Voici un reportage entièrement subjectif sur le festival de Porretta 2004 (la plupart des photos sont d'Isa). Il s'adresse à ceux qui n'y étaient pas pour essayer de leur en faire profiter et aussi à ceux qui voudront y aller une autre année, pour leur faciliter le parcours...

Alors bien sûr, tout commence par l'annonce du programme puis par l'achat des billets:

Carte postale du programme (recto et verso)

Tickets pour le vendredi et le samedi

Comment arriver à Porretta? Le mieux est l'avion pour Bologne, desservi maintenant par VolareWeb. Après il y a un une heure de train ou de car pour Porretta Terme. Mais si vous combinez le festival avec des vacances, autant louer une voiture.
Pour les vacances, vous avez le choix entre l'Emilie Romagne (Bologne, Ferrare, Ravenne, Parme, Modène etc...), le coeur de la gastronomie italienne, ses mosaïques, ses villes médiévales aux couleurs rouges ou la Toscane (Florence, Sienne, Pise, San Gimignano, Volterra etc...), son chianti classico, ses musées, sa campagne magnifique... Porretta Terme est entre les deux, à 60km de Bologne ou de Florence.

Le musée de la musique de Bologne fêtait justement les 50 ans de la Fender Stratocaster!

Plan de la région, Porretta est à 60km au sud-ouest de Bologne ou à 60km au nord-ouest de Florence

Pour ce qui est des hotels, prenez-vous à l'avance. Choisissez plutôt l'un des petits hotels charmants du "centre ville" (Roma, Helvetia, Bertusi, Aurora, Cini, Dina, Italia, Toscana...) que les grandes tours modernes vers les thermes (Santoli, Castanea, en plus le prix ne comprend même pas l'entrée aux thermes contrairement à ce que laisse entendre la pub) même s'il n'y a que 10 minutes de marche entre les deux!

Plan de Porretta

Numéros de téléphone à Porretta. Depuis la France, ajouter 00-39

Voici le carefour principal de la petite ville de Porretta où l'on arrive aussi bien en voiture qu'en train. Les parasols jaunes sont ceux de la terrasse du bar de l'Hotel Roma qui est juste à côté du parc où se déroulent les concerts. Dans la journée on peut y rentrer et voir les musiciens répéter.

Porretta, comme si on arrivait de la gare, après avoir passé le pont

Hotel Roma, la bicoque en bois derrière est l'endroit où l'on vend les tickets

Entrée du parc de l'Hotel Roma, qui devient "Parc Rufus Thomas" le temps du festival

Une fois passée la grille on peut voir les stands de nourriture à droite (goutez les piadine...) et ceux de ventes de CDs et T-shirts à gauche

Les gradins vides dans l'après midi, vus de la table de mixage de scène. A vue de nez vous mettriez combien de personnes sur ces gradins?

Vendredi soir, Clarence Carter suivi de Ridillo (avec Eumir Deodato en special guest):

Les gradins pleins de fans de tous les pays. Parmi les français, vous reconnaitrez peut-être Alain, Jean-Claude, Nicolas, Christophe, Philippe, les deux Isabelle et Frédéric...

Clarence Carter et son groupe

Clarence Carter seul avec sa belle Fender stratocaster blanche

Ridillo au grand complet avec Eumir Deodato en chef d'orchestre devant son clavier

Eumir Deodato et Daniele Benati, chanteur et guitariste de Ridillo, avec sa belle Fender telecaster dorée

Il faut bien le reconnaître, Porretta est une petite ville qui n'est pas très animée en dehors des concerts. En plus c'est une ville thermale donc peuplée de touristes à la retraite. Mais c'est quand même une ville mignonne, dans les montagnes qui séparent l'Emilie Romagne de la Toscane. A ce propos, n'oubliez pas un pull pour les concerts en plein air, les soirées sont fraîches, et un coussin, les gradins en bétons sont durs... Mais dans la journée on peut manger des glaces italiennes aux terrasses de café, se promener le long des deux rivières ou dans les jolies ruelles (comme la Via Falcone) ou aller aux thermes ou dans l'une des piscines de la ville (la montée vers la piscine olympique est aussi très belle). Si vous cherchez un cybercafé, demandez à la librairie Buffetti sur la via Mazzini.

Vue d'avion de la ville (carte postale)

Vue de la rivière rio Maggiore (carte postale)

Il y a aussi une via Otis Redding mais je ne l'ai pas trouvée

Samedi soir, Howard Tate suivi de The Ladies of Southern Soul (Keisha Jackson, Dorothy Moore, Millie Jackson):

Howard Tate et son groupe (encore une telecaster)
Gros plan d'Howard Tate seul
Le rappel d'Howard Tate
Howard Tate danse dans la foule
La bombe sexy, Millie Jackson entre en scène et Jean-Claude ne manquera pas d'immortaliser son idole, de dos avec son T-shirt "Soul Bag"
Gros plan de Millie Jackson qui parle et fait bien rire ceux qui comprennent l'anglais "adulte"!
Gros plan de Millie Jackson qui chante
Millie Jackson et son groupe (encore une stratocaster)
Millie Jackson et son groupe. Ce soir elle était en argent, demain elle sera en or... au revoir...

Après le concert, une pizza bien méritée vers 1h30 du matin, avec le groupe des français, principalement de LA liste soul française, The Dark End Of The Street:

Christophe, Philippe, Isa, Dror, Nicolas, Frédéric, Isabelle, Jean-Claude et Alain (photo du peintre suisse de la soul, Jean-Yves Mougin)

Isa et Dror avec leurs supers T-shirts! (photo de l'autre Isa !!)

 

Review by Dror Warschawski
Fonte :: The Otis Redding french site

The Italian ad man Graziano Uliani is so nuts about Memphis soul music that he made the town fathers in Porretta, Italy change his street name to Via Otis Redding. I kid you not. Last weekend, for the 16th year in a row, Uliani brought American soul music to the charming village of Porretta in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. Soul music has put Porretta on the map, even more than the local spa and healingm waters that attract elderly Italian ladies from as far away as Puglia, in what's known as the "boot" of the country. What makes the Porretta Soul Festival so interesting is that the people of Porretta have little interest in it. Even though a bunch of black musicians from Memphis, Tenn. pour into their village every year around July 3, the Porrettans go about their business with blissful ignorance. Soul music is Uliani's peculiar obsession. The rest of the town puts up with it.
So they came this year as always, and I went to watch the proceedings because the great Carla Thomas was scheduled to perform with her brother, Marvell and sister Vaneese. They were backed by the Memphis All-Stars.
The other performers on the weekend bill were novelty act Solomon Burke, up and comer Ellis Hooks, Memphis singer Jackie Johnson and ex-pat soul man Charles Walker who lives in Italy and performs with a band out of Britian. On Saturday night July 5, the Thomas family indeed put on a little show in
Rufus Thomas Park, a new amphitheatre built behind the Hotel Roma and named for their dad, the R&B legend who passed away in December 2001. Uliani, you see, is also obsessed with the Thomases and with Memphis soul. He gave each of the Thomas children plaques and made them Porretta's stars of the year. The show's emcee was a Brit who spoke in halting Italian. Carla, who does not perform that often anymore, did spine tingling versions of her own hits "Gee Whiz (Look at His Eyes)" and "B-A-B-Y." She knocked out similar renditions of "What the World Needs Now is Love" and performed a shout-out duet with her sister Vaneese on her old hit, "A Love of My Own." She even started her set with "Lovey Dovey," the big hit she had with Otis Redding right before he died in 1967.
The crowd gave Carla a long standing ovation, so Carla encored with Ann Peebles' "I Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody's Home." Later Carla, who laid down a hot groove despite her innate sweetness, said, "I feel bad when I sing that song. But I like doing it."
The show would have been enough, but on Sunday morning Carla, Vaneese, their backup singers and Jackie Johnson took the stage at the Frati Cappuccini church in Porretta. This was something to see, considering the church, of course, is Roman Catholic and the ladies are Southern Baptists.
Gospel music is heard once a year in the church, and it's the single biggest day of the year for them. The stone building filled up right into the aisles. Marvell Thomas took over the organ and Jackie Johnson came forward to sing "Amazing Grace." There was just enough clapping to make it feel like home, but not so much that communion wasn't delivered in a timely manner.

 

Review by Roger Friedman/FOX NEWS
Fonte :: Fox News

Unforgettable Soul
At a time when buildings are being torn down at home, monuments are being erected in Porretta

Porretta.
Everybody tried to tell me. Graziano tried to describe it to me – and of course, I’d already heard about Porretta from Solomon Burke, Dan Penn, Michael Toles, and Rufus and Marvell Thomas.
But I could never have imagined what is was like until I experienced it for myself .
To see 10.000 people gathered in Rufus Thomas Park on a hillside receding gradually into darkness is one thing. But to see Rufus Thomas signing autographs for everyone from eight to eighty, hailed on the streets as “Rufolone” by young and old alike, is quite another.

I said to Rufus at one point, “I knew thay named the park after you, but I didn’t know you owned it”. He gave me chuckle and a knowing wink – but he didn’t deny statement.
I’ll never forget the soulful people that I met in Porretta. And I’ll never forget the respect with which they greeted the music and the musicians.
Everyone in Memphis should see the way in which their native music is treated in Porretta.

At a time when buildings are being torn down at home, monuments are being erected in Porretta.
But, more significantly, the music is being honored in a manner that is deservedes, the musicians are being recognized not just for their stardom but for their contributions.

For me Porretta was a soulful pause – the kind of feeling I never thought I would experience, the way thinghs should be (not necessarily the way things always are).
I think Dan Penn expressed it best: at a time when “place for joy is getting very hard to find…..there’s peace in Porretta”, he sang – a place (a state of mind?) where “respect and grace are everywhere.”
I respectfully second that emotion.
I hope to see my many friends, old and news, in Porretta next year.

 

Review by Peter Guralnick, November 1995

Tra le tante stelle presenti al Porretta Soul Festival 1997 c'è stato uno speciale intervento registrato del Reverendo Jesse Jackson della Rainbow Push Coalition. Rev. Jackson non è potuto venire al Festival, ma ha comunque dedicato un messaggio a tutti qui. Vi proponiamo il testo:

" This is the Reverend Jesse Jackson of the Rainbow Push Coalition. I am right in America, right in the heart of where African American people live, and struggle and sing and give. One writer said: "to love, live and give; tis but one greater thing: open the heart and let it sing." I want to express my appreciation to the people of Porretta, Italy, for promoting knowledge of this musical form in Europe; this musical form of Gospel, a combination of Jazz and Blues; is our life experience, it sustains us from day to day. With this music we stand up and we fight back. Our mothers who marched for freedom and justice did so with song in their hearts. The sense of rhyme and rhythm and reason. For you in Italy who are fighting for human rights, and around the world, let me express my thanks to you and my solidarity. Let's maintain the human spirit, turn to each other, and not on each other; and let's fight for justice and freedom together. Let the Gospel music ring, and send joy bells to our souls. Keep hope alive."

 

Jesse Jackson

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MR. ULIANI'S TRIBUTE TO OTIS REDDING

Graziano Uliani sponsors The Memphis Horns in Italy. In the beginning it was to record with the Italian soul singer Zucchero (sugar) on some of his big albums. We went over several times and recorded. We also did some promotional concerts with him, which are stories unto themselves. They paid us well and treated us like kings. Italian hospitality is supreme in the world, let me assure you! We loved it. We could hardly wait to go back.

Then one fine day Graziano called and asked if we could put together a Memphis Horns band to come over and do a string of television shows and a concert with Zucchero. He asked that we bring Rufus Thomas, too. We were excited by the prospect except maybe the ‘putting a band together’ part, which can be a pain. We wanted the trip through, so we said yes and went to work. We hired four guys, formed them up and rehearsed our show with Rufus. Then we boarded the plane for the big jump over to Rome, where Graz (as he is affectionately known) met us with a van and off we went on the tour, knowing zero about what awaited us.

In Italy, television is different. There are actual variety shows, and there will be everything from juggling to the Zigfield follies to the hottest pop act to rhythm and blues stars, all on the same bill. They’re loads of fun and back stage is a riot of skimpy outfits on movie star bodies, long-haired singers and sports coat clad comedians, all smoking like the Russians are marching in! Technicians fly about with clipboards and frightened looks. And somehow all this works out!

Finally, we’re on stage and six or eight cameras zoom in to wild applause from the gallery. My mouth always goes dry just then, but the energy flows. And we do our thing, followed by a black man in a hot pink, short panted, velvet tux! The crowd goes nuts, it’s Rufus, "The dog" Thomas, and the Italians cannot get enough. We go through his show, and when it’s all over, there is chaos as they escort us off the stage! We felt like the Beatles must have felt their first few times. Graz is beside himself and tells us loudly that the coming weekend is going to be in his hometown of Porretta Terme at his big "Tribute To Otis Redding" soul festival.

"Oh, yeah?"

And it is so. That Saturday we were up in the Apennine mountains in the small (10,000 pop.) town of Porretta at the mayor’s house getting awards for "our contribution to music." We dined with the town council, and they named the main dish of the evening after us, proudly displaying it with a flourish and announcing "these two ingredients only taste this way when cooked together!" We were so touched. I wished my mother had been there.

The next day dawned overcast and cool with a pretty strong wind. Not good, we thought. But the ever optimistic Graz reassured us, "No problem, she is O.K!" That night we transferred indoors to the local theater, which held around a thousand, I think, and the place was jammed! We went over the top, and when Rufus came out, resplendent once again in hot pink, our place in Italian history was secured.

It was Graziano’s very first festival, and in my opinion the finest, as first times sometimes are! We’ve been back many times now, but I’ll always remember that night as the "ONE!!!!"

I hope many of you can come and share the excitement with us this year in Bologna at The Sweet Soul Music Festival!! And don’t worry, "SHE IS O.K.!!"

 

Review by Wayne Jackson
Fonte :: Wayne Jackson

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