Monday 1 October 2018

Amedeo Tommasi's OST Thomas from 1970 [limited time only] + more





Amedeo Tommasi is an Italian jazz pianist and composer:

Born: 1 December 1935 in Trieste, Italy. 
Thought to be one of the most talented pianist of his generation, Tommasi came to light in 1960, during a radio transmission entitled "La coppa di jazz". He took part in the 1961 editions of the St. Vincent, Comblain La Tour, and San Remo Festivals. During the same year he was awarded first prize at the Bled Festival in Yugoslavia, for the small ensemble category. On that occasion he was congratulated heartily by John Lewis himself! 
He has often performed abroad, and has recorded with Buddy Collette, Conte Candoli, and Jacques Peltzer. A curious item is the fact that, before dedicating himself to modern jazz, he used to play the trombone in the Dixieland "Panigal Jazz Band" of Bologna. Apart from writing the well known "Ballata In Forma Di Blues", some other works of his are: "Zamboni 22" (composed in Bologna), "Autostrada del Sole", and "Ballad For Micheline".

On this 1970 OST the theme song appears no fewer than six (!) times, with the best being the chanson sans paroles style vocalizing in the greatest eurofilm tradition:





For me, all the majestic success of European musical artistic perfection shines through in this little ditty: the classical learning amalgamated with everything great 20th century pop had to offer, the thirst for beauty, the deep and pure emotional expression...

It's an obscure movie, sadly there is no synopsis anywhere to be found on The Great Google to tell the celluloid tale, even the customarily reliable imdb falls short here, other than to report the genre: Italian thriller/horror movie.  Amazing what an appetite they have for horror in that country, so similar to the gladiatorial combat from ancient Roman times, huh?  I guess it's a bit better, as is the absence of bubonic plague.  But I have to stop, knowing that among the readers here there are people from that country, currently heading back nostalgically to the Mussolini days, like so much of the rest of the world it seems. I'll never forget on one of my first visits to the country on stopping for a coffee right after departing the aircraft with a bunch of American tourists, who were disturbed by the rudeness of the barrista (she yelled at one of them for something or another) expecting Starbucks-type service with a smile, I looked at them and said, "Hey, welcome to Italy!"  We had a good laugh over that.

I'll include a bunch more disappointing library-like albums from Tommasi: Zodiac, The Sound, Spazio, Merveille d'art, & the hydrologically benthic Ittiologia, which includes the usually brilliant Alessandroni but here, not so much.  Out of all those, the only semi-decent track is from the Merveille d' art, specchio i miragio:














8 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Hi, curious post, i would really like to see the film
    Here
    https://www.davinotti.com/index.php?f=6692
    but mostly here:
    http://lospettatoreindisciplinato.blogspot.com/2009/02/thomasgli-indemoniati-di-pupi-avati.html
    are some comments on the film (use googletranslate), the director is Pupi Avati
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pupi_Avati
    also Dixieland musician, probably with Tommasi :-), very good Italian filmmaker (this is his first movie), among his best things for me some thrillers / horror, especially "The house with the windows that laugh"

    here
    https://www.cinematografo.it/cinedatabase/film/thomas-gli-indemoniati-/24709/
    it is said :
    - THE FILM IS UNPUBLISHED IN ITALY FOR THE FAILURE OF THE DISTRIBUTION HOUSE.

    - PRESENTED AT THE LOCARNO FESTIVAL OF 1970, WHERE BOB TONELLI WON THE STEFEN AWARD AS THE BEST NOT PROTAGONIST ACTOR. THERE IS ONLY A COPY AT THE BOLOGNA EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA CENTER.

    edit:
    here it is,
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXC_Le6OmPw
    but in really BAD quality

    Cheers from that land :-)

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  3. oh wow, you found out! I have to admit youtube is pretty amazing, when it comes to old movies

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  4. Hey Julian, thanks for these real gems, and said by an Italian means a lot (they are really hard disks to find here too). As for "the return of Mussolini", I would not worry too much: everyone talks about it in vain, but in the end nobody wants it! Greetings from Genova, Mario

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  5. Thanks! The Thomas OST was amazing but I loved Ittiologia and (the Santucci-contributions to) Le Meraviglie Dell'arte as well. I actually found the remaining Libraries pretty decent too.

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  6. Hi , is it possible to have a re up please Julian ? That would be real dope from you...Have a good day my man.

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  7. https://www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/ldbj1u
    no problem

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