Bob Salmieri, Alessandro De Angelis & Mediterranean Jazz Project - Sicilian Lullabies and Tales (2023)

The lullabies in Sicily, like popular songs, are a great and ancient tradition.

Many of these were written and set to music by important poets and composers who, in turn, were probably inspired by the ancient melodies of the Mediterranean. One of the most famous and celebrated lullabies, both in Italy and abroad, is undoubtedly "La Siminzina" composed by the poet Lionardo Vigo in the 19th century and sung by the most important Sicilian singer Rosa Balistreri.

After all, Sicily boasts a vast repertoire of popular songs inspired by the various professions such as the songs of the carters, coral workers or tuna fishers who intertwined their songs with the melodies left centuries earlier by the Arabs who in Sicily, in the Egadi Islands, handed down the tradition of the Mattanza, still in use until a few decades ago between Trapani and Favignana. The repertoire of prisoners' songs is also great, which are closest to the blues tradition of American Work Songs.

The idea of composing new arias inspired by Sicilian lullabies and folk songs arose from the need to continue Bob Salmieri's twenty-year research on the culture of the Mediterranean, in particular by looking for the existing connections between the countries and peoples bordering the Mare Nostrum.

The pieces of Sicilian Lullabies and tales, all composed by Salmieri & De Angelis, are imbued with the typical melancholy of Sicilian melodies mixed with the universal language of Jazz, with which it has many meeting points, in fact "Mediterranean culture has had its blues for centuries, in many different forms: rebetiko, Neapolitan, flamenco, Jewish and Arab music are filled with a "bluesy" atmosphere (cited by Adam Baruch).It is therefore not surprising that many jazz players, both past and present modern, have found inspiration from popular music.