Piero Piccioni

Piero Piccioni
Piccioni
Born	Piero Piccioni (1921-12-06)December 6, 1921 Turin, Kingdom of Italy
Died	July 23, 2004(2004-07-23) (aged 82) Rome, Italy
Occupations	Pianist organist conductor composer
Years active	1953–1998
Style	Film scores, jazz, lounge music, bubblegum pop, teen pop Latin music, spy music, easy listening, orchestra

Piero Piccioni (it; December 6, 1921 – July 23, 2004) made music for Italian movies.

He was a pianist, organist, conductor, and composer. He wrote musuic for more than 300 movies.He was on the radio for the first time in 1938 with his "013" Big Band. He went back on the radio in 1944 after the Allied liberation of Italy. "013" was the first Italian jazz band to be shown in Italy after the fall of Fascism.

His style was similar to composers such as Ennio Morricone and Bruno Nicolai.

Early life

Piero Piccioni was born in Turin, Piedmont. His mother's maiden name was Marengo. Piero Piccioni used the name Piero Morgan until 1957.

When he was growing up, his father Attilio Piccioni was an important part of the Italian Christian Democratic Party. Attilio would often take Piero to concerts at the EIAR Radio Studios in Florence. Piero Piccioni listened to lots to jazz in his childhood. He loved Art Tatum and Charlie Parker. Piero Piccioni studied at the Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini. After studying there, Piero Piccioni decided to become a musician.

Career

Piccioni first played on the radio when he was 17 with his 013 Big Band in 1938. He only returned on the radio after the liberation of Italy in 1944. His 013 was the first Italian jazz band to be on the radio in Italy after the fall of Fascism.

He started writing songs on his own. He then got some of his works published by Carisch editions.

In the 1950s, Piero Piccioni was a lawyer getting rights for Italian producers. In that time, Michelangelo Antonioni called Piccioni to write music for a movie directed by Luigi Polidoro.

Piccioni then started to write music for more movies, including Gianni Franciolini's Il mondo le condanna (1952). He started making friendships with directors Francesco Rosi and Alberto Sordi.

Many directors wanted Piero Piccioni to score the music for their movies. Piero Piccioni started writing music for Francesco Rosi, Mario Monicelli, Alberto Lattuada, Luigi Comencini, Luchino Visconti, Antonio Pietrangeli, Bernardo Bertolucci, Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica, Lina Wertmuller, Tinto Brass, Dino Risi, and others.

He made music for movies including Il bell'Antonio, Contempt, The 10th Victim, More Than a Miracle, The Deserter, The Light at the Edge of the World, Puppet on a Chain, Lucky Luciano, Camille 2000, The Nun and the Devil, Swept Away, Christ Stopped at Eboli, Fighting Back, and many Alberto Sordi movies. He wrote over 300 soundtracks. He made music for radio, television, ballets and orchestra.

Awards and legacy

Piccioni won prizes. He won the David di Donatello Award for the movie Swept Away (1975). He won the Nastro d'argento Award for the movie Salvatore Giuliano by Francesco Rosi (1963).

In The Big Lebowski, there is a movie fictional movie Logjammin'. Piccioni's song "Traffic Boom" was the song for the Logjammin' .

The song "It's Possible" from "Il Dio Sotto la Pelle" was sampled for DJ Khaled's "Jermaine's Interlude". It is on the album Major Key.

Death

Piccioni died in Rome on July 23, 2004 from unknown causes.

Selected movies

References

Other websites

• Official website
• Piero Piccioni discography at Discogs

• Piero Piccioni on IMDb
• Piero Piccioni at AllMusic