James Reese Europe's military concerts in
France in
World War I in 1919 are claimed to have introduced Europeans to a new, "syncopated" music from America. Yet, Italians had an even earlier taste of a new music from across the Atlantic when a group of "
Creole" singers and dancers, billed as the "creators of the
cakewalk" performed at the Eden Theater in
Milan in 1904. The first real Italian jazz orchestras and ensembles, however, were formed during the 1930s by musicians such as
Arturo Agazzi with his
Syncopated Orchestra and Carlo Andreis with his
Quartetto Andreis (CETRA, 1937-1941), enjoying immediate success. In spite of the anti-American cultural policies of the
Fascist regime during the 1930s, American jazz remained popular. (Even
Romano Mussolini,
Benito's son, was a great jazz fan and then prominent jazz pianist.) Also, in 1935, American jazz great
Louis Armstrong toured Italy with great success. In the immediate post-
World War II years jazz took off in
Italy. All American post-war jazz styles, from
be-bop to
Free Jazz and
Fusion have their equivalents in
Italy. The most gifted exponents of
jazz music in this period (from the 1940s to 1960s) are musicians like
Gorni Kramer,
Giorgio Gaslini,
Lelio Luttazzi and
Franco Cerri, the composer
Bruno Martino and great singers like
Natalino Otto,
Jula de Palma,
Nicola Arigliano and
Johnny Dorelli. The universality of Italian culture ensured that jazz clubs would spring up throughout the peninsula, that all radio and then
television studios would have jazz-based "house-bands," that Italian musicians would then start nurturing a "home grown" kind of jazz, based on European song forms, classical composition techniques and folk music (for example, in Sicily, where
Enzo Rao and his group Shamal have added native Sicilian and Arab influences to American jazz). The jazz recorded in Italy from 1912 to 1950 is practically unknown, though in those years a remarkable number of recordings were made by both Italians and foreign musicians in Italy. The
records, all of them
78 rpm, are rarities for collectors, as their original matrixes were destroyed either in the devastating bombings of World War II (most of the record companies were located in
Milan and
Turin, two cities severely damaged by the war) or due to the foolishness of the many record company directors who sent to the rettery the remaining recordings of the period. Notwithstanding, thanks to few collectors, the best jazz recorded in Italy from 1912 to 1955 has been re-edited (by Riviera Jazz Records - www.rivierajazz.it). The story of Italian jazz, from the beginning, has been written by
Adriano Mazzoletti : "Il Jazz in Italia. Dalle origini alle grandi Orchestre" and "Il Jazz in Italia. Dallo swing agli anni Sessanta", published by E.D.T., Turin. (www.edt.it). A photographic book with all the Italian musicians from the origins, “L’Italia del Jazz” have been published by Mastruzzi Editore, Rone (www.slms.it). ==Contemporary Italian jazz==