Cesare Cremonini, Tuesday at the Off in Modena.
Apr 11, 2010
On Tuesday, April 13, Cesare Cremonini will be at Modena’s Off, the City’s Music Center venue, to present his book “Le Ali Sotto Ai Piedi.” The Modena stop of one of the best-known protagonists of the Italian music scene is part of the review “Stories of (extra)Ordinary Writing.” Cesare Cremonini was the lead singer and founder of Lunapop, the last big thing in Italian discography; their only album “Squérez?” sold more than 1.5 million copies, remaining at the top of the best-selling album charts for more than a year. When that artistic adventure ended, the young Emilian (he was born in Bologna in 1980) devoted himself to a solo career that has already yielded him three studio albums and one live album, as well as fifteen hit singles.
In 2009 after the radio debut of the fourth single extracted from the album “Il primo bacio sulla luna” and titled “Il pagliaccio,” he joined the artists competing in the second edition of the Mogol Award for the best lyrics of the year, earning two nominations. He later received the History Lifetime Achievement Award at the TRL Awards.
At the Off on Via Morandi 71, from 9 p.m., interviewed by Pierluigi Senatore, Cremonini will present the book “Le Ali Sotto Ai Piedi,” published by Rizzoli, in which the Bologna-born singer recounts his adolescence and the stages that led him to today’s fame.
The evening is free admission and will be opened by the very young Modenese artist Kheyre, who debuted a few weeks ago with the CD “Black Sheep.”
“The Wings Underfoot” by Cesare Cremonini
Tonight, at the Off Cultural Circle in Modena, Cesare Cremonini presented his autobiography“Wings Underfoot.” I certainly could not miss it and miss the chance to meet him and listen to some acoustic piano/vocal tracks.
Going out. I arrive early at the venue, but even so, the seats are already sold out. No problem. I join the many who have sat on the ground and while waiting I sip a beer. The atmosphere is very convivial, at times it almost feels like being at Caesar ‘s house in the company of many friends having a couple of beers to talk about more and less. And it is all of this that makes this presentation unique. Or perhaps it is the artist himself who is able to place himself on this level to become one with his audience.
The evening begins with a performance by
Kheyre
, young singer-songwriter from the Modena area already known for his numerous live dates around Italy and Europe and several projects under his belt both as a solo artist and with the group“I musicanti di Brema.” The audience greatly appreciates the choice.
Cesare’s moment was not long in coming and he took the stage improvising excellently between Pierluigi Senatore ‘s questions and his most famous songs composed and performed for the occasion on the piano. The evening continued in a unique roller coaster of emotions that made everyone present realize how music can unite and convey messages on a universal level. There is no shortage of the final bath of autographs as well as gifts-I want to mention one guy who gave away his burned, marker-written record begging the good Caesar to give it a listen and maybe give him a call. I witnessed this scene and thought that in Italy there are rightly those who are considered artists on the one hand, and on the other, those who have yet to figure out what is the right path that life has reserved for them.
I often come up against this combination. In the end I ask myself, “Why is there all this need to want to be famous?” It almost seems like a personal struggle against the world. It seems that if we do not become famous then we have lost(what?). While instead it would suffice to understand that every inhabitant of the earth, in his or her own way, Is already famous.
Among the interventions of Cesare Cremonini that most impressed me within the evening, I want to mention his discussion of the music situation in Italy and the changes we have witnessed over the past ten years…I particularly appreciated his reflection on the world of the reality: have shifted listeners’ attention to a different way of “making music.”
Particularly as I listened to this talk, I thought back to the magic described in his book as he talked about meeting Walter Mameli, Lunapop’s producer and his current producer…that magic I think has been somewhat lost in the latter
decade(2000-2010), where simply appearing is enough to achieve plastic“success“…
As Cesare Cremonini says, I would like to see the return of quality in music, respect, simplicity and immediacy… somewhat in nostalgia for the 1960s…
Only flaw of the evening (but that was to be expected…), it was the myriads of people who were are presented only under the pretense of delivering into his hands a CD anonymous in the hope of who knows what “musical help” — I’ll be honest, I also I delivered a copy of my book “Dreaming” and my record-but with no purpose, a simple gift born to excite, just as he did for me with his book…. without any pretense.
Here are some sentences that struck me from his book :
I might as well have chosen to stay in the shadows, maybe sunk in a municipal office, in front of a shabby PC, always dicking around on the Internet, can you imagine? Summer at the beach, a ski trip. A decent girlfriend. The kind that A fiery lover, though. That one couldn’t miss. A real slut, yes, a killer with kid gloves. I would have become a great liar myself. And at Christmas all together at midnight mass, before the toast. << Cheers ! Cheers ! Until next year…>>
On the other side, far away from it all, there was an unknown and endless road that was lost to places that seemed unreachable. Forgetting oneself. Starting over. This was what the lighted sign in front of the crossroads said.
Had I asked anyone to choose for me, I would have made the biggest mistake. But I didn’t. I did not want to be interpreted, nor understood, or pushed in the most convenient direction. I felt only one thing inside : the wind was pulling toward the unknown direction, and pushing hard behind me. Then I chose her.
It was the only path in which I really recognized myself, and I chose it, deciding to love her as a wife, and protect her as a daughter, because without love that endeavor would have been impossible. I chose myself, because I was no longer afraid to understand who I really was. I chose to believe it. I swore I would do that in my life. Music. And I would have devoted myself to it with all my soul.
There are no artists and no non-artists. There are and always have been people who dive into the sea of life without fear, beginning to swim. Learning to stay afloat. Dreaming of one day, after a thousand storms, meeting their shore. The beach to land at. Each in his own way, as he can. It is when we have reached that place that we will meet our hot air balloon. Once we have lost everything, abandoned all attempts to reach goals that do not really belong to us. When we have finally made up our minds to look for nothing but ourselves, when we have learned that removing those heavy sandbags takes flight, then we will really feel, and in a single instant, “with wings under our feet.”
