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Describe the atmosphere and live music at a local pub, restaurant, festival, church or temple, club night.... inspire other people to check it out!
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Musician: Davide Giovannini
Location: Brixton, London
Instruments: Bat谩 drums
Music: Cuban
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HOW I CAME TO THIS MUSIC听听听听听听听听听听WHERE I PLAY听听听听听听听听听听A FAVOURITE SONG |
  
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 听听Listen (7'05) to an audio feature recorded at a Cuban Santeria party in Brixton. Presented by Lucy Duran; featuring Cuban-born Londoner Mario Lopez, with Davide Giovannini and friends on bat谩 drums. (Broadcast on Radio 3: 29/1/02)
听听Listen (4'59) to 'Yemalla' sung and played by Davide Giovannini with friends in Brixton.
 听听Watch (4'05) Davide and friends in Brixton.
'I went deeply into it - not as deeply as madness, but quite deep.'
How I came to this music:
I first got into Cuban music when I was fifteen and there was a local band in my town which was playing salsa. Someone in the band had already been in Cuba and had fallen in love with the bat谩, so he brought back bat谩s and a lot of material, and we started to look into this new world. And then we were gigging, saving money to go to Cuba.
Somebody plays the music to you, you fall on the floor -- because of the beauty of it -- and next thing you are in Cuba. It's difficult to say what grabbed me. One thing that still kills me, because I'm also a drum kit player, is the rhythmic complexity, the tone that the drums produce, the hypnotic effect. And then, the beauty of the melodies, which is something that can give you goosebumps. And because I've been in the thing for some time, I went deeply into it - not as deeply as madness, but quite deep. I went to Cuba a few times, to some ceremonies, and I tried to be part of it as much as I could.
In Cuba I tried to learn as much as I could, to represent the culture with dignity. Master drummers sometimes come here from Cuba and we've played together at parties like this. And there's always a surprise, because I'm Italian, and most of the time people catch me on art, Italian art, and they say 'hey! You know this particular work by Michelangelo' and I say 'I don't know it' and they say ' but how come? You're Italian!' So it's the same thing, there are Cubans who come over and they are surprised because they don't know much about these things and we do, so sometimes it's funny.
But the ones who know, they appreciate the fact that we do. Even in Cuba, you had the vibe some time ago that we were stealing from them. That was the message they were giving you sometimes, that you were stealing the culture. Because they had some examples of people taking a Yoruba chant and making a disco music hit. I think it's the same for all kinds of music; it's about respect. Whatever we do, we do it with love and passion. I try to do everything with respect.
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