Piero Umiliani

The artists that most people associate with Italian film scores, Ennio Morricone and Nino Rota, had plenty of peers of equal stature. One of the most prolific among them was pianist and composer Piero Umiliani (Florence, 1926 – Rome, 2001), who greatly contributed to the style of the 60s and 70s European jazz-influenced film score. 

Alongside Piero Piccioni e Armando Trovajoli, he can indeed be regarded as one of the pioneers of Italian jazz soundtracks, having collaborated with the likes of Chet Baker, Helen Merrill and Gato Barbieri, just to mention a few. 

Like many Italian composers of his generation, in the 1960s and 1970s Umiliani also wrote the scores of many exploitation films, covering genres such as spaghetti western, Eurospy, Giallo, and soft sex films. One of these, Sweden, Heaven or Hell, gave him the opportunity to record “Mah-Na Mah-Nà”, the popular song that made him eternally famous. 

While the majority of his work may be said to fall between jazz and lounge, Umiliani also devoted much of his creativity to electronic music.  

He was one of the first ones in Italy to use the Moog synthesizer and other electronic keyboards, such the Arp 2600 and VCS3. His output in this genre is similar to the experimental work of a scientist of some sort – a chemist or master craftsman who created magic in his laboratory or workshop.