Alea tells its Mediterranean. “My music has the roots in the ground and the fronds towards the universe.” – Rockon.it

Interview with Serena Lotti / Cover photo Antonio Cofano

For many artists, music is travel, bridge between cultures, languages ​​and sounds. Surely it is for Aleaaka Alessandra Zuccaro, Brindisi's songwriter, composer and musician who with “Cummei“His latest album, he gave birth to a sound universe that mixes neo soul, jazz, r'n'b, prog-rock and electronics, breaking down any stylistic border And experimenting without fear.

In this interview, the creative path, the importance of artistic freedom and the profound link between music and social activism told me. Also present Nio dothe song that closes the circle of Cummei With a message of empathy and resistance, also suggested by a trip to Senegal who left a deep mark.

Between reflections on gender gap in the musical industry, the link with the Brindisi and Milanese roots and the desire to collaborate with different artists, Alea gave me an authentic and passionate story never without irony and profound reflections on life.

Alea congratulations for your new album “Cummei” released for a year. We can call it a happy Meltin Pot of Neo Soul, Jazz Popular Music, R'n'B, Sound experimentation, more languages, cultures and suggestions. You also collaborated with Mama Marjas. Tell us how the creative path went.

It is never easy to keep many styles in balance, it is always a great challenge for an artist but it is much easier to be recognizable through influences that are all connected to each other. I'm talking about Black Soul, Jazz, Rnb: they all come from the same matrix. On this album there are also the suggestions of prog-rock and electronics. In general, this album was just a declaration: here I am, it is I, I who abandon the old superstructures and walls that I had erected around me in my previous way of producing a disc.

From the shaking the judgment of others to the very strong desire to do “As I want me”Everything was revolved around a strong message of expressive freedom Which is the center of this album, the music then came by itself.

I am happy that this has been appreciated not only by all the people who follow me but by the same musicians who collaborate with me: pleasantly affected by the fact that in this work I was totally free. Free but always linked to Themes of social activism and anti -racism who have always characterized my songs.

Nio closes the circle that began with “cummei” and is a hymn to the Union and Brotherhood, it expresses a powerful message of empathy, love, resistance. Tell us the story is behind the choice to write a text so rich in universal and symbolic images and meanings.

Mediterranean It is like a book in chapters, everyone is a phase of travel, a movement in search of ourselves, it is a change that changes, always changes. This is also Nio Far and everything The disc can be read as a complex and tiring emigration, A journey through the Mediterranean, passing from the desert and a thousand wild landscapes with the only desire to find a future.

Mediterranean is looking for a better world, Starting at any cost, turning back and try nostalgia for your land, keep your roots strong and firmly, open up to the world. I hope not only with Nio Far but with the whole album that I have told part of some lives that live these changes with difficulty and pain, sometimes for them the Mediterranean is a tragic end not a passage.

Nio did to be on the album but came out a year later, and compared to how I wrote it he completely changed throughout that year. My trip to Senegal has contributed to this change. The whole trip was poetic, I met wonderful people and learned a lot from a country as complex as it is beautiful and this experience has marked the rewriting of the song permeating it also from here memories, of those colors and those sounds.

Returning to the women's theme, the gender gap is now known in the world of music, there are still barriers at the entrance of the Italian music industry by women representing less than 30% of the artists. The scarce presence of women in music also concerns producer, authors, composers, musicians and managerial positions. How can this trend be reversed?

Unfortunately I don't have an answer, I know many artists, musicians, producer and records of the highest level and I don't explain why these statistics. I will tell you a story that really happened … a bassist friend of mine showed up on the stage of a festival and the phonic churches “Are you the singer?“… here is the prejudice. I am a woman and therefore I can only be a chorister or singer in the male collective imagination. Maybe I'm the artistic director, right? There is a basic problem, even before in the musical sector, is inherent in the mentality of many people. When I was the author I suffered Avances who led me to take a step back, there is a cross -country male chauvinism that unfortunately leads to limiting the possibilities of women, leads to a collective discouragement that puts many of us to the door.

Tell me about your project “Statti cummei – talkcerto” in which music, storytelling, civil commitment and human rights funds.

This is a project born alone, in the sense that it was not built a priori. By making music I need that your music tells the stories that often mix even with social activism but I didn't want it to be just the album to tell these stories. So I thought of building a talk and from there I had the opportunity to interview many special guests, people who told me about their journey who has not always been the trip to the boat. I told several stories, there are those who made a dangerous and complex journey and those who have legally arrived, there are many different stories and lives and from each of them I learned a lot. Many of them today live in Italy because they have chosen this country as a home, they are men and women “That they made it“And who want to use their privilege position, to support those who are in difficulty.

Brindisi and Milan are two very different realities. How have these two cities influenced your artistic and personal path?

I consider myself Brindisina DOC, the truth is after a few years in my city I began to feel like a hamster on the wheel, I felt that in Puglia my project did not turn as I wanted, not because my region was not open enough for my productions, rather I was the one who wanted to leave but arrived in Milan I felt alone. In the Conservatory I met two great friends (Alessia Mercandalli and Wena) who welcomed me into their family and made me feel at home, they were my strength in facing my new life. That phase also influenced my artistic vision and on my way of writing, it was a personal journey not only artistic. In Milan I realized how important my Salento roots were important and firm, which is why I started singing in dialect which I had left a little aside. When we talk about South dialect we often think of the Neapolitan, but there is much more. The South has many wonderful dialects that are real languages, I love the fact that Puglia has dialects with such different and colorful facets. For example, I ventured into a version in Brindisi de The cure for me by Giorgia and let's not forget mine Mannaggia lu rimu…I I want to carry on my culture, my story, It is as if I felt a little a messenger of a place that I consider beautiful and full of welcoming people. Returning to the social discourse Brindisi is famous for being among the most famous cities in terms of welcome, everyone recalls the great migration of the Albanian people in the 90s. The Brindisi welcomed these people in their homes, among their families. I want to say it especially in this historical moment, while we are spectators of a wave of conservatism that pushes out and does not welcome.

We too have been migrants in the past and we must today be welcoming with those who suffer and is looking for a future. For me empathy is the most beautiful word in the world.

Who would you like to make a feat and why?

If I could think I would do a featuring with a big one with Nai Palm.

And then Neffed. He appreciated my cover of Waiting for the sun on the piano and wrote me to congratulate.

I would then like a collaboration with 3 young Italian young artists, Idda a Sicilian singer, Steady And Viscardi Two Neapolitan artists. All three sing in dialect and bring a southern culture different from the mainstream, tell the stories of their land and I like the fact that this wave of young people who transport African American music is returning to their dialect. This is the music in Italy that I like.

Last question of ritual. Do you want to recommend 3 records to Rockon readers?

Journey in Satchidananda by Alice Coltrane. A total travel. Here the theme of women returns … “Next to a great man there is a great woman“It is a phrase so criticized, but in the case of John and Alice Coltrane I think it is true. Alice Coltrane called the Yoko Ono of Jazz was blamed of his change, as if he was not able to understand and want. She had this immense spirituality and brought Coltrane into that magnetic world. Then after McCoy Tyner, the historic pianist of Coltrane. I remain history.

Choose your weapon by Hiatus Kayote. The album of life, my absolute musical reference.

Willow Emphatogen. A great discovery. A wonderful album, she is very strong both vocally and musically. Beautiful themes, melodies, rhythms. She is a genius.

Back to me by Wena. She has an identity like few others, but above all Wena is an artist who conveys very strong emotions.

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