THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,953) Bruno Nicolai and Edda dell’Orso — “Sguardi Teneri”/”Tender Gazes”
Bruno Nicolai (Ennio Morricone’s go-to conductor) and “the voice” Edda dell’Orso (see #1,871) team up for this ethereal bossa nova from the ’69 Italian flick Femmine Insaziabili/Insatiable Women. “I’m frozen in place by this beautiful melody; words fail me to describe how gorgeous this song is.” (jorgedominguez8067, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdYYfRuMwbo)
Quartet Records revels in Nicolai’s sountrack:
Directed by Alberto de Martino, [1969’s Femmine Insaziabili/Insatiable Women] is about a journalist who is hot on the trail of investigating his friend’s mysterious death in a car accident. The journey takes him to funerals, orgies and interviews with some of the most beautiful women of Italian cinema (such as Luciana Paluzzi and Romina Power), all of whom have flashbacks to sexual escapades. After working along with Ennio Morricone [see #1,737] on previous engagements . . . Bruno Nicolai went solo with this De Martino effort . . . . Made up of groovy, funky instrumentals, psychedelic organ pieces and Edda Dell’Orso’s vocalism, it is simply one of the catchiest scores from the composer’s filmography.
https://quartetrecords.com/product/femmine-insaziabili-2-cd/
Jonman492000 joins the revel:
[Femmine Insaziabili is] probably one of Bruno Nicolai’s finest soundtracks. . . . The composer utilising the unmistakable aural talents of Edda Dell Orso who’s marvellous vocalising is used throughout the score giving it an even more attractive and haunting quality. Yes it is true to say that one can make comparisons between the work of Nicolai and also the work of Morricone and it has to be said that both composers were particularly busy and creative at this time in their respective careers, but FEMMINE INSAZIABLI has to it an aura and a musical presence that to be truthful is far superior to much of what Morricone penned at this time, Nicolai’s themes seem to be more developed and a lot more melodic, the composer arranging and orchestrating the core themes from the score differently throughout to create a veritable smorgasbord of rich and attractive compositions that combine to create a soundtrack which when listened to away from the images still remains entertaining. . . . Nicolai’s score opens with the driving and vivacious sounding title song I WANT IT ALL, performed by Lara Saint Paul with backing vocals by Edda and driving melodic strings that are melodic but upbeat. . . . The remainder of Nicolai’s score is fairly upbeat and has to it a busy almost big band sound in places, with brass and percussion creating luxurious sounding themes and motifs. Then there is the softer and far more easy listening side to the work, with strings and light percussion combining with organ and Edda exquisite voice the composer adding to this interesting and original sounds and trills etc that accompany and embellish the central thematic material. . . . The score for FEMMINE INSAZIABILI is simply glorious . . . .
https://jonman492000.wordpress.com/2014/12/15/femmine-insaziabili/
Bill Farrar writes of Bruno Nicolai:
Bruno Nicolai is a forgotten man of Italian cinematic history. A long-time collaborator and right hand man for Ennio Morricone, he helped put his stamp on some of the most iconic soundtracks in the history of film. But as Morricone’s stature has grown over the years, Bruno has faded into relative obscurity mostly due to the fact that he worked in Italian genre films with no real crossover appeal . . . . But those who know his work know soundtracks that can be lush, beautiful, driving, suspenseful, discordant and jarring. Bruno Nicolai was his own man. Like just about every collaborative effort in the history of film, Nicolai and Morricone’s relationship soured to the point where not only did they stop collaborating, but in the end Ennio didn’t even show up to Nicola’s funeral. Rumours surrounding the split centered around money and credit for who did what on certain soundtracks. . . . After the split, Nicolai continued to have a long career spanning the entirety of Italian genre film from sexy comedies, gritty police thrillers, spaghetti westerns, gialli (Italian horror films, the singular of which is giallo) . . . .
Wikipedia adds:
Bruno Nicolai was an Italian film music composer, orchestra director, conductor, pianist and musical editor, most active in the 1960s through the 1980s. While studying piano and composition . . . he befriended Ennio Morricone and formed a long working relationship, with Nicolai eventually conducting for and co-scoring films with Morricone. Morricone noted in an interview discussing the Dollars Trilogy, “I chose a great musician and friend to be my conductor: Bruno Nicolai, who conducted almost every score of mine from that point on until 1974.” Nicolai also scored a number of giallo exploitation films and wrote many scores for director Jesus Franco. Nicolai frequently collaborated with Morricone, conducting many of his scores, including those for Sergio Leone’s For a Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966). . . . Their partnership eventually ended due to disagreements over credit attribution. His work was featured in the Quentin Tarantino films Kill Bill: Volume 2 and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Beyond his work with Morricone, Nicolai established himself as a distinguished composer, scoring over 100 films and numerous television productions. . . . Nicolai’s compositions are characterised by their rich orchestration and innovative use of instruments, including bells, anvils, and whips, elements that became synonymous with the spaghetti western sound. He also explored various musical styles, from classical to avant-garde, and was known for his work in library music . . . .
As to Edda dell’Orso, the King of Fuh writes:
Since the mid-1960s, Edda Dell’Orso has provided haunting wordless vocals to a large number of film scores by Ennio Morricone and other prominent, mostly Italian composers of those times; Piero Piccioni, Bruno Nicolai, Roberto Pregadio and Luis Bacalov. But her name is synonymous with Morricone and in particular, the soundtracks of the original spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone, such as A Fistful of Dollars, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly and Once Upon A Time In The West, where her dramatic voice was deployed as an instrument for the first time and to revolutionary effect. The singer’s sensuous and often playful vocals help provide tense atmospheres and dreamy moods to these soundtracks, as well as to the scores for Leone’s A Fistful Of Dynamite, composer Piccioni’s lovely music for the film Scacco Alla Regina, and Spanish composer Anton Garcia Abril’s strange but highly effective score for the offbeat 1967 sci-fi drama 4-3-2-1 Morte!, that with Edda’s assistance somehow successfully helps blend an atonal chamber orchestra with a go-go beat and cartoon jazz. In the 1970s, Edda contributed to two films by Italian shock horror director Dario Argento, including L’uccello Dalle Plume di Cristallo (The Bird With Crystal Plumage), and then in 1976 collaborated with the Italian progressive instrumental group Goblin (often used by Argento as well) for Perche Si Uccidono?“(Why Do They Kill Themselves), a film essay about drugs and self-destruction.
Wikipedia (courtesy of Google Translate)) adds:
Originally from Genoa, [Edda Sabatini] moved to Rome with her family; she graduated in 1956 in singing and piano at the National Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome, and began his career as a chorister in Franco Potenza’s choral group. In 1958 she married Giacomo dell’Orso, whom she had met at the Academy in 1952 and with whom she had a son and a daughter; after two years she joined [Alessandro] Alessandroni’s [see #815] “Cantori Moderni”, where she had the opportunity to participate in the recording of many 45s by artists of RCA Italiana. It was during these recordings, where Ennio Morricone was often present as arranger, that the maestro noticed Dell’Orso’s soprano voice, with a range of three octaves, and decided to entrust her with solo parts in the creation of some soundtracks, among which the most famous of this period were The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in 1966 and Once Upon a Time in the West in 1968, both by Sergio Leone. While continuing to sing in . . . Alessandroni’s vocal group , Edda Dell’Orso began a solo career . . . . 1971 is the year of Duck, You Sucker!, and it is the moment when her singing voice . . . enters the history of film music. . . . In 1972, as a soloist, still within the context of . . . I cantori moderni . . . she recorded the soundtrack of the successful drama A come Andromeda, composed and directed by Mario Migliardi [see #1,586].
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