One of the richest 70s soundtracks ever penned by Piero Piccioni – a score for a film that was part action, part comedy – and which really shows the presence of both in the music! The film stars the great Alberto Sordi, but is set in New York – and Piccioni brings in all these American funk and jazz elements to the music – sometimes electric grooves that fit the 70s mode, sometimes older jazz styles that evoke an older generation of New York – blended with other tracks that have more conventional soundtrack strings and orchestrations! Piccioni himself handles the piano on the recording, I Cantori Moderni make an appearance, and titles include "Surprise Pastorale", "New York New York", "The American Dream", "Gunz Concerto", "Little Italy", "Love In Brooklyn", "Swingin' At Savoy", "Anastasia Mio Fratello", and "New York By Night". 2CD edition adds in 24 more bonus tracks on CD2 – a total of 37 titles in all! CD

Beautifully slinky grooves from the Italian scene of the 70s – the never-issued soundtrack to a very groovy film – presented here in a selection of four tracks, only one of which was released as a single back in the day! The music's got a great easygoing vibe – a post-bossa style from Piero Piccioni, warmed up by 70s Italian touches that include keyboards, flute, and a bit of saxophone – a really warm melody on the three variations on the "Svezia" theme – plus one more other tune from the film! 7-inch, Vinyl record

One of the first great soundtracks we ever heard from Piero Piccioni – and still one of the best! Colpo Rovente has this really special sort of sound – jazzy, but not really jazz – bassy, but not really funky – and often done with spare, stark sounds – but never in a way that's too atonal or horror-based either! Piccioni brought a really special sort of genius to the record – a way of using each instrument with a very unusual sound or tuning – and isolating each element in just the right way, but with a different style than that used by Morricone at the time. Some tracks get nice and groovy, but lots more hang back in a style that's almost pensive – and titles include "Kintabu", "Colpo Rovente", "Easy Dreamer", "Chinatown Drugs", and "LSD". LP, Vinyl record album

An excellent jazz soundtrack from Piero Piccioni – captured at a great early point in his film career, when he was still mixing in lots of elements from his work in jazz as well! The style here echoes some of the French jazz soundtracks of the new wave – and the tunes often sport breakout solos with plenty of fire – tenor, trumpet, and lots of piano – the latter of which has an especially great feel on some of the more mellow, moody tunes. Rhythms are great too – sometimes slow and loose, sometimes more vibrant and boppish – and together, the tunes work together to offer up a vibrant version of the movie that's almost as striking as the images on the screen! CD features a total of 26 tracks in all – over 70 minutes of music, including a number of unreleased tracks. CD

A sexy little soundtrack from Piero Piccioni – penned for an early 80s film, but done with a slinky style that's pure Euro 70s all the way! Keyboards mix nicely with strings on many tracks – almost in a way that Piccioni seems to borrow from American soul maestros of the previous decade – but there's also some more Italian-styled touches too – including some later bossa inflections that really round out the sound of the record in a wonderful way. And a few especially nice gems have this sense of space that almost makes the music float in the air – recalling the sounds that first made us fall in love with the 60s music of Piccioni. Most solo piano is by Piero, and Toquinho plays guitar on one track – and titles include "Anche Se Sai", "Notte Preziosa", "Occhio Discreto", "Volo Di Mezzanotte", "Bona Nox", and "Ritmo Macumbeiro". This expanded 2CD edition adds in 36 more bonus tracks to the original record – 25 more bonus tracks than the previous release! CD

Lots of jazziness here – including tight piano, snapping snare, and moody vibes – all served up in one of the best early soundtracks we've heard from Piero Piccioni! The core of the record features the original EP release of the film score – some of the most tight, tuneful numbers that really showcase Piccioni's jazz potential – but even the rich array of bonus tracks (29 extra tunes!) still mostly retain the jazzy flourish of the originals, and offer up some sweet instrumental variations that are mighty nice! The whole thing stands strongly next to some of the best French or American jazz soundtracks of the period – and this reissue adds in so much extra music, the CD runs for almost 80 minutes in length. CD

A surprisingly sensitive soundtrack from Piero Piccioni – especially given that it was done for an early 70s comedy that starred the great Alberto Sordi! The style here is maybe more in that early 60s Italian style of composers like Carlo Rustichelli and Nino Rota – light, lovely melodies that step out from larger but still-light strings – with a gentle sense of whimsy, in a way that never goes too far over the top! Solo instruments include alto sax, accordion, and piano – all used in mighty nice ways – on titles that include "Cocktails From Manhattan", "Roma Amara", "Lunga Storia D'Amore", "Swinging Waltz", "Tango Scopone", and "Gioco Di Carte". CD

Tempting sounds from the great Piero Piccioni – two late 60s horror scores on a single CD! First up is Temptation – a soundtrack that's got some wonderful organ lines and slow-moving grooves – of the sort that were covered by the Easy Tempo series years back, when we first fell in love with Piccioni's music! There's a slow swell and soft step to the music that's mighty nice – almost a perfect distillation of the Italian bossa influences that made for some of the best film scores of the time! The CD features 13 numbers from the film – all of them great, and the kind of variations on a single groovy theme you might find in Armando Trovajoli's La Matriarca. La Figlia Del Capitano is a bit richer, with more strings in the music, and a few more dramatic spots too – yet overall, the mood nicely fits that of Temptation – with a sense of holding back, then running forward – which suits the music very well. CD features 10 tracks from La Figlia – for a total of 23 in all. CD

A relatively late score from the great Piero Piccioni – and one that avoids some of the too-cheesy modes that had crept into Italian film scoring at the start of the 80s – as, if anything, Piero is even more sensitive and thoughtful than before – and does a great job of using older acoustic instrumentation in these really beautiful ways! There's strings on the set, used in spacious ways – often with the minimal effort of Morricone, but mixed with some of the warmer ideas of Luis Bacalov at the time – on themes that all spin off the main title, but shift out solo instrumentation – from piano, to guitar, organ, harp, and other instruments along the way. CD

A great little record, and one that presents maestro Piero Picconi in all his glory – a set that's got some of the spare groovy themes he did so well in the 60s, mixed with funkier moments that are at the level of the best of the crime/cop generation, plus a few dramatic moments thrown into the mix too! There's some really wonderful keyboards on the record – produced with cool effects, and used in that specifically Italian style that's got all these strange sounds that you'd never hear on an American record from the period. The whole thing's great – and titles include "The Persuaders", "Ambushers", "Lovely Mood", "Action", "Persuaders Strike Back", "Pursuit", and "Love Theme". LP, Vinyl record album

A beautiful late 60s score from Pierro Piccioni – done with the sort of complexity that always makes his work for film so striking – even when it was done for a movie that quickly disappeared amidst the shifting cinematic sands of time! Piccioni does a great job of mixing fuller passages with some smaller jazzy moments – that balance that always creates such a great depth of feeling and sonic exploration on his records – softer sentiments mixed with more sophisticated moments – as gentle eroticism gives way to lighter bossa inspiration!Titles include "Amore Mio Aiutami", "Miss Luna Special", "Luna, Amore E No", "Addio, Amore Mio", "Bossa Per Alberto", and "North Pole Penguin". 2CD version features 30 tracks in all – 11 stereo tracks, plus 19 more in mono! CD

One of the first great soundtracks we ever heard from Piero Piccioni – and still one of the best! Colpo Rovente has this really special sort of sound – jazzy, but not really jazz – bassy, but not really funky – and often done with spare, stark sounds – but never in a way that's too atonal or horror-based either! Piccioni brought a really special sort of genius to the record – a way of using each instrument with a very unusual sound or tuning – and isolating each element in just the right way, but with a different style than that used by Morricone at the time. Some tracks get nice and groovy, but lots more hang back in a style that's almost pensive – and titles include "Kintabu", "Colpo Rovente", "Easy Dreamer", "Chinatown Drugs", and "LSD". CD features 12 bonus tracks – all unreleased alternates! CD

One of the first great soundtracks we ever heard from Piero Piccioni – and still one of the best! Colpo Rovente has this really special sort of sound – jazzy, but not really jazz – bassy, but not really funky – and often done with spare, stark sounds – but never in a way that's too atonal or horror-based either! Piccioni brought a really special sort of genius to the record – a way of using each instrument with a very unusual sound or tuning – and isolating each element in just the right way, but with a different style than that used by Morricone at the time. Some tracks get nice and groovy, but lots more hang back in a style that's almost pensive – and titles include "Kintabu", "Colpo Rovente", "Easy Dreamer", "Chinatown Drugs", and "LSD". CD features 12 bonus tracks – all unreleased alternates! CD

Beautiful grooves from the legendary Piero Piccioni – a set that's a great follow-up to some of his famous 60s work – touched with a few more sexy 70s touches than before, but in a way that's still extremely groovy! There's lots of electric piano lines on the set – almost a Stelvio Cipriani vibe at times – but these are mixed with fuller arrangements from Piero, with slinky woodwinds and some great rhythms that extrapolate styles from bossa nova, then go off in all these cool jazzy directions! The music was scored for a documentary of the "mondo" variety, but has a feel that's much more like the best love/sex soundtracks of the time – with titles that include "Katmandu", "Starless Sky", "Inventions", "It's Possible", "Nights To Come", "New Ways To Live", and "Love Will Find A Way". 2CD version features a whopping 49 tracks in all – over two hours of music, and a delight throughout! CD

Totally groovy work from the legendary Piero Piccioni – a score for an obscure "mondo" documentary about the sad state of culture in late 60s England! The score is probably best known for its very funky "Black Flower" theme – but it's filled with loads of other really wonderful cuts that mix jazzy moments, mod rhythms, and the best late 60s Italian film instrumentation – all in a blend that makes this soundtrack every bit as great as the better-known Fumo Di Londra! And if you don't know that one, it's one of Piccioni's best from the late 60s – a perfect blend of his roots in jazz, his love of bossa rhythms, and his key role in all things groovy that were happening in Italian film in the late 60s. There's plenty of "party" tracks here – "Party Music" and "Drug Party" tracks – plus others titled "Country Mood", "Night Club", "Soho", "Country Shake", "Endless Love", and "Organ Shake". CD

We haven't heard that many western soundtracks from Piero Piccioni over the years – and we've gotta admit that this one's pretty darn compelling! There's definitely a western flavor to the music, but the set also shows plenty traces of Piccioni's early 60s jazz scoring as well – not straight jazz, but with the kind of horn passages and larger arrangements we know from Piero's work of that nature – mixed with more brooding or dramatic passages to fit the western theme. Production often makes good use of echo – especially around the basslines – which helps the sound crescendo nicely, when needed! Titles include "Minnesota Sky", "Sidewinder", "Sombrero", "Long Neck", "Jackie", "Saddle Sack", and "River Bed" – and CD features a huge amount of bonus tracks, 17 more – making for a total of 34 tracks in all! CD

The great Piero Piccioni at the height of his powers – working here on a sublime spy soundtrack from the 60s! The record's got a really wonderful sound right from the start – lots of cool Hammond organ lines that bubble and shimmer in ways that are quite different than the use of the instrument by any American jazz players of the time – really weird and wild from a sonic perspective, but still set to lots of cool and groovy rhythms as well! The soundtrack's got the same sublime appeal as Piccioni's legendary music for La Deccima Vittima/The Tenth Victim – just the sort of essential lost gem that got us collecting rare soundtracks in the first place! 30 tracks in all – with great sound throughout. CD

A greatly expanded version of this Italian horror soundtrack – with way more music than we've ever seen on any previous edition! Piero Piccioni did the soundtrack for Seven Murders For Scotland Yard – in a style that mixes more dramatic orchestrations with a few great mod touches on organ, flute, and percussion – which step out nicely on the groovier tracks, and bring in a nice note of action and surprise to a score that's mostly tense and poised for danger! These few light bits really offset things nicely – and create an unsettling feel in a work that's pretty darn dark overall, and which shows some of the most somber qualities we've ever heard in Piccioni's music. Titles include "Seven Murders", "Unknown Maniac", "Reminding The Ripper", "Suspecting", "Inspector Campbell", and "Professor Christie" – and the CD features a total of 22 tracks in all! CD

One of the coolest classics from the glory days of the Italian soundtrack scene – a set that perfectly brings together all the funky, jazz, and mod-styled touches of the great Piero Piccioni – on a record that's maybe had more life over the years than the film did on the screen! The mix of instruments here is completely sublime – with some especially wonderful use of Hammond, but with very offbeat sounds – next to flute, warmer woodwinds, and some wicked basslines that hit the hippest sort of funk soundtrack modes. The recording quality is amazing, too – with unusual isolation and shading used on the instruments, to further make the sound magic – and titles include "Funky Lovers", "Pearls", "Slow Flute Beat", "Charms", "Brasil 2000", "Tears In Brasil", "Camille 2000", and "Tears In Rome". One of our all-time favorites – and with some bonus alternate takes! LP, Vinyl record album

Definite demonic sounds from Piero Piccioni – one of the darkest soundtracks we've ever heard from the legendary Italian film composer – and a real standout from the rest of his work of the 60s! There's some very oddly-tuned instrumentation on the set – weird organ that's not entirely pipe organ, yet hardly Hammond either – often played in these long, twisted notes mixed with very offbeat and abstract percussion – all in ways that seem to reference the world of Xenakis and Stockhausen, yet which have a bit more of a cinematic focus here too. A few tunes are a bit more conventional, but still plenty darn tense – and titles include 14 tracks from the unreleased album, and 3 more long numbers from the film score! CD

One of the most seductive sound library albums ever recorded by Piero Umiliani – a set that was originally issued under his Zalla pseudonym, but which has all the best jazzy grooves of some of his famous soundtrack material from the end of the 60s! As on those records, Umiliani plays a host of great keyboards, especially organ – over rhythms that are mellow-stepping and slightly funky – often updated with modes borrowed from bossa nova, but brought into a more sensuous Italian soundtrack setting – balanced with nice touches on flute, guitar, and other instrumentation as well. The whole thing's wonderful – as lovely as your favorite soundtrack work by Umiliani, Piero Piccioni, or Armando Trovajoli – with titles that include "Porta D'Oriented", "Tanto Lontano", "Pianure D'Asia", "Oriente Rosso", "Prime Nebbie", "Nel Parco", "Vecchie Strade", and "Laguna Tropicale". LP, Vinyl record album

Fuzzed-out groovy 60s tunes – very mod, hip, and out of this world! These tasty little gems are pulled from obscure Italian soundtracks – very nicely collected in this fab package, with an ear-popping sound that includes great work on organ, guitars, electric harpsichord, and other instrumentation just right for coming up with a Blow Up party mood! Titles include "Discoteque Party" by Piero Umiliani, "Franco Nero Shake (new edit)" by Fred Bongusto, "Catherine Spaak Shake (new edit)" by Armando Trovajoli, "Easy Dreamer" by Piero Piccioni, "I Baronetti" by Alessandro Alessandroni, "Gaby Shake" by Nico Fidenco, and "Black Sheep Shake" by Luis Bacalov. CD

An amazing tribute to the Italian cinema sound of the 60s – instrumental tunes recorded at the legendary Telecinesound studios in Rome, with a sound that's very faithful to their original inspiration! Daniele Luppi draws a great deal of influence from the generation that included Ennio Morricone, Piero Piccioni, Bruno Nicolai, and other Italian composers of the late 60s and early 70s – and with this set of tracks, he pays tribute to his heroes with a great batch of original work! To be honest, at first we were really expecting this one to be just some sort of kistch remix-styled project – but all the tunes are original orchestral and small combo instrumental numbers, recorded in wonderfully classic styles – with players that include the legendary Alessandro Alessandroni, who made so many older Italian scores sound so great! Titles include "Telecinebeat", "Free Love Sequence", "Jet Set", "Psychovision", "Hypermodels", "Fetish Quartet", "Nightclub", and "Photochic". LP, Vinyl record album

A rare little bossa jazz album from the early 60s Brazilian scene – one that's also a soundtrack too, which gives it a different feel than most other records of its type! The music is a mix of jazz and occasional larger orchestrations – in the best tradition of the late 50s French new wave scores, or some of the jazzier work from the early 60s Italian scene – music that you might hear from the pen of a young Piero Piccioni or Georges Delerue, but given a bossa nova twist too! Many tunes have some samba instrumentation at the core, but more jazz-based instrumentation on the top – and titles include "Assanhadinha", "Asfalto Selvagem", "Suicido", "Engracadinha", "Leticia", "Meu Rio Maravilhoso", and "Um Olhar Assim". LP, Vinyl record album

The title doesn't give you much to go on – but take it from us, this is a great little compilation – one that's filled with rare jazz work from a variety of European soundtracks of the 60s and 70s! The range of tracks here is really great – and wide enough to include a few favorites, plus an even wider range of rare and obscure numbers – most of which are pulled from the catalog of EMI Italy, and include a number of tunes that have never been issued to the public before! And even better, there's a fair bit of work on here that's from soundtracks that aren't normally jazzy overall – but which feature one or two great jazz tracks, pulled out nicely here and intermingled with the rest of the top-shelf set. 18 tracks in all – 5 previously unreleased – with titles that include "Eva" by Michel Legrand, "A Place For Lovers (jazz suite)" by Manuel De Sica, "Spaghetti A Detroit" by Fred Bongusto, "Adulterio All'Italiana" by Armando Trovajoli, "Ballando Con Raquel" by Nino Rota, "This Is Life" by Piero Piccioni, "Sideslip (new edit)" by Berto Pisano, "Jazz Interlude" by Giorgio Gaslini, "That's Show" by Gianni Dell'Orso, "Monitor Jazz" by Carlo Rustichelli, and "Kiss Me Worren Please" by Bruno Nicolai. CD

Music by Mina, Sophia Loren, Piero Piccioni, Giorgio Gaslini, and others – plus a 180 hardcover book filled photographs. CD

Maybe the most amazing work we've heard so far from Greg Foat – and that's really saying a lot, as the British keyboardist has given us some really incredible records over the years! The work's got a more ambitious vibe than some of Greg's straighter jazz sets – with large arrangements that also bring in voices at times – used in a really haunting way that's part late 60s Chess/Cadet Records, part acid folk – even though the instrumentation is mostly jazz overall! The core group also features this great mix of older British jazz giants and contemporary musicians – the legendary Ray Russell on guitar, with Duncan Lamont on tenor, Art Themen on soprano and tenor, Nat Steele on vibes, Warren Hampshire (of Hampshire & Foat) on guitar and percussion, and Moses Boyd, Clark Tracey, and Malcolm Catto on drums! Lamont is especially great – with these old school tenor solos that bring a strong current of soul to the more complex arrangements – and Foat himself plays piano, keyboards, and harmonium. Titles include versions of Tim Buckley's "Driftin" and Piero Piccioni's "Endless Love" – plus originals "The Mage", "The High Priestess", "Incantation", and "The Magic Radish". LP, Vinyl record album

A really fantastic collection – one that gets at the full range of jazz-based sounds in Italian soundtracks during the 60s – served up here on a set of tracks that go way past the obvious! This isn't a "best of" set – and instead, it digs very deeply, and even features some unissued material – brought together in an array of tracks that are a complete delight, even to our ears – which have been trained on Italian soundtrack reissues for decades! Most of the music here is from that key point when Italian scoring was moving from larger orchestras to smaller combos – most right before the groovy/mod years, and taking advantage of the very strong rising tide of top-shelf jazz soloists on the Italian scene – players who are far too many to mention here, but who really help ensure that the work is fantastic! Imagine the best jazz-based soundtracks from Hollywood and France in the late 50s – then imagine work better than that, and that's what you'll get here – on a huge selection of 33 tracks by artists who include Francesco De Masi, Piero Umiliani, Luis Bacalov, Marcelli Gigante, Luiz Bonfa, Piero Piccioni, Ivan Vandor, Aldo Piga, Carlo Savina, Carlo Rustichelli, and others. LP, Vinyl record album

Soundtrack funk doesn't get any better than this – thanks to a head-expanding of tracks from the Italian scene of the 60s and 70s – served up with the usual ear for a great cut by the folks at Easy Tempo! The groove here is far from the "easy" you might expect – and most numbers have tight drums, funky basslines, and other heavy elements – all put together with an approach to the music that's far different than anything happening in the US at the time, especially in the way the instruments sound in the end – and in the way that the production techniques make them do really crazy things! Titles include "Parangua" by Luiz Bacalov, "Flirt a Rio" by Piero Umiliani, "Side Sleep" by Berto Pisano, "Little Shakie Girl" by Armando Trovajoli, "Tremendous Stars" by Piero Piccioni, "Under Drama" by Giancarlo Gazzani, "Realta No 5" by Stelvio Cipriani, "So" by Lara Saint Paul, "Israelites" by Capuano, and "Citta Viva" by Ennio Morricone. CD

Sublime bossa groovers from Italy! The first volume of this series was one of our favorite compilations that year it was released – and this second volume is equally as great! Schema groover Gerardo Frisina serves up a hand-picked batch of 16 tunes, mostly classic numbers from the late 60s and early 70s, pulled from the ranks of Italian soundtrack, jazz, and easy listening albums – all with a flair for making the bossa even groovier than it already is! Electric keyboards abound – and the rhythms run from dreamy to driving to slightly funky, always at the right pace for the material, and always making the set dance with delight! Titles include "Incontro All'Aereoporto" by Piero Piccioni, "Allora, Il Treno" by Bruno Nicolai & Edda Dell'Orso, "Avances" by Gerardo Frisina, "Wind" by Red Redford Sound System One, "Bossalonga" by Mustang, "Unreality Landscape" by Angel Pocho Gatti, "Susan Theme" by Daniele Patucchi, "Per Lei" by Stefano Torossi, and "Colpa Tua" by Giancarlo Gazzani. CD

Sublime bossa groovers from Italy! The first volume of this series was one of our favorite compilations that year it was released – and this second volume is equally as great! Schema groover Gerardo Frisina serves up a hand-picked batch of 16 tunes, mostly classic numbers from the late 60s and early 70s, pulled from the ranks of Italian soundtrack, jazz, and easy listening albums – all with a flair for making the bossa even groovier than it already is! Electric keyboards abound – and the rhythms run from dreamy to driving to slightly funky, always at the right pace for the material, and always making the set dance with delight! Titles include "Incontro All'Aereoporto" by Piero Piccioni, "Allora, Il Treno" by Bruno Nicolai & Edda Dell'Orso, "Avances" by Gerardo Frisina, "Wind" by Red Redford Sound System One, "Bossalonga" by Mustang, "Unreality Landscape" by Angel Pocho Gatti, "Susan Theme" by Daniele Patucchi, "Per Lei" by Stefano Torossi, and "Colpa Tua" by Giancarlo Gazzani. CD