ROCKAMMORRA: The rock of tammorras, mandolines, triccabballacche and scetavajasse
Rockammorra is a fusion of Rock and Tammorra styles of music, in other words a contamination of Rock music with the sound of tammorras, mandolines, triccabballacche (pronounced trickabullack) and scetavajasse (pronounced shetavayass), some kind of folk percussion and stringed instruments typical of Southern Italy popular music.
Rockammorra is the name given by Luca Petrosino, artistically known as Joe Petrosino, to describe his music and experience, that brought him from the smoking jazz-blues-rock-punk venues and pubs of the early years to the coloured folkloristic street festival in the Southern Italy.
His musical background is wide. The story-tellers and the Italian songwriters, the classical Neapolitan music, ’70 prog-rock-punk, reggae, pop music, along with more recent music from albums such “La Notte della Taranta 2003” with Steward Copeland and Enzo Avitabile’s “Salvamm ‘o munn” are among his most natural inspirations.
Encouraged and stimulated by the family environment, Luca Petrosino, then guitarist of the Neapolitan rock group Integral Buatt’, attends tammorra and tammurriata lessons, along with southern Italy music folk festivals where these percussion instruments are typically played.
It’s in this period that, just for fun, he decides to record an electric guitar riff on a tammorra rhythmic loop: and it’s that way that the track Vesuvius is born, published and released in DVD (Essonamò Records) on the march 2008, featuring Francesco Tiano as special guest, a renowned folk singer and devotee to the Madonna delle Galline (Mother Mary of the Hens) of Pagani, a village in the Southern Italy near Naples where these traditions and folk music are still supported and practiced.
In the meantime, he keeps on writing his music, mixing the folk music sound he’s exploring to his story-telling instinctive approach to song-writing.
He goes on experiencing an intense live activity, during performances where the folk popular music revives in the classic and authorial pop music of the Italian chansonniers and vice versa. The repertoire includes songs written and arranged for his first album entitled “Rockammorra”, and songs by Italian and foreign songwriters.
One music ingredient is common to all the arrangement: the fusion of the popular folk southern Italy music to rock music elements.
In the attempt of recovering his own roots, great importance is taken by the music but and also by the coreuthics: the dance has a therapeutic other than entertaining function, and particularly the tammurriata is expression of the rural tradition and represents a break out of the frenetic life style imposed by our society. For this reason Joe’s show are featured by folkloristic dance stage held by the professional dancer Alessia Zazza.