A busker in Naples, Italy
History makes music … it carves out life’s edges for the musicians to find.
Little wonder then that Naples, full of passion and secrets, is carpeted with song, with great singers and orchestras, and with the drift of the mandolin, of the saxophone and of jazz.
Pino Daniele
Waves of emotion can hit you from any distance – one washed right over me this time two years ago. I was thousands of miles away from the event that caused the outpouring of emotion … but I knew that it mattered.
The ‘event’ was the sudden death of the singer Pino Daniele on January 4th 2015, and the city whose heart split open was Napoli. Facebook wept with tributes. I could feel the pain from wherever I sat.
The deep curves of the bowlback Neapolitan mandolin
It took us a while to find the little workshop and we had to squeeze in when we did – it was Saturday and the only door was open to visitors.
In fact La Bottega del Mandolino was so full of visitors (around a dozen or so), and every shape of mandolin and tool, that there hardly seemed space for Maestro Salvatore Masiello.
The Phraser 