Piero Umiliani

Piero Umiliani is born in Florence on July 17, 1926. At the age of five he discovers the piano of his maternal grandfather and he takes his first lessons from an aunt who teaches music. Whenever he can he thumps "Pippo non lo sa", a song by Gorni Kramer heard on the radio. At sixteen he begins to work with great satisfaction as a journalist for the newspaper Nuovo Giornale di Firenze but he runs into trouble when in an article he praises American jazz music, considered in those years music for "negros". Maestro Pippo Barzizza, who is working for Radio Firenze and broadcasts American hits falsely presenting them as Italian after having changed their title on purpose, reads the article and wants to compliment himself with the author, obviously in secret. The appointment is in the Rai auditorium where an excited Piero listens to the Maestro Barzizza while directing the "Ruggito della Tigre" (the famous "Tiger Rag"). Piero would like to write more about music but his career is abruptly interrupted by the beginning of World War II. During those dark years, while his father Guido listens to Radio Londra, Piero or Pierino like everybody calls him, prefers to listen to the national Swiss radio that every evening devotes half hour to Duke Ellington’s music. His passion is born, but it is almost impossible to get hold of those records, in particular of "Mood Indigo", and many shop owners kick out of their stores the kids who dare to ask for that “bad stuff”.