Rossana Moretti
By Maestro Lelio Luttazzi, always elegant, often with a white flower in his buttonhole – Enrico Vaime defined him as a ‘healthy wearer of a tuxedo’ – ironic, casual in front of the public and yet reserved in private, the Foundation that bears his name was chosen after the passing away on 8 July 2010 by his wife Rossana Moretti, who is also its president, to keep his figure alive. In particular by carrying out and promoting actions and projects aimed at culture, musical education and training, suffice it to mention the Lelio Luttazzi Award. Young jazz pianist authors established to remember the music of this author and composer and, at the same time, discover young talents: the sixth edition will take place in 2025. Among the many initiatives of the Lelio Luttazzi Foundation, as part of the celebrations for the centenary of his birth which took place on 27 April 1923 in Trieste, a wish of many was fulfilled: to re-edit the album 30 years of Swing which saw a first recording by the Maestro in 1961 (on the Columbia label), then re-released by EMI Italiana in 1974 and today practically unobtainable: a jewel where he conducts and performs twelve pieces together with musicians and soloists who were part of the exceptional RAI orchestras, including these Bill Gilmore, Franco Chiari, Libero Tosoni, Baldo Maestri, Piero Munari and Luigi ‘Gino’ Simeone: «Under license and in collaboration with Universal Music Italia which also deals with the distribution, it was remastered and published in 180 gram vinyl format with a limited and numbered edition” explains his wife “I thank Maestro Alberto Zeppieri, special prosecutor of the Lelio Luttazzi Foundation for discography, for his help on the project”. The CD was previously published by Parco della Musica Records, label of the Musica per Roma Foundation, produced by the Lelio Luttazzi Foundation Beyond Blue also containing the song of the same name, the last song published by the Maestro in 2008. It remained in the memory of entire generations that he was heard on the radio where with an unmistakable voice on January 6th 1967 at 1pm he announced live from Via Asiago his program Hit Paradea true musical revolution made up of records and charts that went on for ten years; followed in many television shows, from Studio One with Mina, Winter Garden with the Kessler twins, Double Couple with Sylvie Vartan or, for the lucky ones, seen playing live, when notes for all his souls came out of the piano keyboard: jazz and swing mainly. The chronicles say that at just thirteen years old he listened for the first time After you’ve gone sung by Louis Armstrong he was fascinated by it.
«It was 1975 when we met during a dinner that I wasn’t sure I wanted to go to, out on the terrace I met him and we haven’t left each other since then” explains his wife who, despite the considerable age difference, married him on 6 December 1979 in Cerveteri, sharing a happy journey lasting 36 years. «Lelio had incredible energy. We shared many aspects of life, including living far from the confusion, in the medieval village of Ceri on the Via Aurelia, from which Lelio traveled for commitments and concerts. When we discovered it it seemed like a magical landscape and we fell in love with it, we lived there until 2001 alternating periods in Sardinia where He, a lover of the sea, went boating. Then when the changed traffic conditions made travel difficult we returned to Rome to a house in Trastevere.” Musician, composer, conductor, writer and multifaceted showman, he signed songs that have remained in history, from ‘Vecchia America’ performed by the Cetra Quartet, A polka dot zebra sung by Mina, I sing even if I’m out of tune, Tied to a rock and many others. He has composed soundtracks for numerous films, Souvenirs of Italy with Alberto Sordi, Vittorio De Sica and Massimo Girotti, Laughter of joy with Totò, Anna Magnani and Ben Gazzara, My wife’s enemy with Marcello Mastroianni and Giovanna Ralli; musical comedies for Macario, Daiuto, Tognazzi, Vianello, Lauretta Masiero and Mario Riva but maybe not everyone knows that he acted in 13 films including the Adventure by Michelangelo Antonioni, The Umbrella by Dino Risi, Today Tomorrow The day after tomorrow and Me me me and the others by Alessando Blasetti. Lucio Dalla, Morandi, Fiorello, Arisa, Xavier Cugat, Pavone, Como, Sofia Loren and many others have sung his songs and the SIAE has over 900 works signed as an author, including songs, musical comedies, soundtracks, radio broadcasts and television shows. In Trieste at the Stelio Crise State Library – Palazzo Brambilla Morpurgo, there is the ‘Studio Luttazzi’, a permanent space dedicated to the Maestro: «I had donated all the assets inherent to his activity with an agreement signed with the General Division for Libraries, Institutes cultural and copyright of the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities” continues Rossana Luttazzi “today those environments that represent Lelio well are accessible to everyone, also supported by multimedia stations”. It was November 2007 when her husband decided to move permanently to Trieste, in Piazza Unità, where he would hold a memorable concert on the occasion of his 86th birthday: «After his passing I left this city, Lelio’s absence was and is too much painful and alive” he concludes, “what helps me is to concentrate on the many activities of the Foundation”. Today the interest in his music transversally involves old and young enthusiasts and yet Maestro Lelio Luttazzi had written, in line with his elegant humility, rare for many: «I would like to end my life peacefully playing Gershwin and Cole Porter in the of Erroll Garner knowing, however, and I have always known, that he was a genius and I wasn’t, just a simple player.”
