Artist Profiles: Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino

Renowned Italian band Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino was created by writer Rina Durante in 1975. It is one of Italy’s most reputable and longest-standing traditional music ensembles.

Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino comes from Puglia in the Salento, in southern Italy. The lineup consists of a seven member band and a dancer.

The ensemble recreates southern Italy’s Pizzica musical and dance traditions. The tradition pizzica tarantata is said to cure the taranta spider’s bite with its frenzied trance dances.

In 2021, CGS released a new album titled Meridiana. The album title means “sundial” and referred to the international environment at the time. “This last year especially, made us all wonder much about time,” Mauro explained, “its weight and relevance in our lives. The sundial was one of the first instruments to measure time, using light and shadow—those are strong symbols, full of meanings…Thinking about time means thinking about our lives and the people who make them worthwhile. And if, as physics scientist Feynman stated, “Time is what happens when nothing else happens”, this last year gave us the chance to feel time a lot.”

The COVID-19 pandemic affected Italy severely. Mauro expressed how the pandemic affected CGS: “A band is a living thing, just like its music. And we never stop experimenting and exploring our distinctiveness. But the pandemic has been really hard. It wasn’t easy to meet, to make music together, to be a band in the usual way… But somehow we managed. Working with our guests was a new experience; we could only work remotely, but still we created something we’re proud of. This album is proof that the desire to share, to dance together, is irresistible. Music really has no borders.”

Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino is led by fiddler and frame drummer Mauro Durante. The rest of the ensemble in 2025 included Emanuele Licci on bouzouki, classical guitar, vocals; Alessia Tondo on vocals; Silvia Perrone on dance; Giulio Bianco on harmonica, zampogna (Italian bagpipes), recorder; Massimiliano Morabito on diatonic accordion; and Giancarlo Paglialunga on tamburello, vocals.

In 2026, Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino released Il Mito (The Myth). The album contains eleven essential songs drawn from five decades of CGS history, now newly arranged and recorded by the current line-up. In particular, songs such as “Kali Nifta,” “Lu rusciu de lu mare,” “Quistione Meridionale,” “A mmera a Lecce,” “Dumenica Matina,” and “Beddhu Stanotte” weave together voices, memories, and repertories that have accompanied CGS across decades of live performance. At the same time, founding voices return, Roberto Licci, a cornerstone of Griko culture, sings alongside his son Emanuele Licci; meanwhile, Rossella Pinto, who performed with CGS for over thirty years, reappears as a vocalist on “Lu rusciu de lu mare,” a song built on Daniele Durante’s original guitar arrangement and reinterpreted here in dialogue with her son Mauro Durante.

Throughout the album, songs born in homes, courtyards, and village squares coexist with some of the ensemble’s most emblematic original compositions, all reactivated within a contemporary collective sound. As a result, the atmosphere feels warm, physical, and welcoming, rooted in acoustic instruments such as frame drums, violin, diatonic accordion, bouzouki or guitar, winds, bagpipes, and four distinctive voices. In addition, occasional touches of Giacomo Greco’s synth bass surface in “Inude.”

Finally, the album closes with a newly remastered version of “Taranta,” composed by Mauro Durante and Ludovico Einaudi. Here, Einaudi’s piano, long associated with contemporary instrumental music far beyond the world music field, serves as a bridge between ritual rhythm and modern composition. Consequently, the piece reaffirms the healing, trance-driven origins of pizzica while opening them to a broader, cross-genre listening context.

Il Mito topped the Transglobal World Music Chart in February 2026. One month later, the album hit number 1 in the World Music Charts Europe.

Discography:

Canti di terra d’Otranto e della Grecia Salentina (Fonit Cetra, 1997)
Concerto 1 (1980)
Come farò a diventare un mito (Dunya, 1983)
Concerto 2 (1985)
Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino (1988)
Concerto 3 (1991)
Sutt’acqua e sutta ientu navegamu (1994)
Mamminieddhu Zuccaratu (1994)
Ni pizzicau lu core (1997)
Ballati tutti quanti ballati forte (Felmay, 1998)
Canti e pizziche d’amore (Salento Altra Musica, 2000)
carataranta (Salento Altra Musica, 2000)
Pizzica pizzica (Salento Altra Musica, 2001)
Alla Riva Del Mare (Salento Altra Musica, 2002)
Serenata (Salento Altra Musica, 2002)
Focu D’Amore (Ponderosa Music & Art, 2010)
Pizzica Indiabolata (Ponderosa Music & Art, 2012)
Quaranta (Ponderosa Music & Art, 2015)
Canzoniere (Ponderosa Music & Art, 2017)
Meridiana (Ponderosa Records, 2021)
Il Mito (Ponderosa, 2026)

Author: Angel Romero

Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.