Kantaliso

I Kantaliso, originally U Focu Triu, was born 3 years ago in Bologna, Italy through the collaboration of three diverse musicians, Laura Francaviglia, Roberto Serenelli & Adriana Polo. They composed and re-styled  southern Italian folk songs inspired by Sicilian tarantella, folk singer Rosa Balistreri, traditional Pugliese music/dance pizzica pizzica, and other Italian folk traditions – bringing in their own backgrounds in classical guitar, flamenco and traditional pizzica. They recorded a cd, U Focu Triu, musica popolare dal sud (folk music from Italy's south) in 2010 and dazzled listeners with their original arrangements of traditional songs.
 
Last year Adriana Polo moved to California – far away from the group. She discovered her music was virtually unknown here, and, yet, she was unable to live without it. She devoted herself to carrying her rich musical heritage across the ocean to the Bay Area – and to play it with local musicians.
 
Enter Jean-Pierre Duboucheron (or “JP”), a passionate violinist, who loved the depth and vibrancy of the music. Then Laura Frew, Adriana’s partner, who had learned Pugliese tambourine on the streets of Salento, and had playing and performed with Adriana in both Italy and California since 2004. With new musicians, and additional influences, the new trio began to practice, perform – and, true to the nature of folk music – to improvise!
 
Additional background on the songs:
 
Many of our songs are original arrangements of traditional Sicilian and Pugliese folk songs, or songs written by singer/songwriter Rosa Balistreri of Palermo; others are entirely original songs written in various folk styles.
 
These songs are sung in Italian, Pugliese dialect, Sicilian, and Griko-salentino dialect (a meeting of Pugliese dialect and Ancient Greek) spoken in the pockets in Puglia with roots in Magna Grecia.