Newsgroup: it.arti.musica.rock.progressive
Titolo: Taproban Live

Visto che si parla tanto di questi The Musical Box (vedo 4 thread in 3
giorni) che fanno, a quanto pare molto bene, il loro lavoro di
coverizzazione dei vecchi Genesis, vorrei spendere qualche riga sull'ottima
esibizione dei Taproban di ieri sera alla seconda serata di In Prog.
La band è stata assolutamente gradevole e molto convincente (oggi pomeriggio
qualche ragazzo mi ha detto di essersi morso le mani per via del fatto di
aver dovuto abbandonare la sala prima della fine del concerto).
Il sound è stato compatto, melodico ed aggressivo al punto giusto e di tutti
i concerti fatti fino ad ora (dalla scorsa edizione di In Prog) direi che si
tratta di uno dei migliori 3.
Davvero i miei (e non solo i miei) complimenti per questa band oltretutto
molto simpatica anche sul piano umano.
Un unico appunto...la maglietta dei Dream Theater indossata dal
bassista...no scherzo... a mio modo di vedere (ma c'è da considerare che
magari il mio parere può anche mutare dopo un riascolto più attento) una
considerazione in parte negativa la faccio nei confronti della suite Morton
fatta per il concept della Musea dedicato a Sergio Leone.
Il brano non è brutto, tutt'altro, ma alla lunga (e parliamo di una suite
molto lunga) rischia di diventare stancante e qui mi pongo una domanda che
forse già vi siete posti in altri post (scusate il gioco di parole) e cioè:
quanto conviene ai fini pratici (e artistici) alla musea (e a Colossus)
imporre alle bands oltre che, necessariamente, la tematica anche l'utilizzo
di determinati strumenti e, soprattutto, la durata del brano (specie se così
lunga)?
Per il resto però davvero un ottimo concerto, raramente ho sentito un sound
generale così buono.
L'ultima serata di In Prog ci sarà l'8 Maggio con il doppio concerto del
trio di Virna Splendore (due stick + un clarinetto) e del Roma Guitar
Ensamble (piccola orchestra di chitarre acustiche formata da Alessandro
Bruno, membro dell'Europa String Choir e provenienti tutti dalla scuola di
Robert Fripp)


la risposta la puoi trovare tra le righe dell'introduzione allo "Spaghetti
Epic":
Introduction to the Spaghetti Epic-project
Colossus (The Finnish Progressive Music Association) has been developing new
forms of progressive rock concept albums. After the very successful
finishing of the Kalevala-project some thought was given to possible sources
of inspiration for new and different progressive concept works. One of the
ideas was to use some movie as a common theme and having different bands
creating original music inspired by the movie. Two different projects were
started: "The Spaghetti Epic" and "The Colossus of Rhodes". Everybody agreed
that it would be an excellent idea to use Italian western movies as a source
of inspiration for extensive progressive rock works.
Italian progressive rock of the 1970's and Italian Westerns have many
similarities. Italian progressive rock took its inspiration from the English
progressive bands but instead of only copying their music many Italian bands
added their own musical heritage and new ideas to the music and created
original works comparable and, in some cases, even surpassing the source of
inspiration. Same thing happened also with the Italian Westerns. Here the
starting point was American Westerns of older days but also in this case the
Italians added some original elements to their westerns creating highly
artistic and original "Spaghetti Westerns" of their own. The use of music
was very different from the American Westerns; the music was a very
important element in the telling of the story of the movie.
The most important composer for the Italian Westerns was without doubt Ennio
Morricone. He often used simple and haunting tunes, whistling themes and
even human voice as an instrument in his musical scores. The music was used
very cleverly and it enhanced the action on the screen in a new and original
way.
From the extensive Italian Western productions the movie "Once Upon a Time
in the West" directed by Sergio Leone was chosen. Instead of dividing the
movie in sequential parts it was decided to create six segments based on
each of the major characters of the movie (just like Morricone used unique
music for each major character in the musical score for the movie). Six
bands would each create a 25-minute suite inspired by the character chosen
for the band. In the traditional Colossus way and to ascertain the
continuity of the sound from suite to suite the bands were advised to use
only original 70's keyboards (Hammond, Moog, Mellotron, Fender Rhoades,
Grand Piano etc.) and no programming, drum machines nor digital sounds were
allowed. The music of the suites should be in similar style of the early 70'
s Italian progressive rock (bands like Museo Rosenbach, PFM, Banco, Le Orme,
Latte e Miele etc.).
The reaction of the progressive bands of today was very favourable to the
project and soon all six suites were reserved by six bands coming from four
different countries. Five of the characters used as an inspiration were
human characters but it was decided to add one extra character - the West
itself - because the West plays an important role in the movie. As an opener
we can hear the sounds of "The West" as interpreted by the Finnish band
Haikara (Haikara was also the opening band on the Kalevala-project of
Colossus). The Italian band Randone plays the part of "Jill", the beautiful
whore. Also from Italy are Tilion ("Cheyenne") and Taproban ("Morton"). The
part of "Harmonica" is interpreted by a special project called La Voce del
Vento from UK and finally, the villain part of "Frank" is played by Trion
from Holland.
As usual, all bands participating to the project were interviewed for the
Colossus Magazine, and everybody was of the opinion that the project was a
very interesting one and would present a big challenge to the bands
participating.  Cooperation between bands from different countries and the
fact that when making their own suite no band would be able to know what
kind of suites other bands would be creating added also an extra stimulating
element to the project. The bands also thought that this kind of project
would help to make progressive rock known to people who usually don't listen
to this kind of music. How well the bands have succeeded in giving life to
the characters of the movie with the help of progressive rock and in
depicting the often dramatic happenings of the movie can be evaluated by
this Colossus special: The Spaghetti Epic "Six Modern Prog Bands for Six '70
Prog Suites".
Colossus Magazine
www.colossus.fi

 Epic":
Righe che avevo giŕ letto, anyway resto nella mia posizione...che per altro
č, in realtŕ, di attesa perchč come ho precisato il mio č un giudizio
istintivo e basato su un ascolto non molto attento in concerto.
Che poi le bands partecipanti siano entusiaste di questo tipo di formula
(parlo sempre dell'imposizione di strumenti, durata etc) mi pare almeno
normale, mi sarei stupito se qualche band partecipante avesse criticato
questo assetto.
Potrebbe essere interessante a questo punto che Colossus (o qualcun altro)
si faccia promotore di un'iniziativa del genere ma che dia libera facoltŕ ai
gruppi di seguire la propria Musa ispiratrice senza alcun tipo di
condizionamento, quindi un' impostazione diametralmente opposta a quella
avuta fino ad ora.


Abbiamo giá lanciato l'iniziativa insieme alla Clearlight Music (Usa) con un
progetto basato sull'Isola del Tesoro di Stevenson. Chi é interessato puó
contattare Don alla Clearlight direttamente:
www.clearlight888music.com