È “Manzama” of the Mancuso Brothers the winning album of the City of Loano National Prize for Italian Traditional Music, the most prestigious award for traditional music in Italy, given annually to the best musical production in the folk sphere by a jury of more than fifty specialized journalists and scholars. The Youth Prize for the best record by musicians under 35, on the other hand, goes to “Canzoniere di Pasolini” by Linguamadre (i.e. Duo Bottasso, Elsa Martin and Davide Ambrogio).
“The Loano Award - they state. Mayor Luigi Pignocca and councillor for tourism and culture Remo Zaccaria - is one of the most prestigious and most anticipated events for all music fans, not just folk music. Not being able to host its events last year was a great disappointment to us. Now, despite the difficulties of the moment, our city is ready to welcome with open arms the bands, musicians, journalists and all the other protagonists of this unique award. We want to thank the organizers and city offices involved in the planning of this event, which is not just a music award, but a formidable opportunity to introduce the best musical productions of our country to a wide audience.”.
Last year, the Loano Award had to stop due to the health emergency. Instead, for 2021 the new edition-the seventeenth of the Ligurian review-is confirmed for July 26-30 at Loano. The program is currently being finalized. “The Loano Prize has always wanted to be a moment of meeting and celebration, as well as an opportunity to take stock of the state of the art of Italian traditional music," explain the organizers - Now we finally start again, in compliance with safety regulations, with the desire to return to singing and celebrating together”.
“Manzama”, released by Squilibri last fall, marks the brothers' discographic return Enzo and Lorenzo Mancuso (who had already been honored at Loano with the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017) after more than a decade since their last published work. It is an album that definitively consecrates them among the great storytellers of their land, Sicily, whose memory and tradition they have been able to transfigure through their own personal sensibility, in a highly original musical research that holds together classical and popular arrangements, the string instruments of the Mediterranean and Near East with the string quartet of European music. The likes of Franco Battiato (responsible for some arrangements), among others, have collaborated on “Manzamà” Aldo Giordano, Marco Betta, German Diaz, Ferruccio Spinetti, Arnaldo Vacca, Mario Arcari and Giovanni Sollima.
Born in Sutera, Enzo and Lorenzo Mancuso emigrated in the 1970s to London, where they worked as laborers. In the early 1980s they began to establish themselves on the European music scene, releasing their debut “Nesci Maria” in 1986. They are regular collaborators of Emma Dante, and for the soundtrack of her “Via Castellana Bandiera” they were awarded the Golden Globe and Silver Ribbon at the Venice Film Festival.
On the other hand, in second place among the top-rated albums by the award jury is the New Folk Singing Company with “Naples 1534. Between moresche and villanelle” (Squilibri), which marks a “return to the roots” for the Neapolitan group, a fundamental model of Italian folk music from the 1970s onward. In third place tied instead are. Maria Mazzotta with “Amoreamaro” (Agualoca) and Mother tongue With “Pasolini's Songbook.”.
Precisely Linguamadre (i.e., Duo Bottasso, Elsa Martin and Davide Ambrogio) turns out to be the most voted record by musicians under 35, and thus wins the Loano Giovani Prize. The project had debuted at Loano itself in 2019, as an original production in collaboration with Mare e Miniere and Premio Andrea Parodi. Since that first release, the collaboration between the four musicians has grown into an album, released on Bandcamp during the first lockdown.
The City of Loano Award for Italian Traditional Music was established seventeen years ago as a permanent workshop on folk music, and promotes and enhances contemporary production of traditional music with Italian roots through the involvement of artists, record labels, journalists and cultural workers. It is organized by the’Society of the Curious Association in collaboration with the’Department of Tourism and Culture of the City of Loano and with contributions from the A. Foundation De Mari. Artistic direction is by. Jacopo Tomatis, with the collaboration of Ciro De Rosa, Enrico de Angelis and Annalisa Scarsellini.
The ranking of the Best Album Award 2020
1st place
Manzama (Squilibri) - Mancuso Brothers.
2nd place
Naples 1534. Tra moresche e villanelle (Squilibri) - Nuova Compagnia di Canto Popolare.
3rd place
Pasolini's Songbook (self-production) - Linguamadre (Duo Bottasso, Elsa Martin and Davide Ambrogio)
Amoreamaro (Agualoca Records) - Maria Mazzotta
5th place
Serenin (Felmay) - Cabit
6th place
Moviti Ferma (Finisterre) - Eleonora Bordonaro
Museca (Alfa Music) - Nando Citarella & Tamburi del Vesuvio
8th place
Pu sone e pu ballà - 100 years of songs in Riccia (self-production) - Folk Group “Giuseppe Moffa”
9th place
Suddissimo (Nauna Cantieri Musicali) - Enza Pagliara, Dario Muci, Roberto Licci, Emanuele Licci, Fabrizio Saccomanno, Rina Santoro
10th place
Bellanöva (Felmay) - Bellanöva
IN Ritual Song. A Tribute to Maria Carta (Undas Ed. Musicali) - Beppe Dettori and Raoul Moretti
Sounds from the Dark (self-production) - Susanna Buffa and Ludovica Valori
Sounds and Stories of an Imaginary Country (Note) - Zenìa
The Award Jury
Maurizio Agamennone, Claudio Agostoni, Sergio Albertoni, Giovanni Alcaini, Ricky Barone, Marco Boccitto, Michele Bovi, Raffaello Carabini, Pietro Carfì, Daniele Cestellini, Gianni Ciaccio, Valerio Corzani, Giandomenico Curi, Enrico de Angelis, Flaviano De Luca, Ciro De Rosa, Paolo Del Ry, Enrico Deregibus, Salvatore Esposito, Antonio Fanelli, Gerardo Ferrara, Massimo Ferro, Guido Festinese, Guido Giazzi, Jonathan Giustini, Ezio Guaitamacchi, Federico Guglielmi, Marco La Viola, Felice Liperi, Marco Lutzu, Ignazio Macchiarella, Giorgio Maimone, Maurizio Marino, Tiziano Menduto, Giorgio Meneghetti, Gaetano Menna, Marco Miconi, Gianni Montano, Anna Nacci, Alessandro Nobis, Giancarlo Nostrini, Rosario Pantaleo, Riccardo Piaggio, Massimo Pirotta, Massimo Poggini, Piercarlo Poggio, Alessandro Portelli, Ezio Riberi, Alessandro Rosa, Vincenzo Santoro, Annalisa Scarsellini, Stefano Starace, Jacopo Tomatis, Federico Vacalebre, Gianluca Veltri, John Vignola, Antonio Vivaldi, Enrico Zagnagnoli, Paolo Zara, Giorgio Zito.
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