the trailer for the film Bad Guy (2001) by the South Korean filmmaker Kim Ki-duk .
Il Bianco del Tempo
Il Bianco del Tempo (2002) is produced by Blackpete (Peter Schmidt) and consistently continues the new path. In addition, she expands the sound spectrum with trombone , flute and subtle electronic sounds from the Theremin Vox ("Il Buio", "Chi son´io"). On the other hand, she does without the drum computer that was still used on Blu : . The compositions, mostly atmospheric ballads, oscillate between jazz , soul , chanson and pop . With “Villa Grimaldi” Etta Scollo is setting a musical memorial to the victims of the military coup in Chile in the form of a funeral march . The text recites the maxim of the Uruguayan poet Mario Benedetti , who adorns the “Muro de los Nombres” (the “Wall of Names”), the memorial for the victims of torture by the DINA secret police between 1974 and 1977 in the Villa Grimaldi : “L´oblio é pieno di memoria ”(in the Spanish original:“ El olvido está lleno di memoria ”-“ Forgetting is full of memories ”).
Casa
With Casa (2003), again produced by Blackpete, she reached a creative climax. Musically more diversified and dynamic than its predecessors, the album combines not only classical chanson, jazz, pop and folk but also elements of rock . "Crescere non mi va" is a cover version of Tom Waits "I Don´t Wanna Grow Up" from his album Bone Machine, arranged with musical irony as a crescendo . The sacred “Unn 'e”, the last piece on the album, was recorded in the Trinitatiskirche (Sondershausen) using the restored organ.
Canta Ro ' and Canta Ro' in trio
Both albums mark Etta Scollo's turn to the traditional music of her homeland, Sicily. In the project Canta Ro '- Omaggio a Rosa Balistreri (2005) she brings the music of the folk singer Rosa Balistreri to new life. This album won three music prizes, including the German RUTH World Music Prize (2007). In Hamburg she worked out the partly new arrangements together a. a. with the composers and arrangers Peter Hinderthür , Julian Maas and Ferdinand von Seebach. The album was recorded live with the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana in Palermo , Cefalù and Bagheria .
A year later, at the request of her concert audience, Etta Scollo repeated this homage in a reduced arrangement on the album Canta Ro 'in Trio , which was recorded live in Gibellina (Sicily) and Berlin.
Les Siciliens
In the footsteps of Canta Ro ' , Les Siciliens deals with the history and legends of their Sicilian homeland. The French title of the program comes from the legend of the town of Sperlinga , in which the French conquerors are said to have been hidden in their castle by the locals who sympathized with them during the Vespers War in 1282. In addition to traditional Sicilian songs, Etta Scollo also sets four poems by the Sicilian folk poet Ignazio Buttitta (1899–1997). The album was recorded live in September 2007 in Berlin's bar every reason .
Il Fiore Splendente
Il Fiore Splendente (2008) recalls the Arabic-Sicilian poetry of the early and high Middle Ages. Etta Scollo was inspired for this album by reading the Antologica dei poeti arabi di Sicilia edited by Francesca M. Corrao . Her compositions are just as varied as the poetry set to music: They range from simple guitar accompaniment to large orchestral arrangements. Many traditional instruments are also used, including the oud , the kemençe , the renaissance lute and the Arabic bendir . Peter Hinderthür, the cellist and composer Giovanni Sollima and Etta's brother, the lutenist Sebastiano Scollo , were involved in some of the compositions .
Cuoresenza
Cuoresenza (2011) is a very personal musical anthology on the subject of love. Apart from the title track from her own pen and the “Novak” by Hugo Wiener , which she intones as a slow blues in German, Etta Scollo has gathered her interpretations of love songs and poems by contemporary Italian cantautori and lyric poets from Fabrizio De André to Marthia Carrozzo to Franco Battiato . Peter Hinderthür is again involved as co-producer and co-composer.
Lunaria
Lunaria (2014) is her most ambitious project to date: It is the attempt to make the fantastic story of the same name by the Sicilian author Vincenzo Consolo understandable as a score and to translate it into music (scientific advice: Dagmar Reichardt ). In addition to singing, passages spoken by Consolo himself are also used. Musically, the album ranges from Sicilian folklore, traditional throat singing (“O Figghia”) to echoes of baroque music (“Doña Sol e Vicere”). The narrative structure gives the album an operatic feel. As with Il Fiore Splendente , Scollo uses a number of traditional instruments such as the kemençe , the baroque guitar and the theorbo . She is supported vocally by Cécile Kempenaers ( soprano ), Masashi Tsuji ( tenor ) and Christoph Drescher ( baritone ).
Scollo con cello: tempo al tempo
Together with the cellist Susanne Paul, Scollo is producing a project that is breaking new ground. After the sometimes lavish instrumentation of Lunaria , tempo al tempo (2015) is a minimalist album, mostly reduced to the interplay and counterplay of cello , voice and, now and then, acoustic guitar . In addition, mandolin , a singing saw or a glockenspieluhr are occasionally used. “Derrida” only uses the violoncello as a percussion instrument .
The concept of “Scollo con Cello” as a pure duo without guest musicians also means: Susanne Paul is an artistically equal partner who also contributes vocals to her instrument playing and a complete original composition with “Station Search”. She is also involved in all musical compositions and arrangements, with one exception.
In addition to new original compositions, the album again contains traditional Sicilian songs as well as poetry by Sicilian authors (Sebastiano Burgaretta or Salvatore Quasimodo ). Scollo and Paul also arrange works in German: “This is how it is with happiness”, a poem by Anna Böhm, is brought into a baroque musical form. Joachim Sartorius “Months” is a melancholy dialogue between song and cello on the subject of transience. Musically tempo al tempo oscillates between reduced chamber music with singing, Sicilian tradition and jazz elements.
In the texts, the central themes of time and transience are illuminated from different perspectives: sometimes philosophical ("Derrida" with a Dadaist touch), sometimes lyrical and meditative ("L'ala del tempo", "Ciatu"), sometimes ironic to biting (" Monsieur Uno ”,“ Channel search ”) or in the form of a traditional riddle poem (“ Nnimini ”). The arrangements vary accordingly, from melancholy to romantic on the one hand and joking to ironic on the other.
il passo interiore
Three years after tempo al tempo , Scollo is releasing an album that clearly differs in terms of atmosphere and content from its sometimes playfully humorous predecessor. Mostly recorded in her Berlin apartment, the album is characterized by melancholy arrangements and exclusively texts by other authors from a wide variety of sources, some of which have current political or historical backgrounds.
In “Suite per Lampedusa” she processes the open letter from the Mayor of Lampedusa Giusi Nicolini from 2012, in which she is indignant about Europe's indifference to the refugee crisis. Scollo's intention is to "sing the text like a storyteller" with the music she has composed. "I primi tempi", "Tra la morte e la vita" and "N'amore bello" refer to the Bois du Cazier mining accident in Belgium in 1956 , in which 156 Italian miners also died. Scollo uses interviews with contemporary witnesses collected in the 2011 book “La catastròfa” by Paolo Di Stefano and puts them into practice musically in such a way that they illustrate how pain is transformed into love and humanity in an “inner step”. The text for "Shemà Adonay" comes from the volume of poems Passo dopo passo (2017) by Sebastiano Burgaretta. and discusses the massacre of the Waffen SS of 560 civilians in the Tuscan mountain village of Sant'Anna di Stazzema in August 1944 and its inadequate legal processing. The title track “il passo interiore” also uses a poem text by Burgaretta and evokes - as a leitmotif for the entire album - in dark, almost hermetic verses, images of an (inner) journey, but also the transformation of pain into poetry.
Etta Scollo is musically supported in the trio by Susanne Paul (violoncello) and Cathrin Pfeifer ( accordion ). a. by Hinrich Dageför ( mandolin ) and Ferdinand von Seebach ( piano ). The sound is dominated by dark and calm flowing, solemn and ballad-like sounds. Only "Un cielu cianci", the second track on the album, and - in parts - "I primi tempi" and "Suite per Lampedusa" bring something like lively rhythms, such as those on Scollo's Sicilian albums Canta Ro ' and Les Siciliens can be heard.
Discography
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Albums
- Etta Scollo (1989, EMI)
- Io Vivro (1991, EMI)
- Blu: (1999, Home Records)
- Il Bianco del Tempo (2002, Home Records)
- Casa (2003, Mongebel)
- Il Fiore Splendente (2008, Edel Classic)
- Cuoresenza (2011, Trocadero)
- Lunaria (2014, Jazzhaus Records)
- Scollo con Cello: tempo al tempo (2015, Jazzhaus Records) with Susanne Paul
- il passo interiore (2018, Jazzhaus Records)
Live albums
- In Concerto (2002, Home Records)
- Canta Ro ' (2005, Premium Records) CD + DVD
- Canta Ro 'in Trio (2006, Premium Records)
- Les Siciliens (2007, Premium Records)
Singles
- Vivi piu forte (1987, Columbia)
- L'Era / Musica (1988, Columbia)
- Oh Darling (1989, Columbia)
- Sole, sun soleil / Vero (1989, EMI Columbia)
- Sulla pelle (1989, EMI Columbia)
- Insieme Fairplay (1990, EMI Columbia) with José Feliciano ; official soccer World Cup song of the ÖFB
- Stai / Nessuno, Sulla pelle (1990, EMI)
- Io vivro / Nessuna sa, Excess (1991, EMI)
- (Chi Ha Ucciso) Mr. Love / Come non mai (1991, EMI)
- Run / Excess (1992, EMI)
- I tuoi fiori (single remix) / I tuoi tiori, Vivere (1999, Pias Germa, Edel)
Compilations
- The Very Best of Etta Scollo (2004, EMI) 1987-1992
Awards
- Premio Pino Veneziano 2005
- RUTH - The German World Music Prize 2007
- Premio Rosa Balistreri-Alberto Favara VIII Ed. 2008
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://natfinals.50webs.com/90s_00s/Austria1994.html
- ↑ Interview with Justinus Pieper, April 10, 2010 on globe . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ biography on ettascollo.de
- ↑ See "Nature and Definition of Jazz Singing" on Wikipedia.
- ↑ Movie Trailer "Bad Guy" on YouTube.
- ↑ ettascollo.de/biografia
- ↑ Peter Hinderthür . Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved April 1, 2019.
- ↑ "Les Siciliens" on ettascollo.de
- ↑ Booklet on Il Fiore Splendente , to be found on ettascollo.de
- ↑ YouTube video about the creation of "Il passo interiore" from March 15, 2018 (German version)
- ↑ See also: YouTube video for "il passo interiore" from March 15, 2018 (from 6:32 am)
- ^ Paolo Di Stefano "La catastròfa" on the Sellerio website
- ↑ See also: YouTube video for "il passo interiore" from March 15, 2018 (from 4:28)
- ↑ Sebastiano Burgaretta "Passo dopo passo" on the website of the Algra publishing house.
- ↑ a b Chart sources: AT
| personal data | |
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| SURNAME | Scollo, Etta |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Italian singer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1958 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Catania , Sicily |