Soundtrack Apocalisse

Piero Umiliani not only had one of the greatest names in Italian soundtrack history (honestly I’m still not completely sure how to say it) but also composed some of its most energetic and lively music. The Florence born composer began his career in the 1950’s where he left a career in law to become a pianist, arranger, and orchestra director in Rome. His first score was for the comedy I SOLITI IGNOTI (aka Big Deal on Madonna Street) in 1958, and has the notoriety of being the first Italian score to exclusively use jazz music.

Umiliani continued to compose scores using jazz music, and ultimately began to be lumped in the category of Exotica. He had a huge hit in 1968 with his composition “Mah Na Mah Na,” a tune he wrote for the controversial mondo movie SVEZIA, INFERNO E PARADISO (aka Sweden, Heaven and Hell) and sung by longtime collaborator Alessandro Alessandroni (another great composer with an equally great name). The song became popular in the 70’s as Jim Henson used it for the Muppet show.
In 1970 Umiliani was asked to compose music for the Mario Bava stylish thriller 5 BAMBOLE PER LA LUNA D’AGOSTO (aka Five Dolls for an August Moon, Island of Terror), and made one of his most memorable scores. The score uses a decidedly exotic feel in the composition, using Hammond organ, harps, vibraphones, plenty of brass and wind instruments, and also include amazing percussion work that recalls the work of Martin Denny or Les Baxter.

Maestro Alessandroni is also to be given much credit for the score, as he plays a rambling sitar (as he did for the Nicolai score for TUTTI I COLORI DEL BUIO) and conducts his vocal choir I Cantori Moderni for the title song. The title song is a great little composition you could find yourself humming around the water cooler at work, and even has a little “Mah Na Mah Na” scat moment amongst the horn blasts and organ whirls.

Piero went on to compose over one hundred scores in his career in soundtracks. He was also notable in the world of early electronic music, as he released many great library records using early modular synthesizers (as documented on the great Musica Electronica compilations released by Easy Tempo). He also was a friend of Chet Bakers and released a very memorable album with him. Piero died in 2001 in Florence and left behind a legacy of great, classy records in the annals of Italian soundtracks.

BAMBOLE PER LA LUNA D’AGOSTO was first issued in 1970 on Cinevox. In 2001 Cinevox reissued the album with seven unreleased cues and unfortunately the record seems to have gone out of print (at least at this moment it’s not available). Cinevox released a great compilation of his work (Piero Umiliani Deluxe Edition), which is sort of a greatest hits collection of his work. Another great release is the Easy Tempo collection of Umiliani library music called To-day’s Sound (which includes the great theme he composed for Baba Yaga).