From Italy Comes the Nu-Jazz/Lounge/Trip Hop/Brazilian/Sitar Bossa Nova/Whatever Music of Bebo Best
Photo: Bebo Best
Italy has a long and distinguished history of producing brilliant soundtrack composers dating back to Nino Rota who wrote the lush musical scores to Fellini's films. In the late Sixties, a syndicate of abundantly gifted Italian soundtrack composers like Ennino Morricone, Allasandro Allasandroni, Francis Lai, Piero Puccioni and Piero Ulimiani dominated the European film community. Then in the late 80s, the first generation son of an Italian American immigrant fish market owner in Brooklyn, Angelo Badalamenti, became internationally famous for his innovative soundtracks to the films of David Lynch.
Italian nu-jazz savant, Bebo Best has carried on the Italian soundtrack and lounge tradition into the post Millennium era. As a longtime aficionado of Italian film soundtrack composers, I find it odd that Italians seem to lack the ambition to dominate any single musical genre, except for soundtrack and lounge music. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised because after building the Colosseum and conquering most of the known world, the Italians pretty much called it a day and decided to kick back and play soccer, design cool clothes and become masters the culinary arts. Being good at composing soundtracks seems to follow the Italian's post-Roman Empire tradition of being brilliant at doing a very narrow range of specialist endeavors and to hell with any other human aspirations. Actually it's a pretty good approach to living well, when you think about it.
Bebo Best is not a soundtrack composer per se, but has written the scores to several films. His main creative energies go into conducting and playing in the Super Lounge Orchestra, a band that plays music that strongly resembles...well, you got it... Italian soundtrack music. Bebo Best has a talent for producing music that takes a wide array of genres and places them into Cuisinart blender to produce a mind-bending brew of music that defies musical categorization.
Soronno On the Rocks is a musical tour de force that blends nu-jazz, bossa nova, film soundtrack, lounge and trip hop genres:
On his album,
Jazz for Imaginary Movies Bebo Best dedicated his song
Paris A La Nuit to the legendary French film director Francois Truffaut. Indeed the song sounds like it would fit like a glove into the musical score of any number of Truffaut's film in the early Seventies.
Best's cover of
Soul Bossa Nova is his tribute to Quincy Jones, another great producer and film soundtrack composer.
The Super Lounge Orchestra is a mix of French, Italian, Brazilian and British musicians who play with a bristling intensity that is quite unlike the ambient, background playing of many film soundtrack ensembles.
After over 180 cds with personalities as David Torn and Gilberto Gil, and appearing in projects beside artists as Jon Hassel, Michael Nyman, Wim Mertens, Nitin Sawhney, Trilok Gurtu, Sinead O' Connor, Mario Biondi, Ruichy Sakamoto, Frank Zappa, Marisa Monte, Bebel Gilberto, Nicola Conte, Norah Jones, Fabrizio Bosso, many soundtracks for films and TV, Bebo Best has already gained a place of honor for himself on the European music scene for his wise and original use of electronics and ethnic music that distinguished his works. One word of advice to Mr. Best: hire a publicist in the United States... Nobody has heard of you in America... which is a lowdown shame.