Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino – Il Mito (Ponderosa Music Records, 2026)
Italian ensemble Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino has just released Il Mito (The Myth). For sure, Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino is an iconic act in Italy. They are celebrating their 50th anniversary with new scintillating recordings of material from throughout its history.
The band, founded in 1975 by writer and cultural activist Rina Durante and now led by violinist and percussionist Mauro Durante, is widely regarded as Italy’s longest-running roots ensemble. And also a leading name in contemporary world music. Il Mito collects eleven key songs from five decades, arranged and recorded by the current line-up that helped bring trancy pizzica to international stages over the last twenty years.
Rather than a straightforward “best of,” Il Mito presents older songs as a living repertoire continually renewed in concerts and collaborations with other artists. The title track, written by Rina Durante and set to music by long-time artistic director Daniele Durante raises a central question in the group’s story and in Southern Italian culture. That is, how an artist or community can attain “mythic” status while remaining rooted in a marginal land.
On Il Mito, Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino engages in intergenerational musical dialogue. Revisited pieces such as “Kali Nifta,” “Lu rusciu de lu mare,” “Quistione Meridionale,” “A mmera a Lecce,” “Dumenica Matina” and “Beddhu Stanotte” establishes a fraternal bridge between early CGS line-ups and today’s members.
Founding singer Roberto Licci appears alongside his son, Emanuele Licci, while veteran vocalist Rossella Pinto returns on “Lu rusciu de lu mare,” reconstructing Daniele Durante’s original guitar arrangement together with her son, Mauro. Traditional songs from homes, courtyards, patios and village squares take a seat next to some of the group’s signature original works, all renovated for the current ensemble sound.
The album offers a warm, acoustic-driven set of musical instruments, propelled by mesmerizing frame drums, violin, diatonic accordion, bouzouki and guitar, winds, bagpipes and four lead vocalists, with subtle synth bass from Giacomo Greco (Inude) on select tracks.
A newly remastered version of “Taranta,” composed by Mauro Durante and Ludovico Einaudi, closes the record. Einaudi’s distinct piano weaves pizzica’s ritual rhythms with contemporary instrumental composition.
The current CGS line-up includes Mauro Durante on vocals, violin, frame drums; Giulio Bianco on winds, bass; Emanuele Licci on vocals, guitar, bouzouki; Massimiliano Morabito on diatonic accordion; Giancarlo Paglialunga on vocals, frame drums; Alessia Tondo on vocals, percussion; and Silvia Perrone, dance.
Buy Il Mito.
Author: Iliana Cabrera
