in a cold and rainy evening…

Picture yourself in a cold and rainy evening, you just got back home, everything inside is so welcoming. Outside is pouring. The fireplace heats the humid air. The living room is filled with the smell of chestnuts, warm and brightened by the flames of the fireplace. You can hear the rain outside, in the background, as if singing a lullaby. Lying under a wool throw blanket, we warm up our bodies in the dark of the evening.

The sound of the wind and the rain, and the welcoming colors of the soft lights, bring a cozy atmosphere and serenity… Who knows, maybe outside the first flakes of snow are already falling…

It’s not a surprise that a scenario like this, a stage so rich in images and scents, has inspired musicians from all over the world to write about this period of the year. In every country, city, historical era, there might have been someone, perhaps at the antipodes of the world, that had sung or written lyrics about this season to celebrate its different shades. In an evening like this one, we will focus our attention on Italian musicians from different epochs and different places, like Milan, Livorno, Florence and Naples, who share the same attraction towards the beauty of wintery seasons.

And comes Mina with her outstanding voice singing a ballad with melancholic and slow tones that celebrates the season. Stefano Bollani and Franco d’Andrea, Italian jazz excellences, perform a marvelous cover of Autumn Leaves. Lucio Dalla, perhaps the most versatile and creative Italian songwriter, dwells on the melancholy that the season brings with its arrival in Malinconia d’Ottobre, while Bobo Rondelli tells of a lazy and sleepy day in his city, Livorno. The almost-theatrical version of Vinicio Capossela stages a mysterious idea of the season; Enrico Rava fills a “stormy weather” kind of day with his songs. And, as often happens in art-related jobs, each of these songs carries the writers’ intimate and personal nuances; all artists put in their songs something of their own that is ought to be imagined and described.

AUTUMN LEAVES, the first track of our evening, was originally titled in 1946 Les Feuilles Mortes after Jacques Prevert’s lines and Joseph Kosma’s music.

The track was initially chosen as the Gates of the Nights’ original soundtrack, but in a short period of time it became the most famous and played song in the world. QUANDO CHIOVE, the second track in our list, is from Pino Daniele’s album Nero a metà (1980): the lyrics are in Neapolitan, with a stunning solo performance of the saxophonist, James Senese, who is also from Naples. Stormy Weather, the most long-lived song in our playlist, was first written in 1933 by Harold Arner and Ted Koehler for the singer Cab Calloway. The song was first performed that same year by the great in the well-known Cotton Club, transforming the song into one of the most loved pieces in jazz music.

Mina, Pino Daniele, Fiorella Mannoia and Stefano Bollani gifted us with the demonstration of how some of the most famous Italian artists in the world interpreted, wrote about and put in music the nuances of the wintery season. And so now the time has come for you to light a fire, close your eyes, relax on your sofa and enjoy your music on this cold rainy evening.