What the youngster certainly did absorb, was the whole
world of American novelties and movies that came flooding in after the
war.
Naturally this also meant plenty of jazz, very early on through American
G.I. bands but then also through records and all the great performers
that came on tour. It seems that it was an uncle of his that first introduced
him to this world, but later his love of all kinds of jazz became a true
obsession. So much so that he would eventually end up something of an
expert and quite curiously, in his early twenties, called upon to represent
his country in an international quiz in Oslo, taking an honourable third
place.
1.2 Conte the jazzman
During all this time he was, of course, still completing his education,
eventually to qualify for a law degree at the University of Parma, but
he had also begun to study and play a little jazz on an amateur and then
semi-professional level. He formed a number of bands, all with names betraying
his young enthusiasm for the legendary American jazz world: Barrelhouse
Jazz band, Taxi for Five, The Lazy River Band Society and the most fortunate
of his groups, the Paul Conte Quartet. With these he generally played
the vibraphone, performing mostly in his local surrounding areas and reaching
a high-point in 1962 with the recording for RCA of an EP entitled The
Italian Way To Swing, a collection of standards which, however, the
local critics damned with faint praise. He also participated with various
artists on an LP for Ricordi entitled Lo Swing.
1.3 The Italian music scene
Naturally, growing up in Italy through the 40's and 50's entailed also
many other forms of musicality and in any songwriter's formation there is
always a certain amount of "light music", simply because it is always on
the radio and on everyone's lips. However at a certain point popular song
had become for Paolo Conte more than just a casual interest. Furthermore,
as was the case for much of Italy's more discerning listenership, his sympathies
were not confined just to the media friendly Sanremo-style song that had
been increasingly popular since the end of the war. They extended to include
also the more localized vernacular forms and among these Neapolitan music
would have figured quite highly. Naples overshadowed all others in this
area because, as it had proven throughout the century, the richness in folklore
and popular sentiment bore no comparison with anyone else's, but also because
it had always attracted many of Italy's finest songsmiths in both its modern
and more traditional styles.
Yet, regardless of the quality of some Italian music, what was still lacking
at the time in the peninsula was the special kind of dry wit and cynicism,
and the very particular flavour that would be supplied by the great french
singers and singer-songwriters. Aznavour, Brel, Brassens and the like
became a fair source of interest to the Italians, and the lawyer has mentioned
how he soon became captivated by them, also managing to attend a few concerts.
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