[Dixielandjazz] Italian Jazz

[Steve barbone]

Below is a distillation of several sources about Jazz in Italy from the
1920's on. These days, Italy has some great jazz festivals (Umbria etc) as
well as lots of small club jazz in cities all over the country. Tony Scott
moved from New York City to Rome in the 1970s, is revered there, and still
swinging in his mid 80's. Evan Christopher stopped by to pay homage to him a
few years ago.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone


Jazz found its way into Europe during 1917-18 through the presence of
American musicians in military bands playing "syncopated" music. The first
Italian jazz orchestras were formed during 1920s by musicians such as Arturo
Agazzi with his Syncopated Orchestra and enjoyed immediate success. In spite
of the anti-American cultural policies of the Fascist regime during the
1930s, American jazz remained popular.

>From the Œ20s to the Œ40s, Italians were applauding numerous jazz bands
called Orchestra Jazz, Jazz Sinfonico or simply titled with the name of
their leader. In 1931, a 12 piece orchestra, Orchestra Jazz Columbia, was
created in order to record the American and European jazz productions
invading the market. The Angelini Orchestra began in 1930 when it was called
to play dance music at the Sala Gay in Turin, the most famous dance hall of
the time where concerts were broadcast live by the Italian National Radio.
Maestro Angelini introduced for the first time in Italy the presence of a
permanent singer in the makeup of the orchestra in the style of the great
American orchestras from which he also took his repertoire. Pippo Barzizza,
a friend though musical rival, and great conductor as well as composer,
brought swing into Italian blood.

Although Benito Mussolini had prohibited jazz in the 1930s, many artists
continued to play foreign music, and some young Italian musicians even
decided to record ³pure² jazz. Benito Mussolini's son, Romano, was a great
jazz fan and became prominent jazz pianist in post war Italy. (Chet Baker is
rumored to have said upon meeting/playing with Romano; "Gee, what a drag
about your Dad.")

In Œ37, Natalino Otto (nicknamed ³King of Rhythm²) presented an innovative
repertoire strongly influenced by the American music of that era, as he was
coming from a recent stay in New York where he worked for Italian-American
radio. He had to face the Italian fascist regime censorship that banned
anything foreign and was forced to translate song titles and lyrics into
Italian. The Italian radio company (EIAR) didn¹t broadcast his songs,
labeling them ³barbaric negro antimusic². Banned from the radio, Otto,
instead worked for recording companies with two great Italian bandleaders:
Gorni Kramer and Pippo Barzizza. It was between Œ42-¹43, when northern Italy
was still undergoing World War II bombings, that brave young artists
recorded many jazz standards which were given Italian titles so as to
disguise the true origin.

The main reason for the paucity of historical information about jazz in
Italy prior to 1946 is the fact that most of the recordings and matrixes by
Italian jazz musicians were destroyed during the war. The record companies
were based mainly in Turin and Milan and both of these cities were heavily
damaged.

After World War II, and the falling of the fascism, the music from the
States changed the face of the nation forever. One of the main jazz singers
of that time (and of today, competing in 2005's Festival di Sanremo) is
Nicola Arigliano. Known as the ³King of the Swing², Arigliano has played
jazz since he was 11, primarily involved with the same band of Giampaolo
Ascolese (drums/percussion), Antonello Vannucchi (piano) and Elio Tatti
(bass).