I love the Putumayo World Music label.
 
Its compilations of world music rarely leave my CD chang- er, especially Arabic Groove, that contains hits from the Middle East and North Africa’s best artists like Cheb Tarik and Natacha Atlas.

The latest release from tumayo is Italian Café, a CD that captures the post-World War II, more relaxed sounds of Italy from the 1940s to present day.

The CD follows Putumayo’s French Cafe collection.

On the outside, Italian Café has bright, colorful, fun, folk art packaging. The extensive liner notes include notes written in English, Spanish, Italian and French plus recipes of coffee drinks from illy Caffé, an Italian coffee company.
 
The modern artists on Italian Café include Vinicio Capossela, who some call the Tom Waits of Italy. His music is reminiscent of some unnamable era mixed with the occasional chainsaw or toy piano.

Daniele Silvestri’s Le Cose in Comune (The Things We Have in Common) won a best song of the year award. Maria Pierantonia Giua makes her musical debut on the CD.

Many of the CD’s featured artists packed the nightclubs of the 1940s and 1950s and gained popularity through Italy’s then- growing film industry. For exam- ple, singer/actor Fred Buscaglione learned his jazz and swing style while in a U.S. internment camp. (Most foreign music was banned under the Italian fascist regime.)

An example of Buscaglione’s laid-back style is on the song Juke Box about a couple who spends time in a cafe listening to songs from the newly invented jukebox. The singer died in 1960 at age 40 when he crashed his pink T-Bird into oncoming  traffic.

Quartetto Cetra emerged in the late 1940s when they provid- ed dubs for the Italian version of Wizard of Oz. Renato Carosone blends Neapolitan folk with boo- gie-woogie and jazz.

Nicola Arigliano, now in his 80s, still performs today. Born in the southern village of Arigliano, he fled his home at age 11 to per- form the nightclubs of Milan.  

Most of the songs on Cafe are playful, like Cannelloni, by Girgio Conte, who is the brother of the more popular Paolo Conte. Cannelloni  is  a peppy song about a lover teasing his always- dieting lover who refuses to eat rich pasta and thus misses one of life’s joys.

The CD is available at most major music stores.

-Lana Mini