Italian saxophonist and vocalist Enzo Avitabile, was knocked sideways a few years ago when he encountered bottari, the ages-old percussive tradition of Southern Italy's rural Campania region.  The resulting collaboration was a sensation on the world music scene.  With the Sacro Sud Project, Avitabile has turned his attention to the musical tradition of his birthplace, Naples, and joined forces with Italy’s finest traditional musicians, including Maurizio Martinotti, master of the ghironda (Italian hurdy-gurdy) and Luigi Lai, exponent of the launeddas (ancient reed instrument with three pipes). It is a musical quest exploring the spiritual vitality of "the many souths" of the world and featuring songs from a variety of epochs--including some created during the time of another celebrated son of Naples, Gianlorenzo Bernini, whose dazzling portrait busts coaxed a "speaking likeness" from stone.  In their imaginary journey from Nazareth to Naples, these adventurous musicians discover, for all the suffering they find along the way, an abiding and exalting spiritual vitality. 

Complements the exhibition "Bernini and the Birth of Baroque Portrait Sculpture," on view from August 5 - October 26, 2008