The sound of the world

History of Paul Ciarcia, tuttofonista

Paolo Ciarchi

The man on stage seems to be the life. A man is never lonely, surrounded by objects that take soul.
Objects created for other purposes, but their voice through music, which become sound, word and story.
I now tell the story of this man, but keep in mind that while I try to attach it to the point, the tide of things done in the theater, musical, cultural, political, he will already be a bit 'further, elsewhere.
Paul Ciarcia - Milanese convinced, inhabitant of the Brera neighborhood - begins as a fantasist and virtuoso guitarist: jazz technique, warm blues, popular passion, Dadaist imagination, iconoclastic fun, libertarian rigor. As a guitarist (and fantasy) you know very soon, even twenty year old made his debut in '60, at the time of the most legendary Milan cabaret (Franco Nebbia Club and Club '64), sharing with Cochi and Renato, Toby Lightman, Felice Andreasi, etc. . unleashed the creativity of those nights, before television that crushed creativity and consumed until the last speck of dust in the dust. When the dust made hoarse laughter, Paul was already elsewhere.
He plays guitar in the first recital by Whittaker (directed by Fo) and in the performances of Milly, an artist today a little 'Lost, who played all over Europe. These are the years in which the Italian songwriters are taking the flight, in which the songs are starting to arrive well in living rooms, theaters, taken - sometimes a bit 'pompous - for poetry. But Paul is already elsewhere.
In 1964 collaborated with Nuovo Canzoniere Italiano, becoming one of the pillars upon which the musical part social, political, and the revival of popular songs in Italy. He has participated in all (sometimes with his brother Alberto, who was also guitarist): Bella Ciao all events, Pietà l’è morta, Ci ragiono e canto, the collective and individual performances of Ivan Della Mea, Paolo Pietrangeli, Gualtiero Bertelli, Alberto D'Amico, Rudi Assuntina and played in all (or almost) the production of the Sun Records label of any of these discs. Even draws the covers, because - almost forgot to say - Paul is also a painter and graphic with the quarter-noble DNA: his grandfather Luigi Conconi, as important scapigliatura Milan. Paul, when it embraces the guitar, studied at the Brera Academy or the Polytechnic (where he met with and appreciates Demetrio Stratos and the vocal techniques of the shepherds in the Middle East) and designed covers for Mondadori. But soon gets tired of the big names in Milan and gallery owners who decide life and death miracles of art and goes elsewhere.

Paolo Ciarchi at the beginning

With Dario Fo

Meanwhile, it's '68. Now is also why so many libertarian provocations, brought by Paul and his friends in cultural circles, took to the streets as a social contagion and renewed their political practice. Paul Ciarcia rests with Dario Fo's theater collective the New Scene and participating in writing the music for all performances. (We say in passing that this music has never been filed in SIAE. Those who have ears to hear and to understand who has the heart to know that not everything is done for the money!). They are very intense year, hundreds of performances, songs topicality: Saverio Saltarelli hit by a smoke bomb collapses in Milan in Via Larga. The same evening Ciarcia and Fo tell his story in music. There is an attempt to deal with the homeless in a block of Via Tibaldi team (Milan) that ends in tragedy. The silence could use to power, but they counter with Fo and Ciarcia guitar. The songs of rebellion, angry songs (on the GAP of John Fish today could pass for a hymn extreme), songs are not dark. Songs are vital, which are on the edge of a cruel irony.

Paolo Ciarchi with Dario Fo

Paolo Ciarchi with Dario Fo

Alessio Lega
alessio.lega@fastwebnet.it

Translation and summary by Enrico Massetti (Web site on "The other Fabrizio de Andre")