Anna Cuomo - Naples sweet Naples (2021)

Is it still possible for a vocalist to reread passages like Tu ca nun chiagne, Voce 'e notte or Dicitencello Vuje without falling into the easy interpretative stereotype? Anna Cuomo, Neapolitan by birth and British by adoption, one of the most popular voices of the Campania live scene, picks up the gauntlet and faces the reinterpretations of ten songs from the Neapolitan tradition.
Accarezzame, signed by the couple Nisa and Pino Calvi, is entrusted with the opening of the disc: Cuomo approaches 'on tiptoe' in the selected tracks thanks to a solid handful of session-men from the Campania-jazz universe such as the drummer Salvio Vassallo, bassist Giacomo Pedicini, double bass player Roberto Giangrande and pianists Antonio Fresa and Giorgio Savarese. The interpretations of Uocchie carraggiunate and Passione are highly calibrated, among the best on the album.
Naples Sweet Naples, produced by Savarese and Cuomo for Picador, thus covers some songs that have become part of the myth of the Neapolitan song in new nuances. The overall tone of the record is gracefully sophisticated: these ten interpretations would look good in a London lounge club or Central European literary café.