RENATO CAROSONE
One of the great figures of Italian music throughout the second half of the 20 th century was composer - pianist - singer Renato Carosone.
Born on January 3 rd, 1920 in Napoli , he studied piano at his hometown's national conservatory (Conservatorio S. Pietro a Majella) and graduated at the young age of 17 (very precocious if we consider that in Italy ten years of conservatory attendance are needed in order to graduate).
The year following graduation, Renato signed a contract as band leader for a tour across the African continent. This job leads him to a permanent job in Addis Abeba ( Ethiopia ). He worked as pianist and orchestra conductor for several steady gigs and became an esteemed band leader.
A decade in Africa exposed him to new rhythms and new sounds, which he absorbed and integrated with his musical education and his Neapolitan culture.
In spite of his African success, Renato Carosone was still unknown to the Italian audience.
In fact, in 1946 after the end of World War II, he moved back to Italy and had to restart his career from scratch playing in small nightclubs across the country.
A magical moment finally came in 1949 when he was personally asked to form a trio for the opening of a new nightclub in Naples . After several auditions, one night at 3:00 a.m. Renato hired his first musician, a Dutch guitar player, Peter Van Wood. Rehearsals took place the following days at the Miramare Hotel in Naples , and they also started auditions to hire a drummer.
That's how they met Gege' Di Giacomo (nephew of Salvatore Di Giacomo, a Neapolitan poet). Their first meeting turned out to be very funny. The drummer had no drum set! Carosone and Van Wood were very annoyed by this inconvenient. So Gege', who really wanted the job, made up a drum set with wooden chairs, ashtrays, three different sized glasses and a whistle!
Gege' was deeply admired for his tenacity and obviously got the job.
This episode marks the birth of the successful Renato Carosone Trio.
A few years later, when Peter Van Wood left the trio in order to pursue his own musical career, Carosone (with Gege' always by his side) hired more musicians and extended the trio to a full band. The Renato Carosone Band became unstoppable!
Some hits of those years were: "Maruzzella" (dedicated to his wife Maria), "O Sarracino," "Tu Vuo' Fa L'Americano," "Caravan Petrol," "Torero" and many others. Lyrics were always written by Nicola Salerno, who nicknamed himself Nisa.
The song "Torero" in particular was the number one hit in the North American Hit Parade for 14 weeks and was translated in 12 different languages!
This enormous success opened the doors to the North American market, and Carosone also started to perform all over the world (Paris, London, Barcelona, Valencia, Munich, Frankfurt, Monte Carlo, Athens, Lisbon, Beirut, Rio de Janeiro and San Paolo, etc). However, the most ambitious award for RenatoCarosone was when he performed at the Carnegie Hall in New York on January 5 th , 1957 .
The show was an absolute success! The six-piece band, all dressed up and wearing Pucci ties, enchanted the audience.
After the Carnegie Hall performance, some Carosone's songs were also sung in movies: Sofia Loren and Clark Gable sang "Tu vuo' fa l'americano" in the movie "La Baia di Napoli," Anna Magnani sang "Maruzzella" in the movie "Nella citta' l' inferno." Also, director Martin Scorzese hired Carosone for the entire soundtrack of the movie " Main Street ."
In 1960 rock & roll music started to take over the music scene and Renato felt that something was going to change. Screaming audiences and crazy crowds were definitely not for him. Sadly, at the young age of 40, he decided to retire leaving the spotlight with one last TV show, organized on purpose for his farewell. During the show Carosone told the audience, "I'd rather leave now, while at the pinnacle of my career, instead of doing it later overshadowed by the "blue jeans" screaming army."
For 14 years he stayed out of the music scene and spent most of his time practicing piano, studying Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Clementi, etc. until 1975 when Sergio Bernardini (a TV show producer ) was very persuasive and convinced Carosone to participate in a TV show held at "La Bussola," a historical nightclub and dancing hall in Viareggio .
The show was aired on August 9, 1975 , and the reaction from press and audience was unanimous: an absolute success!
Renato was very tempted to return to the music industry, but 7 more years went by before he walked again into a recording studio. In 1982 his album
"Renato Carosone 82" was finally and successfully out. Front pages of all Italian magazines showed the same title: HE'S BACK!
He was touring, participating in TV shows, and he obviously couldn't miss the Sanremo song festival. In fact, in 1989 (at the age of 69) he ran for the first time (!) in the contest with the song " Na Canzuncella " co-authored with Claudio Mattone, one of the best Italian contemporary composers. The song didn't win the contest but definitely captured the audience and media's attention.
Carosone stayed active until the late ‘90s, and in 1999 also received the "Davide di Donatello" award for his great and prestigious career.
On May 20th , 2001 , in his house in Bracciano, Renato Carosone died at the age of 81.
His great contribution to Italian music and his legacy will both last forever.
Ciao, alla prossima !