From Bologna, Cornwall and Cape Verde: This sixth edition of Cheese features more music than ever before, from all over the world, with a total of 16 shows and concerts around the town of Bra over the four days of the event.
A look at just three of the musicians and groups playing over the weekend showcases the international diversity to be heard at Cheese.
My Awesome Mixtape, a group of young 20-somethings from the Italian university city of Bologna, played twice in Bra on Saturday September 22, once at the Slow Food Café in the courtyard of the Slow Food publishing house, and later that evening at Bra’s club, Le Macabre. A relatively new band, they’ve gained a cult following through the blog world and offer a refreshing and lively blend of indie and electronica.
On Sunday September 23, the courtyard hosted Pete Berryman, from Cornwall, an acoustic guitar player who has been active on the British music scene since the 1960s. His relaxed blend of folk, blues and jazz, with a sampling of original music, traditional Irish tunes and little Bob Dylan, was definitely Slow Music, as he explained. “After a gig near Treviso, some of the people came after to tell me they really enjoyed that my music was not guitar gymnastics, not the fast, technical playing they were used to, but music that was Slow.” Berryman, who for some of his set was accompanied by the guitarist Massimo Zemolin, could also be heard during the weekend at the House of Blue Cheeses, playing blues music, of course.
The Baptistinha brothers came from the small Cape Verde archipelago off the coast of Africa to Piedmont thanks to cheese itself. A University of Turin project to improve farming in the country alerted Slow Food to a goat’s milk cheese being made on the island of Santo Antão. When Slow Food staff went to visit the cheesemakers, they discovered the group via a mission of Capuchin friars on the island of São Vicente and decided to bring them to Cheese together with the cheese itself – which has just become Africa’s first cheese Presidium. Brothers Luis, Gerson, Edi, Dani and Ericson are the sons of a musical instrument-maker, and they make all their instruments themselves, including the Brazilian cavaquinho, similar to a small guitar.