Opa cupa» (read: «opa tzupa»), its a shout of exhortation to the dance used by gypsies of South-Eastern Europe. It represents the musical project risen from Salento (south Italy) directed towards the research for the repertory of Balcan music.Musicians coming from different cultures (Bosnia-Erzegovina, Albany South Italy) gather around the leader, the trumpeter Cesare DellAnna. They play a «marginal» music which is strongly influenced by different styles, blending caleidoscopics sonorities with brilliant moments of pure musical interpretative technique. The project broadens for poliedrics experiences with ethnic and jazz music. The result is a fusion and an elaboration of fast «estams» and «horos», with their uneven, irregulars rithms, or the fascinated melodies of ancients Bosniac songs mingled with the Albanian culture and sonorities of bands typical in the traditional music coming from southern Italy.
Moments of improvisation have been introduced into the popular structures where a jazz attitude takes advantage in the articolation of the sentence, sudden clusters, dissonant situations performed by the brass.
The musical elaborations become the theme of a party, accompained by ancient epic songs and slow ballads accelerated according to the gypsy style.
Opa Cupas new forthcoming record "Hotel Albania" fully represents those style, element and sound changes that the Salento- Afro Balkanian band has made since the coming out of the first cd "Live in Contrada Tangano". Its an 11/8 Records production. The new cd has many guests: the trumpet player Riccardo Pittau (Sardinia), Ivo Iliev, sax (Bulgaria), Marian Serban and Relu Merisan cymbalom (Romania), Dj Trinketto, turntublism (Salento, Italy), Guergue Gueguev, percussion (Bulgaria), Eugene Luca trombone (Romania), Irene Lungo voice, Mauro Durante, percussion (Salento, Italy), Fabrice Martinez, violin and Alexandra Bejaurd, fisa (France), the Albanian pianist Ekland Hasa, the outstanding presence of great clarinettist Yasko Arghirov and his accordionist Slavko Lambov (Bulgaria) in a live track fortuitously improvised at Albania Hotel during summer 2002. The new tracks keep a strong liaison with Balkan tradition, even if they are even more being enriched by a medley of Salentinian and African music traditional sounds, obtained by playing Salentinian bell tambourines, and Algerain karkabu and beendire. In some tracks of the new Opa Cupas record, jazz patterns are unexpectedly mixed with traditional gipsy irregular tempo, while dj Trinchetto harmonizes his bizarre tricks on the record-player with the strong impact of woodwind and brass, which play some Balkan traditional pieces with ska upon irregular tempo arrangements.With Opa Cupa project has collaborated: Yasko Hargirov (Bulgaria), i Canti Polifonici di Lapardha (Albania), Marian Serban (Romania), Adnan Hozic (Bosnia Erzegovina), Bulgarian Folk Band (Bulgaria), Melj Hajderai (Albania), Admir Skurtaj (Albania), Giorgio Vendola, Gaetano Partipilo, Mario Grassi, Sandro Nocco, Massimo Pinca (Italy).
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