Piero Umiliani was one of the most important Italian soundtrack composers. The documentary tells his creative parable, from the post war beginnings in the jazz combos of the Allies, to the first Italian entirely jazz soundtrack for “I soliti ignoti” (aka “Big Deal on Madonna Street” in USA) by Mario Monicelli (1958); he was also the composer of one of the most well-known tunes in the world (the one that goes Mah Na’ Mah Na’...), the precursor of lounge music in dozens of soundtracks of genre films of the 60’s-70’s and among the firsts to experiment with electronic music in Italy, until the abrupt interruption of the activity due to a cerebral haemorrhage in 1984.
While crossing the most diverse genres, Umiliani has managed to bring everything back to a stylistic code that remains unmistakable, marked by the lightness of touch, which is simple and sophisticated at the same time. All the great Italian jazz musicians have played for him, but also Chet Baker, Helen Merrill and Gato Barbieri did. During his long artistic career he has often been able to portray the taste of his time. Talking about and listening to Piero Umiliani’s music is a way to retrace, also thanks to repertoire images, the transformation of the musical taste in Italy up to the 90’s, when his music was rediscovered in discos by a very young audience and the sounds created by Piero were plundered and sampled by international rappers.
The documentary makes use of the passionate narration of the Umiliani family, of memories of friends and collaborators such as singer Edda Dall’Orso, jazzmen Giovanni Tommaso and Gegè Munari and also of the participation of some music and cinema historians. However, the film is not only a multi-voice story of the musician's human and professional life, but also and above all a musical film. Umiliani's sound comes back to life in some live sessions, specifically recorded for the film and performed by artists who collaborated with him at the time, or grew up inspired by his music. The production of the early years is reinterpreted by a group of Italian jazz excellences led by pianist Enrico Pieranunzi; another group, the Calibro 35, is entrusted with electronic versions of some genre film soundtracks which then inspired lounge music; Carlotta Proietti performs the “Valzer della Toppa”, a song written by Umiliani four hands with P.P. Pasolini, which has become a classic of the Roman culture. The music clips are inserted in the documentary according to the chronology of the years in which the songs were composed, and the settings and colors refer to the periods of use, from the nightclubs of the 50’s to the jazz clubs, from the arrival of psychedelics at the turn of 1968 to the strobe lights of 80’s disco.