Author: Jernej Vene
Artist: Zucchero
Label: Universal Music Group
Release: 2012
Length: 49:57
Rating: 3.6/5
Italy’s number one pop export of the middle generation is Zucchero Fornaciari. He sells more records than Eros Ramazzotti or Vasco Rossi. Ahead of him stands the old guard: Luciano Pavarrotti, Adriano Celentano, Toto Cutugno, Milva and Patty Pravo. And of course, those guys have had longer careers too.
As is the custom with Italian singers of “bigger format”, their records come out in several languages. Zucchero started his career in 1970 at the tender age of fifteen. It took him almost another fifteen years to make it. All those hours spent learning instruments and playing taverns and dives paid off when he packed his bags and headed to Los Angeles. There he met bassist Randy Jackson (who played with Santana, Jean-Luc Ponty, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Journey and plenty of others), and the two of them recorded the breakthrough album Zucchero & Randy Jackson band. I’d say that ever since the record Blue’s (1987), featuring the song Senza una donna, he’s been known in Slovenia too, not just in the Primorska region. Adelmo Fornaciari, as his real name goes, threw himself into conquering the global music market in the late eighties. You all know his duets with Paul Young, Sheryl Crow, Randy Crawford and many others.
The title of the album, La sesion Cubana, says it all. Zucchero had been carrying around a wish for a record with a Latin flavor for a long time. He made that long-held dream come true by teaming up with a crew of Cuban musicians. He had a free hand picking the songs, and I’d venture he went for the convincing, or rather the quick, option. He dressed a few big hits in Cuban atmosphere, switched up the rhythm and pushed them into the party world of salsa and rumba. The other half of the material is made up of songs that had never been released and had been lying in a drawer, because he didn’t hear them as outright pop or rock numbers. He didn’t toss them, though, they were just waiting for special treatment.
At its core the music is unmistakably Italian, while the instrumentation gives it a cosmopolitan air. As we know, Cuban music is temperamental, seductive and sweetly dreamy. Zucchero successfully re-dressed his own songs, which normally live as canzone, pop, blues and rock, with the help of Don Was, who has been his producer on the last two albums. Just as Zucchero raves about the blues and likes to name New Orleans as one of his main sources of inspiration, this time he set himself the challenge of recording a Cuban-sounding album. He pulled off a pleasant and highly listenable record. The easygoing, hedonistic laziness of his music has always been there, but this time it got an even more pronounced face. Big stars often lose touch with reality, and that can sometimes show in the music too. A lack of focus and half-hearted commitment to the work usually wreck even the most beautiful and appealing goal. Zucchero is cunningly skillful here, he knows exactly how to bring the idea to a juicy, ripe fruit. He bet big on natural instrumentation, which gave him an organic, summery, airy sound. Of course, on the new record Zucchero once again invited musicians who had already proven themselves and helped him on previous projects.
The mix of languages on La sesion cubana is interesting too. Italian, English, Spanish and Portuguese are the territories where Zucchero wins over the doubters with his unmistakable charm and a voice that’s just the right amount of sadly raspy.
La session cubana is perfect for New Year’s parties, picnics in the great outdoors, or a carefree drive through the countryside (and through time). Zucchero has given the familiar material a fitting makeover and a fresh twist, and for plenty of listeners it will also be a gateway to a whole temperamental necklace of Cuban tones.
Lineup
Zucchero – vocals, guitar, piano, organ
Pucho Lopez – piano
Elmer Ferrer – tres, guitars, mandolin
Blake Mills, Waddy Wachtel – guitars
Michael Fernandez – bass guitar
Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez – drums
Jose Luis Quintana, Joaquin Nunez Hidalgo – percussion
Peter John Vettese – keyboards
Sexto Sentido choir, Bebe, Djavan, Chance – backing vocals
Production
Zucchero, Don Was
Track list
- Nena
- Baila (Sexy Thing)
- Un Kilo
- Never is a moment
- Guantanamera (Guajira)
- Cuba libre
- L’urlo
- Everybody’s got to learn sometime
- Love is all around (Still)
- Così celeste
- Pana (feat. Bebe)
- Ave maria no morro (feat. Djavan)
- Sabor a ti
