Radici: the Neapolitan songbook read in trio by Nocita, Diara and Toscano
Seven Neapolitan-song classics (from 'O marenariello to Luna Rossa, Voce 'e notte to Tammurriata Nera) plus two originals. The Mediterranean voice of Syracuse-born Elisa Nocita, Maurizio Diara on guitar and Nello Toscano on double bass build a jazz reading that runs through the Neapolitan roots of Italian musical culture.
Radici was released on Anaglyphos on 16 June 2023. It is a trio that places the classical Neapolitan-song repertoire at its center, reread in a jazz key by three deeply Mediterranean voices: Elisa Nocita (vocals, from Syracuse), Maurizio Diara (guitars) and Nello Toscano (double bass and electronics).
The project
The roots in the title are geographical and linguistic before they are musical: the Neapolitan language, the classical forms of Neapolitan song, the arc of Mediterranean sound that runs from Sicily up the peninsula to Campania. The trio does not read the songs through a folk lens, nor does it force them into jazz: it moves through them, leaving their melodic structure intact while modulating timbre, tempo and dynamics.
The nine tracks
- Vieneme 'nzuonno (5:25)
- I' te vurria vasà (5:10) — Eduardo Di Capua, Vincenzo Russo, 1900
- Voce 'e notte (4:42) — Ernesto De Curtis, 1903
- Tu sì 'a malincunia (4:29)
- 'O marenariello (5:03) — Salvatore Gambardella, 1893
- Luna Rossa (5:05) — Antonio Vian, Vincenzo De Crescenzo, 1950
- Tammurriata Nera (5:34) — E.A. Mario, Edoardo Nicolardi, 1944
- Marea (4:59)
- Dune (4:09)
Seven Neapolitan-song classics, written between the late nineteenth century and the post-war period, form the spine of the record. The closing two tracks, Marea and Dune, are originals signed by the trio.
Elisa Nocita's voice
A Syracuse-born vocalist, Nocita has long worked on a repertoire that weaves Neapolitan song, the Sicilian tradition (the chants of the tuna fishermen, the protest texts of Rosa Balistreri) and jazz phrasing. Her Mediterranean voice — described by critics for its modal harmonic excursions and its Arabic-tinged melodic lines — delivers these texts with a linguistic fidelity that demands they be taken seriously before they are enjoyed.
Diara and Toscano
Maurizio Diara on guitar opens up the harmonic space, working on reharmonization without forcing. Nello Toscano on double bass — a constant presence in the Anaglyphos catalog — uses electronics with his usual restraint: as extension, never as replacement of the acoustic register.
The album has since become a stage project: in August 2024 the trio (with Emanuele Primavera added on drums) brought Radici to the Naxos Archaeological Park as part of the Donne in Jazz series.
Available on all digital platforms.
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