Today Dario (Canal) and Wolfgang (Scheibe) are at work in the Tattistampa shop, for the hand-made printing of the first batch of T-shirts for the upcoming Jug Band Colline Metallifere Gran(i)Tour between Tuscany, Trentino, and Germany, from June 14 to June 29.
It is possible to pre-order your T-shirt writing to micalosapevo@pibinko.org or +393317539228, indicating the size and the number of T-shirts per size. The cost of one T-shirt is 20 Euro, plus shipping, if required.
As you can see from the header image, the subject of the shirts is kept as a mistery for now, but you can review the shirts from the last years:
Before the Gran(i)tour starts rolling, we want to put in our sandbox some information about wheat and grains!
We started by adding to the map of the project the origin of different varieties of wheat that our one-string-bass player Wolfgang Scheibe is experimenting in Maremma, Southern Tuscany.
If you have a project concerning grains (ancient, organic, you name it, as long as they are good), and you would like to present it in the context of the Gran(i)Tour, please write to micalosapevo@pibinko.org or +393317539228.
In the header image, Wolfgang’s grains in the Bruna Valley, Southern Tuscany, as of April 10, 2024.
Some samples from last year’s experimental crops managed by Wolfgang.
The June Gran(i)Tour has been advertised by the Institute of Italian Culture in Stuttgart among “Other happenings in the institute’s area of operation”…in the past we have collaborated twice with Institutes of Italian Culture: in 2007 for the palla a 21 mission to Chicago and in 2008 with the Institute in San Francisco for the “Square around the ball” photo exhibition, so we appreciate this form of attention.
The online versione of the article by Luca Barbieri is on the Il Tirreno web site, together with a video to become part of the Summer edition of the song. Below we are providing a fast-track translation of the main article.
For more information, bookings, or to send your 15 seconds of Twist: micalosapevo@pibinko.org or +393317539228.
MASSA MARITTIMA.
The refrain is one of those that could also stick in your head: “Tatti bar” repeated several times. And if the notes might be hit -it’s actually difficult to listen to them without hinting a few dance moves, or in any case letting yourself be carried away by the sound at least for a few seconds – the video could really soon go viral. Groups of people (from various parts of Italy, with Maremma remaining the protagonist), individuals wriggling in everyday places, a horse (but there are also dogs), everyone going wild with the beat.
This is the “Tatti Twist”, the new track by the Jug Band Colline Metallifere, an international and “intergenerational” collective that since 2018 has been proposing “reflections on the territory, on the relationship between city and countryside and on little-known aspects in the rural area”, as they define themselves. A song to which the video released in recent days is obviously linked. The video was assemble with contributions collected through the “call” by the band, which had asked to send video clips with “twist shots” and then return – after a couple of months – a collective result.
How the idea was born
The genesis of the idea is explained directly by them: «Sometimes we try to explain apparently cold topics (nutrition, they cite as an example), sometimes slightly technical and slightly suggestive topics (the night sky and light pollution), sometimes different points of view on “soft mobility”. With the “Tatti Twist” we wanted to give ourselves a lighter moment. We put together the twist dancer curriculum of our one-string-bass player Wolfgang Scheibe (who took part in national competitions in Germany in the 1960s), with the story of many foreigners who discover Tuscany as the “promised land”, they add. In January they launched their “call”: looking for twist dancers for a music video. The call was in fact connected to the creation of the song, in English, which tells the story of a person who falls in love with Tuscany and choses to come and live in Tatti (“I went down to Tuscany looking for a place to be and I found its name Tatti, oh yeah”, the words that open the song, not by accident). «We would like to make a video clip of it – explained Andrea Giacomelli from the Jug Band – and we are looking for dancers, professional or less so, with a preference for amateurs», he explained. It would therefore have been enough to send a video of maximum 15 seconds, by the deadline.
The dancing horse
This is the recent past. Just a few days ago, the video was published. «Since January we have then sent invitations to our fans to propose some twist steps from their favorite “location” and we have added all the clips to the video: the participation was very good, about forty people from various latitudes between Cagliari (Sardinia) and central Italy. We also had some unexpected characters, including two dogs and a horse (we don’t know if a dancing horse is new in a music video, but it certainly doesn’t appear often…)”, they add. «The audio was recorded on November 1st, then the idea for the video in which around 40 people participated, the two dogs and the dancing horse which belongs to one of our fans in the area. Now we would like to receive further contributions and – after what we can define as a winter edition (since the material was in fact collected during the winter, ed.) – we are considering a summer version of the video, the “summer” of the Tatti Twist”, adds Giacomelli again to Il Tirreno.
Video contributions can be sent to the band on WhatsApp (+39 331 7539228); or by email (micalosapevo@pibinko.org). But they can also be sent to Il Tirreno Grosseto on Facebook or by email (grosseto@iltirreno.it); then they will be turned over to the musical group.
Tatti in the world
Returning to the words of the song, the “Tatti” referred to in the text – the band explains in their note – are two: the hamlet of Massa Marittima in the Colline Metallifere, where two of the members of the group live, while the Tatti bar «is a well-known venue in Stuttgart, which took its name from the Maremma village”, as we wrote in recent months when talking about a tour of the band.
The Tatti Twist, they recall, is one of the six songs produced by the Colline Metallifere Jug Band during the winter. And now the next period mark on your calendar is June with the Gran(i)Tour in Germany, with a stop also in Rovereto (Trento): «And an international preview in Vienna for the European Citizen science conference with Jack o’Malley representing the group.”
Following two teasers, here we go with the full Tatti Twist by the Jug Band Colline Metallifere with its extended crew of biped and quadruped dancers! We hope you like it, and if you like it a lot you can also support our project (click here). For more information and booking: micalosapevo@pibinko.org or +393317539228.
In between the grooves, see how the JBCM operates.
I went down to Tuscany looking for a place to be and I found its name Tatti, oh yeah
Then I found myself a house, with a bird a cat and a mouse, and a great big scenic view, and you
Tatti bar (x6)
Se tu balli il twist – con Wolfgang – balli il twist con chi – con Wolgang – se tu balli il twist, o yeah
I play music with my friends, we play music ’till we bend, the amusement never ends, oh yeah
but there’s something that I miss, just to reach my total bliss, and it’s your great big wet kiss, oh yes
(RIT).
More background information about the song
At times we try to sing about somewhat technical topics (e.g. nutrition), in other cases about “cosmic” issues (night sky and light pollution), at times about alternative viewpoints on “slow mobility”…with the Tatti Twist we decided to take a lighter approach…
Wolfang Scheibe: 77 anni e 3’44” di twist come se non ci fosse un domani.
….we put together our one-string bass player’s track record as a twist dancer (in the Sixties Wolfgang Scheibe used to compete in national dance contests), with the story of many foreign folks who discover Tuscany as a promised land. Unlike other lyrics, where we tend to draw a conclusion, here the story remains suspended, and the beat takes over (but we will write the final lyrics at some point).
Since January we then sent invitations to our community, to do the Twist in their favourite location, and the results of this call was edited in the video. Participation was quite good…we had numerous expressions of interest, and within these, a less-shy gang of around forty people, two dogs, and a horse became our pop-up dance company (we don’t know if a dancing horse has already been seen in a musical video, but we think it is quite rare if not unique!)
The reference to “Tatti” in the lyrics is in fact about two places…one is the village in the territory of Massa Marittima, Southern Tuscany, in the Metalliferous Hills, where two of the band members live. The other is the Tatti Bar (today called “Tatti Stay and See”), a very hip place downtown Stuttgart, Germany, which in fact took its name from the Tuscan hamlet (this story is further detailed in this newspaper article from last year).
The Tatti Twist is one of six songs produced by the Jug Band Colline Metallifere during the Winter, which you will be invited to check out together with the rest of our repertoire while the Spring unfolds, as we approch the June Gran(i)Tour in Germany.
For those of you who would really like to dig deeper, we encourage you to watch the December 2021 show at Radio Deejay Fox (with a transcript in English), and this presentation from last September.
Our friend Florian listened to trailer #1 and he immediately got into the groove of the 2024 Gran(i)Tour…stay tuned for the full video on Saturday! For more information and booking: micalosapevo@pibinko.org or +393317539228.
Sunday, June 16, 2024 the Gran(i)Tour will bring us to Tennental, some 30 km South-West of Stuttgard, Germany, to entertain the participants to the celebrations for the 100th anniversary of biodynamic agriculture with our “music & territory” repertoire!
To attend the even registration is required: click here.
From this interactive map you may explore the various events in the tour (the yellow dots), and get information about other situations and characters related to this mission (friends, twist dancers, grain producers, etc). This map is frequently updated. Last update: Apr. 30, 2024.
…if you live in Bayern or Baden-Württemberg and you are curious about the Jug Band Colline Metallifere and about stuff we propose about “music & territories”, please contact us for an initiative which will be reaching you in a couple of months: micalosapevo@pibinko.org o 3317539228.
Please note that for posts after May 2023 the Italian-language version of the sites has a lot more content than the English-language version, so you are encouraged to browse the Italian version..
