Matteo Ferrari Releases Debut Album MARAMAO

PS CLASSICS has announced the release of Italian singer and actor Matteo Ferrari's debut album, Maramao, available today, Friday, January 28. The album collects some of the greatest tunes composed between the world wars in the 20th century, seducing the listener with a bouquet of beautiful melodies from Italy's golden age of popular song. For more information, please visit PSClassics.com.

Ferrari's expressive voice and dramatic skill infuse these canzonette ("simple songs") with a joy, romance and wit that transcend language, and the lush arrangements heighten the mood to intoxicating levels. No matter the listener's grasp of Italian, Maramao is captivating entertainment and a thrilling exploration of a bygone era by one of Italy's great new voices.

"In a climate of conflict, dictatorship and censorship," says Matteo, "many of these songs were written with the aim of cheering people up, creating a moment of distraction and encouraging people to dream. The name 'canzonette' might suggest a connection to Neapolitan melodrama, when in fact they were pieces of great modernity. They exalted the legacy of Italian opera while mixing in overseas jazz and swing, which at that time were heavily permeating Europe. I discovered that this repertoire was performed by both singers and actors, and merged various genres of light entertainment, such as operetta, café chantant, revue and variety. For those who, like me, come from the world of musical theater, studying and interpreting this collection of works is a stimulating experience. Maramao is my homage to the artists who made the history of Italian song and who faced those difficult times looking for the 'sole in fronte' ('sun on the forehead'), as an old Italian song of that period says. All this can allow us to create an ideal bond with the present which can help us face our current time with optimism and confidence."

PS Classics co-founder Philip Chaffin comments, "When Matteo Ferrari came to us with a request to take on the US and Canadian distribution of Maramao, we were enchanted with what we heard, even though neither of us speaks a word of Italian. I suspect we would've happily released the album based on Matteo's talents alone, but once we learned more about the impulse of the album, we knew it was for us. When we first began PS Classics, one of our colleagues coined the tagline 'celebrating the heritage of American popular song' as a way of defining our aesthetic and goals. And the truth of it is, of course, that the heritage of America popular song extends far beyond our own borders. American popular song - and the sense of optimism fused within it - became a global phenomenon, and ultimately altered the course of world music, including Italian music between the two world wars, which is what Matteo honors and reimagines here."

He continues: "We've always admired artists most who make a singular statement with their albums: who intuitively interpret the music in a way that only they could. And Maramao is a beautiful example of that. The song selection, arrangements and performances seemed like an outgrowth of Matteo's tastes, temperament and passions. We felt we were truly getting to know him, even though he was some 6,000 miles away. We're thrilled to be passing along that introduction to our US and Canadian customers."

Maramao premiered in 2020 with Ferrari performing as a soloist at the Social Theater of Trento. In 2021 he was invited by the Zazzarazzaz Festival in Sanremo for an encore performance accompanied by the celebrated Swing Orchestra. In December 2021, the album's first single, "Ma l'amore no," was released by the historic Italian label Bluebelldisc Music.

The album was recorded by Carlo Cantini and mixed by PS Classics engineer/producer Bart Migal. Musical direction and arrangements are by Riccardo Barba. The band features Bruno Righetti on clarinet, Gino Zambelli on accordion, Riccardo Barba on piano, Giovanni Trivella on electric and classical guitar, Nicola Ziliani on double bass, and Federico Negri on drums.