ITALIAN 1930s SWING

Despite Italy being under the Fascist regime of Mussolini, jazz and swing was available on radio in Italy. English language names had to be Italianised. Louis Armstrong became Luigi Braccioforte. St Louis Blues was Le Tristezze di San Luigi. We’ll hear a set of 1930s-40s Italian swing on this week’s Phantom Dancer with Greg Poppleton.

PHANTOM DANCER

The Phantom Dancer is your non-stop swing and jazz mix of live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week. I’ve been bringing you The Phantom Dancer on radio 2SER, and now online, since 1985.

Hear this week’s Phantom Dancer (after 18 Dec) and past Phantom Dancers at 2ser.com.
Hear the show live every Tuesday 12:04-2pm on 107.3 2SER Sydney

Mussolini’s Son is Jazz Pianist – Romano Mussolini, son of the late Fascist dictator, plays piano during Italian Jazz festival at San Remo, Italy, last Sunday. Romano, who plays in a Roman quintet, was a main attraction at the festival. 1956

MUSSOLINI JAZZ DADDY

Visiting American artists had toured ragtime acts in Italy in the early 20th century. British, French and American jazz bands visited in the 1920s. They could also be heard daily over shortwave radio from the US and England and over medium and long wave stations from France.

The first Italian jazz orchestras were formed in the 1930s. Bands like those led by Barzizza and Angelini, and singers such as the Trio Lescano and Alberto Rabiagliati were hugely popular. Rabiagliati, a jazz crooner, even appeared in movies with such cultural icons as Tito Schipa and had his own radio show on national Italian radio EIAR in 1941, ‘Canta Rabiagliati’ (Rabiagliati sings).

It helped that dictator Mussolini’s son, Romano, was a great jazz fan and prominent jazz pianist. So, in spite of the anti-American cultural policies of the Fascist regime during the 1930s, American jazz and its Italian form remained popular. Louis Armstrong toured Italy with great success in 1935, whereas he was banned in fascist Germany.

Much of the jazz recorded in Italy up to 1945 has been lost. While 78s exist, many of the original recording matrices were destroyed by bombing during WW2. Most of the Italian recording industry was centred on Milan and Turin, both heavily bombed between 1942-45. Other matrices were destroyed the same way much early Australian jazz has been lost, by record companies and radio stations dumping their libraries.

Maria Jottini on 1939 Italian TV

VIDEO

This week’s Phantom Dancer video of the week is a 1942 commercial recording by Ernesto Bonino, ‘A Zonzo’.

18 DECEMBER PLAY LIST