Tanto Gentile E Tanto Onesta Pare by Ariella Uliano

They celebrate the arrival of the warm and sunny season and the joys and pleasures of youth. Tanto Gentile E Tanto Onesta Pare also features Medieval poetry by Dante Alighieri from The Divine Comedy (Canto V, Inferno)and Vita Nova (The New Life) dedicated to Beatrice, and works by the Italian Renaissance authors Gaspara Stampa, Angelo Poliziano and Lorenzo De’ Medici. The full colour booklet contains all the lyrics and introductory notes in English and Italian and beautiful photographs.

Some of the compositions and settings are by the artist and all the arrangements, some jazzy and avant-garde, some more classical, early or traditional are also by the artist. In the repertoire are three dance tunes, as Ariella is a dancer of early music.

The poetry in Tanto Gentile E Tanto Onesta Pare is Italian, whereas on her previous albums it is English: the Romantics in So, We’ll Go No More A-Roving, and Shakespeare and contemporaries in The Wandering Spirit.

Some reviews on Tanto Gentile E Tanto Onesta Pare:

Amazing, Amazing, Amazing!

After purchasing Tanto Gentile E Tanto Onesta Pare, I played it non stop for 3 days. Pure poetry to my ears, the lyrics and instrumentals are fantastic and send you to another world of calm and peace! Here, the Italian Dante Alighieri, Gaspara Stampa and Lorenzo De' Medici meet our Celtic and English ballads' heroes - in Mary Hamilton, She's Like The Swallow and The Lover's Ghost - during a fascinating pilgrimage across Europe.

If you do not have this Album then what are you waiting for - a must buy now CD!

Sir Peter in London

Well, I must say I am very captivated by your new CD…That's a lovely picture on the CD cover. Your smile brightens the scene as much as the ocean waters behind you. I shall guess that the picture was taken in Rio?

The music. You must understand that I am no professional critic, I know virtually nothing about music, other than I enjoy listening to all kinds of music.

I have only heard the first six tracks, just a few moments ago. But I want to write you immediately to say: I like it very much. In fact, the CD drew me in from the very first note of the guitar on the first track. Very compelling, sweet and interesting.

I was very surprised when I heard the jazzy tune, track 3, "I' Mi Trovai, Fanciulle, Un Bel Mattino." It's great fun and the man's voice in the song is wonderful. As we say in the radio business: "He has a great set of pipes." I love the saxophone. From my college days haunting jazz clubs in Boston, I'm thinking that's a tenor sax?

It's such a bonus to hear on one CD songs that are sung both in Italian and also in English. So, I especially like to hear you sing "The Lover's Ghost."

You sing so prettily and with such feeling. And I think that this song is a good example of one of the things I like about your music. While the song sounds simple and lovely, there is so much more to it, including its history, tradition, its story line and its meaning.

The accordion and the flute are wonderfully rich.

So I'm up to track six and I really like this CD very much. Thanks for it. I'll get many hours of listening enjoyment from it.

To me the measure of a strong CD is whether I want to listen again. I am very eager to hear the other seven tracks and I am also very eager to listen again to the first six.

It's really quite lovely…it’s wonderful, peaceful, inspirational music.

Richard, Washington DC

Thanks for the CD which turned up earlier today. I intended playing just a couple of tracks so that I could give you some feedback…. It's GREAT!!! I got so into it that I had to hear all of it. The music is fantastic and the arrangements are superb. I liked your previous CDs:

So, We'll Go No More A-Roving and The Wandering Spirit, but this one had such an immediate impact that I'll transfer it to my MP3 player so that I can play it on the move. I'll give you some more considered feedback once I've played it a few times and you are welcome to post the comments on the website if you wish to do so.

Paul, London

"Have just listened to Ariella's CD again - really am enjoying it. I didn't realise initially that the songs were as old as they are - the arrangements are great and really seem to fit the original material well, though you'd never think they would. She's got an excellent voice and some extremely talented musicians around her. I thought all the arrangements were good, but have just re-listened to the avant-garde version of track 12 (summer is i-cumin in) again, terrific."

Jill, UK

Tanto Gentile E Tanto Onesta Pare is translated in English as My Lady Looks So Gentle and So Pure, and it’s the title of a poem by Dante Alighieri from his collection dedicated to Beatrice.

It’s an apt title for the album, which is a blend of European music smoothly spanning the ages as well as countries, featuring Ariella Uliano, an Italian lady with a beautiful voice that glides effortlessly from Folk to Classical without any strain. On top of that she’s also a consummate finger style guitarist playing her own accompaniments, reminiscent of Victoria de Los Angeles.

The album has the added spice of a variety of excellent supporting musicians, notably Stefan Oslanski-Piano; Will Killeen-Slide and Acoustic Guitar; Andrea Trotti-Flute; Francesco Gualerzi-Saxophone; Adelmo Sassi-Electric Guitars; ; Giuseppe Nieddu-Didjeridoo; Nicola Berti-Percussions and Johnny Sacco-Bass Guitar and Sound Engineer. Stefano Paiusco gives a superb reading of an excerpt from Dante’s Inferno; even if you don’t understand the language, Paiusco's voice will send shivers up your spine. The Italian actor also reads from the Renaissance poet Angelo Poliziano and his pupil Lorenzo De' Medici, concluding the programme with the famous Canzona Di Bacco.

In Tanto Gentile, Dante's angelic vision of Beatrice and ghostly apparitions of Paolo and Francesca are set against a very English background, inhabited by otherworldly creatures, images and sounds.

The booklet includes great pictures by Renzo Frontoni, Ariella’s partner, who also provides some interesting backing vocals.

My Lady Looks So Gentle And So Pure is a collection of 13 songs that moves from the Italian Medieval to a touch of a Honky Tonk Piano in a 15 century Italian ballad and can also introduce a Mexican style bit of trumpet playing into the title track.

Ariella, who is bi-lingual and equally at home singing a Scottish or English ballad or Italian songs, has penned two tunes and one lyric herself and she has set to music words by the famous Italian courtesan Gaspara Stampa.

Ariella Uliano works for the British Council and studies period dancing so she is well steeped in the diversity and harmony of European cultures. She is better known in Italy than in Britain but with such talent it only needs the right door to open for her to find a large audience in the UK.

Brian Healey, London UK

Average Customer Review: