Piero Umiliani - Jazz dall'Italia

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How and where does Maestro Piero Umiliani’s career begin?

My story began as the war was ending. It was 1944, I was senebteen years old and Italy was divided in half. The nazis were still in Bologna and the allies had just arrived in Florence. With the americans we played music at all hours. For us, it was freedom in every sense of the word. After having suffered so many years of oppression we could eat as much as we wanted. Compensation for my music consisted of suitcases filled with food for my entire family. We could play and sing to the new freedom.

My first piano lesson was with my aunt, who taught me to play classical pieces. I remember listening to Radio London and the first notes of Duke Ellington at fourteen, it was a dream.
When I was nineteen SIAE gave me the opportunity to write be-bop arrangements of classical jazz pieces. I published these scores on my own label, Omega.
At 24, the Director of the Conservatory in Florence, Cherubini, convinced me to study music saying that if not I would regret it later in life.
It was the end of me.I lost my head for several girls and in the ninth year of the Conservatory, I realized that I was wasting my time and would never become a professional musician. Furthermore, I understood that my passion was not for the classical stuff they had us play at the conservatory, it was for jazz.

In 1952 I moved to Rome to work with Armando Trovajoli, who needed someone to do his arrangements, with whom I began a real friendship.
In 1954 I cut my first record for RCA, called “Dixieland in Naples”.

It’s a record I’m still proud of.
Radio RAI liked it as well, and after a year hired me to work with a Benny Goodman Style quintet.

It continues...

Credits:

JAZZ DALL’ITALIA n.2 : Big Band Blues

Label: OMICRON

Catalog#: LPM 007

Format: LP

Country: Italy

Released: 1967

Big Band with: Piero Umiliani (p, dir, arr),
Oscar Valdambrini (tp), Gianni Basso (ten sax),

Glauco Masetti (alto sax),

Lorenzo Nardini (bar sax), Dino Piana (valves trne),
Franco D’Andrea (p, replace Umiliani in A2, A3, A4, A5),
Giorgio Azzolini (bass), Lionello Bionda (drums)


Tracklisting:

Side A

A1) Big Band Blues – 2’35”
A2) Una Tromba e un Blues – 4’55”
A3) Fast and Blues – 4’05”
A4) Veemente – 3’48”
A5) Dolce ed Ostinato – 4’12

Side B

B1) Spiritual – 2’40”
B2) Big Band Crescendo – 4’15”
B3) Breve Incontro – 3’20”
B4) Blues Waltz – 3’55”
B5) Conversation – 4’50”