Interview Documentation

This is a partial transcript from an interview with Marcello Jatosti, a member of the Italian activist street band "Titubanda".

Where does the name “Titubanda” originate from?

Titubanda comes from the verb “titubar” in Italian, which means when we waver, when we hesistate, when we’re not certain, and when we cannot decide. So it is true that we are a wavering band, always on the verge of doing it or not doing it. This is also our handicap sometimes. We cannot decide, but maybe at the end, if somebody insists very much, like I did insist a lot, we came finally to the festival here.

Along those lines, how did Titubanda originate?

It started in May of 1998. The first day of May, which is not a casual date. It is an important date because it is a holiday for the workers. So I don’t know if in America it is the same, but May 1st is a very important day. It is the worker holiday, a holiday and celebration for the workers always associated with demonstrations with get-togethers and rallies of originally workers, Communist parties, anarchists on the left. It is just a special day to celebrate, and there was this was a theatre performance and they wanted a group of musicians to play with them, so in a few weeks, a group of maybe seven men was built up to go and play for this occasion, so this was the beginning of Titubanda.

Is everyone from the city of Rome or do they come from all over Italy?

Yes, mostly from Rome and some possibly live around Rome, in the countryside, to people who live far from Rome. Also, there are people joining us, for example, students who are French, Spanish, or from Germany, European students that come to Rome for some exchange. They stay for one year, they play with us, learn the repertoire. They are usually good and can learn quickly, and then on great occasions like trips or festivals, we invite them to be with us. We have here a German girl here playing with us, a French girl from Paris playing with us so we like to become more and more international.

Is anyone in the band from the United States?

(Name) is a guy who invited us to the festival in Somerville. He is a good musician as you saw. He was invited to play with us. There is another trombonist from Seattle who plays with us, and we invite him to play solos. If you are a good musician, you don’t need to rehearse too much, maybe after two or three days you can learn the easy parts. Everyone does a small easy part and then when we come together, we build an arrangement.

It seems like everyone knows when the soloist is supposed to come in. How do you plan that out with such a big group?

We sometimes have structures to the songs, but it helps that a few of us at the right moment give a signal just to have and to understand we are going to specific parts of the song. We are going to the bridge. We are going to the refrain and so forth.

And a lot of it is improv?

Yeah, yes, improv and we love to make happenings, be spontaneous, especially when we are very happy, when we are feeling excited because we are playing here in the United States. So, it gives us a push and we can have brilliance being spontaneous, sometimes even involving the audience.

Is this your first time playing in the United States and how has the experience been so far?

Yes, for the band it is our first time and so far it has been really great. We have really enjoyed it and we met many bands at the festival. Of course it is an enrichment for everyone to exchange their music and their experiences. We get together because we share the same values and show some feelings and the same pleasure of playing in the street, so its always a great experience.

Is there something you can take out of your experiences here and possibly utilize back in Italy?

Yes, we will go back as a new band. We will be totally transformed by this experience. We already, for example, the American bands, they have costumes and a show. They have dancers, and normally we do not dress up for demonstration or for our concerts, and so we already have some influence from the other American bands. They are more visual and more color-graphic.

I heard that you were going to do a rally at Wall Street. What rally is this?

We heard about this. It is not clear because we discovered that this is actually a campaign rally for Ralph Nader. So, when there are such proposals, when you have to play for someone in a political campaign, we tend to be careful how to choose where we go. We discussed it a little bit, and the band isn’t so clear if we want to support Ralph Nader because we think that in these elections, if Ralph Nader takes votes, it will take votes from Barack Obama, so we would rather give a chance of him getting all the possible votes, so probably, we won’t go to this rally.

What are some of the core values or attitudes of Titubanda?

For ourselves, for example, everyone has freedom of ideas. There is no one line official that everyone must respect, but everyone is allowed to have his or her own liberty of thought, and it is true that we are a bit individualistic. Normally, a band is more like a mass. We are many individuals that come together to build up a whole musical ensemble. First off, there are no hierarchies in the band. So everyone is equal and everyone tries to help and contribute as much as he or she can to our activities. Yeah, I already described how we choose where we are going to play. We choose democratically and we discuss it and lately we found it is a very good way to discuss between us. Everyone has a goal and we sit in a circle and everyone speaks in turn, so everyone can say what he or she thinks.