Last weekend’s Philadelphia Folk Festival just wasn’t the same without Dante Bucci.
Dante, who passed away last Wednesday, brought his own unique style of music-making to the festival since 2001. His instrument was a “hang”, a type of drum shaped like a flying saucer, held on the lap and played with the hands and fingers.
The music Dante produced with this strange device, much of which he composed himself, was completely different to anything heard on traditional instruments; the sounds are usually described as “dreamy” and “haunting.”
At festivals, he often performed with other musicians or on his own, and he could also be found playing to enthralled audiences on the streets of Philadelphia with two hangs on his lap.
But a cloud was cast over the joy of Upper Salford’s annual, well-attended folk festival when word spread that Dante M. Bucci had been found dead in his Roxboro home at age 33. Family members said the cause of death was complications from a fall.
“We’re all really excited,” guitarist Miles Thompson, standing by the front gate in a khaki kilt, told Westchester Daily Local News. “I’ve played with him a few times. It’s a real shame.”
Philadelphia musicians collective A Fistful of Sugar dedicated their song “Call Me” to Dante, and numerous tributes poured in over the weekend.
Dante could play almost any instrument, from guitar to piano, theremin, Australian didgeridoo, washtub and tin whistle.
“My father could make music on any instrument,” his older brother Damien said. “He played music because he loved it. He never thought about making money or becoming famous.”
Teresa Conroy, a former Daily News reporter who now teaches yoga, said she’s heard Dante play during some of her classes at Yoga on the Ridge on Ridge Avenue. “It was so magical and so haunting,” she said. “It was perfect for yoga.”
In fact, the hang (pronounced “hang”) was developed in Switzerland about 10 years ago as a meditation instrument. The hang drum is often called a “hang drum,” but its makers don’t like to call it a drum. It is stroked, not struck like a regular drum.
Dante had six instruments, each tuned to a different key, because he needed multiple keys to create music.
“He was a very quiet, gentle man,” said Conroy, who taught Dante as a yoga therapist. “He was a little shy. He was very generous and never wanted to be paid to perform.”
Mutulu Onarallu, a singer-songwriter who regularly collaborated with Dante, said in an article by John Bettes in online music magazine The Key that Dante “was a virtuoso on a unique and unusual instrument.”
“He can take anything, tweak it and make it groove and sound good in 30 minutes.”
As for Hang, “He’s reached an incredible level. What can he do with it!”
Onarall’s performance at the folk festival on Saturday was scheduled to feature Dante and guitarist Jeremy Dieng, who told Bettese beforehand, “We’re going to play as a duo. He’s in it in his heart.”
Dante’s day job was as a systems analyst at his alma mater, Drexel University.
He was born when his parents were in The Hague, Netherlands, on a business trip for his father, Joseph Bucci, an Italian-born businessman, and his mother, maiden name Marianne Tomaino, is a classically trained singer.
When Dante was about a year old, the family returned to the United States and he attended school in the Pennsbury School District. After graduating from high school, he went on to Drexel University to study Information Systems.
“He was a kind and very humble person,” his mother said. “He did music for fun. He was a very kind person, fun to be around. He loved people and was there when people needed him.”
“He was a wonderful, kind and playful man.”
Dante had a quirky sense of humor and loved corny jokes and tongue twisters, his family said.
“I never heard him say a bad word about anyone,” his brother said.
In addition to his parents and siblings, he is survived by his partner, Gillian Pianca;
Service: It was a Monday.
