[Monday Notes no. 133] A Place For Lovers is a song written by Manuel De Sica as the soundtrack for the film Amanti directed in 1968 by his father Vittorio De Sica. This is not one of the great director’s masterpieces, while the music is definitely worth mentioning. I have therefore tried to analyse how…Continue readingAmanti, Ella FItzgerald sings Manuel De Sica’s A Place For Lovers
Tag: italian music
[Monday Notes no. 128] Ma mi is a lyric by Giorgio Strehler set to music by Fiorenzo Carpi. First recorded on Ornella Vanoni’s debut album, the song is however much more suited to Enzo Jannacci, who made it his classic.Continue readingEnzo Jannacci, Ma mi. The Tale of a Partisan
[Monday Note no. 123] Crapa pelada is a piece from 1936, when jazz was opposed by the fascist regime because it was foreign music. Gorni Kramer resolved the issue with humour, using a nursery rhyme in Milanese dialect to the tune of Duke Ellington’s It Don’t Mean a Thing.Continue readingGorni Kramer, Crapa Pelada. In Imitation of Duke Ellington
[Monday Notes no. 117] Impressioni di settembre is an amazing song by Premiata Forneria Marconi PFM, a well-known Italian rock band from the 1970s. The song has all the typical characteristics of progressive rock. Indeed, the lyrics, melody, harmony and arrangement have nothing to envy the more famous English bands.Continue readingImpressioni di settembre, Premiata Forneria Marconi PFM. Italian progressive rock
[Monday’s Notes No. 112] Mille lire al mese is an Italian song from 1939 that imitates the American repertoire not only in music but also in the subject matter. As in many American songs during the years of the Great Depression, the central theme is in fact money. Let us listen to the performance by…Continue readingNatalino Otto, Mille lire al mese. Jazz Italian style
[Monday Notes no. 106] Estate is the only Italian piece to have permanently entered the repertoire of jazz standards, to the point of being included in one of the famous Real Books, the sheet music collections dedicated to jazz music. The piece was written by Bruno Martino, the most famous international performers were Joao Gilberto,…Continue readingMichel Petrucciani, Estate. A piece by Bruno Martino in the jazz repertoire
[Monday Notes no. 101] Perigeo is an Italian band that was active for a short time in the mid-1970s. Azimut is the title of a song and also of the band’s first record, the piece is blended between progressive rock, psychedelic music and free jazz. Franco d’Andrea’s solo on piano makes the track even more…Continue readingPerigee, Azimuth. Between progressive rock and free jazz
[Note di lunedì n.89] That of Area is difficult music, not easy to listen to. Desecratory music, full of political content and revolutionary intentions, the product of a time that was complicated and full of conflicts. It is not easy to listen to Arbeit macht frei without thinking about the context in which it was…Continue readingArea, Arbeit macht frei. Music and revolution
Categories
Bruno Martino, E la chiamano estate
[Monday No. 77] Bruno Martino was one of the greatest Italian songwriters. A musician by vocation from a very young age, he found a unique style that made him the greatest Italian nightclub musician. Let us listen to and analyse one of his great classics, E la chiamano estate.Continue readingBruno Martino, E la chiamano estate
[Monday Note No. 75] Valzer per un amore is a song by Fabrizio De André written on the Valzer campestre from the Suite Siciliana by Gino Marinuzzi, a Sicilian composer and conductor. The song was released as a single on the B-side of the more famous La canzone di Marinella and shows how interested De…Continue readingFabrizio De André, Valzer per un amore – Valzer campestre