“Grazie” to Ernie Rossi, grandson of Ernesto Rossi, an Italian music lover from Naples, who in 1910 set up shop in New York’s Little Italy, selling books, sheet music, player piano rolls, 78 rpm records and song sheets he regularly published in the U.S., that when transported back to Italy via some homesick “figlio di Napule” on a visit to see his “mamma” often made his songs big hits in Italy (Com’è Bella La Stagione… quando vede na Bapone, Senza Mamma e senz’ a Namurata, A Cartolina ‘e Napule).
Ernie’s grandfather also regularly attended the Piedigrotta Neapolitan Song Festival in Italy and like a one man version of “American Idol” judge published winning festival songs and arranged for singers to come to the U.S. and perform them for Italo American audiences.
I can share with you info on a big conference that is opening today March 19th at the Calandra Institute in New York. The three day conference, March 19-21, 2009 at the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, Queens College/CUNY, 25 West 43rd Street, Suite 1700, New York, NY 10036, Ph. 212-642-2094 is titled Neapolitan Postcards, The Canzone Napoletana as Transnational Subject.
The Canzone Napoletana (Neapolitan song) has been one of the first international popular music of the modern era, traveling beyond the city of Naples and the borders of Italy. Its success was due largely to Italian emigrants who composed, performed, recorded, sold and consumed the music in the form of sheet music, piano rolls, 78 rpm recordings, and performances.
Classic songs like “Core ‘ngrato” (1911), “Senza mamma” (1925) and “A cartulina ‘e Napule (1927) were composed and introduced in New York City, and a version of the Piedigrotta Neapolitan Song Festival was held in Harlem during the 1920s.
During this period, the larger American public was enjoying the Neapolitan song at the same time Italian immigrants were victimized as racialized others. In Argentina, artists adapted Neapolitan melodies to the tango’s rhythms, as did Carlos Gardel with his 1931 hit song “Como se canta en Napoles.”
Over the course of the twentieth century, singers and musicians such as the Andrews Sisters, Charles Aznavour, Count Basie, Elvis Presley, Violeta Rivas, Caetano Veloso, Frank Zappa, Connie Francis and others would record and further disseminate the Neapolitan song internationally. This conference is a unique opportunity to address the relatively unexplored transnational aspects of the Neapolitan song.
Following the Neapolitan Postcards opening reception and welcome by Anthony J. Tamburri of John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, Queens College, CUNY, conference attendees were treated to a special screening of the award winning (2006 New York Film Festival and Atlanta, Georgia Film Festival where it won first place in the short subject documentary category) “Closing Time: Storia di un Negozio”, a 30 minute documentary, directed by Veronica Diaferia.
The young, early twenties, Italian-born film maker came to New York’s Little Italy in 2005 to film the closing of the business Ernesto Rossi had founded in 1910. His sons Luigi and Pasquale carried on until Pasquale’s poor health left only Luigi (who died in 2006 at age 95) aided by his son Ernie, named after his grandfather Ernesto, in charge of operating E. Rossi and Company.
In 2005 E. Rossi and Company was forced to relocate because of high rent. Although they were able to move into a smaller store front on the same block, moving the contents of a store and storage basement with nearly a century accumulation of merchandise and memorabilia was a gigantic task as the film Closing Time” poignantly documented.
Word of this treasure trove of “Musica di Napule” on New York’s Grand Street, reached Napoli and last year 2008, Ernie Rossi and film director Veronica Diaferia were personally invited by RAI to attend the world conference of Neapolitan Music at the Galleria Umberto in Naples, Italy.
This year, on March 19, 2009 a conference recognizing the transnational influence of Neapolitan Music will be taking place in New York City.
Among program highlights at the Neapolitan Postcards, “Canzone Napoletana” conference sponsored by John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, Queens College, CUNY, USA and the International Centre for Music Studies, Newcastle University, UK in collaboration with l’Archivio Storico della Canzone Napoletana, RAI, Italy are speakers: Francesco Maria Talo, Consulate General of Italy in New York; Joseph Sciorra, John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, Queens College, CUNY; Goffredo Plastino, The International Centre for Music Studies, Newcastle University; Paquito del Bosco, Archivio Storico della Canzone Napoletana, RAI.
On Friday and Saturday March 20-21, 2009 at the CUNY Graduate Center, Elebash Recital Hall, 365 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan (between 34th and 35th Streets) some topic highlights will be: - You can go home again, Santa Lucia Luntana, the Film, Giorgio Bertellini, University of Michigan. - Neapolitan Song as a Source of National Identity among the Italian of Australia, Marcello Sorce-Keller, Monash University. - Quann’’o soul se ne scenne: Neapolitan Music as Sites of Cultural Mediation, Pasquale Verdicchio, University of California at San Diego. -
The Neapolitan Mandolin and Italian Music, Publishing Houses in New York City during the Early Twentieth Century, John La Barbera, Bergen Community College. - Enrico Caruso and the Emergency of Italian Identity, Simon Frasca, Federico II, University of Naples. The Epicenter of the Neapolitan art songs, which had a heyday with the arrival of the wave of Italian immigrants to New York in the early 20th century and often drew on sentimental themes like love and nostalgia, was E. Rossi and Company.
Although Ernesto’s son Luigi (Louie) passed away at age 95 in 2006, E. Rossi and Company is still open for business, a few doors away at 193 Grand Street, (212)226-9254, thanks to Ernesto’s grandson Ernie Rossi.
E. Rossi and Co. is located down the street from Ferrara’s of coffee house and cannoli fame, and across the street from the new Italian American Museum (IAM) housed in the old Banca Stabile building at 155 Mulberry Street, (212)965-9000. Also nearby is the 116 year old Alleva Cheese Store.
Although the E. Rossi and Company his grandfather founded a century ago does not have now the “abbondanza” of Italian sheet music (some of which Ernesto published), Neapolitan records, figurines of Saints and Italian miscellany of all kinds which once made it a kind of repository and archive of Italo American popular culture, a visit to Grand Street will be time well spent.
10631 Vinedale Street, Sun Valley, CA 91352 - Phone (818) 767-3413 - Fax: (818) 767-1410
