In this interview I shall talk about a historical Roman record label
still producing after half century. Its
main activity has been that of releasing
movie themes produced in Italy of the highest quality.
To better know the historical background of this independent record
label I met Daniele De Gemini, son of the legend Franco De Gemini, who is now the Arts Director of the Company.
The meeting was a constructive one. Daniele
gave us plenty of his time, disclosing many passages of the Beat Records and
which are the rules that govern
recording policies.
MPFR: The first question that
comes to mind is
when and how was the Beat Records Company established?
De Gemini: Yes, this is true. The
first years were allotted to groups,
singers, the so called crooners; in fact there is a collection of 45
r.p.m. particularly dedicated to these productions, the main part of them are
pop songs that were actively promoted on radio and song contests. Let us say
that this practice was stopped at the beginning of the ‘70s.
MPFR: I understand. So from
that moment on, the Beat mainly dedicated itself to movie scores, even if from
what I can see from the catalogue, there are instrumental titles not explicitly composed for movies. And I also remember the jazz experience.
De Gemini: That’s correct... My father, together with my mother who was
his right-hand, managed various musical editions connected to movie
productions, namely those of Edmondo
Amati or Italo Zingarelli, so here we talk about very important productions.
This allowed them to create a sort of virtuosity ... on one side he
performed on scores, then he also helped
producers organize the music, save on productions and on the other side helped
them create an editorial catalogue
headed by the same producers who later involved him at different levels,
especially at editorial policy level.
The demand for movies, tv and
radio programmes scores made him achieve
a great number of musical libraries on a large scale effort, with real
orchestras. The result was music with an
international character which was promoted and sold in America and England, and other Anglophone
countries. Then, towards mid-80s he
dedicated himself a lot to jazz ; he organized many Italian Jazz Festivals,
together with my mother he put up since then a fantastic catalogue of jazz
music which counts about 70 albums ,
pressed with the best Italian artists,
still in full activity, famous all over
the world such as Dino and Franco Piana, Enrico Pieranunzi, Flavio Boltro,
people of this calibre.
MPFR: You are talking of the Pentaflower Series...
De Gemini: Yes, the Pentaflower Series, but many albums are present also
on the Beat Label...
MPFR: With respect to the
various collections and labels that are part of the Beat Records Company, which
do you consider being the most famous?
De Gemini: Those that I consider
institutional are two: the so called “serie F” mainly dedicated to movie
scores, even if at times we published some experimental albums or peculiar
productions such as poetry in music performed by Peppino De Filippo (we refer to “Peppino, poesie e musica” –
e’s.n.). This collection stopped on vinyl
at n. 70 and continued on CD. Then there is the CR Collection which is mostly dedicated to movie
scores’ collectors which on vinyl stopped at n.15 while on CD we got to 120.
The collections, in total, should be about 20 but the most known are these two,
surely.
MPFR: In this respect, is
there a soundtrack kind that is usually more successful than another?
De Gemini: I must say that the
horror and the Italian “poliziottesco” movies have encountered great
favour among the public. In fact the
events that we have organized in the past with respect to music concerts always
favoured these two : poliziesco and horror...
De Gemini: Yes, then we have the “Spaghetti Western”
genre which has smashed international and cultural boundaries, all categories
and ages. The Italian western genre has always a great number of followers with
respect to scores.
MPFR: With respect to
authors, instead, are there any who sell more than another?
De Gemini: I must say that the so
called “Big” such as Maestro Composers Morricone, Trovaioli, Piccioni, De Masi
and Cipriani, including Ortolani, are those who keep on having the most
followers, due to their never ending celebrity.
Nonetheless all composers of that period, in the long run, were able to
cut for themselves a slice of public, of appreciation and interest which was
really surprising. Even for those who
have composed not very many or an intermediate quantity of scores such as
Pregadio, more than Walter Rizzati or Gianni Marchetti, I must reiterate for
all of them, that when they are granted the limelight they always receive great
acceptance and that is because they all have a common denominator which is a
fantastic production behind them that
people recognize and appreciate.
MPFR: I would like to ask you
which are the characteristics that a record should have to become part
of your catalogue?
De Gemini: The first shortlist or “guiding star” consists if the product
is unreleased or obscure; the second shortlist consists in making sure that it
contains unreleased tracks in respect to other publications that should be preferably sold out, as we avoid
market-overstocking. The composer plays another very important aspect combined with the
historical period, let us say that when we enter too deep into the 80s the music becomes too electronic and our
public does not appreciate it very much. Furthermore, we consider if the movie was sensational, if it became a
cult or not, if there were a director or actors involved in the cast that
aroused interest. The reason motivating this is due to the fact that a product
is not always bought for the music, but it is the movie that stimulates the
purchase. On the other hand we find
that some second rate movies ,
unfortunately, and I am talking about some movies we better forget, are re-discovered for their large scale
effort and depth of scores.
Last but not least, the choice
can also happen for sentimental reasons. For example, we have reprinted last
December “Le Ruffian” by Ennio Morricone only because my father played the
harmonica on it. There was not a single
note more respect to the previous album which was sold out. We wanted to pay
our homage to Franco with this repressing.
I can also give you the example of Fantozzi. We made a box set with the 1st and 2nd
Fantozzi music scores, for which I sweat blood for three years. When I was a
child I used to watch Fantozzi and I
loved the idea to be part, even if marginally, of a thing that would
contribute to interpret those little
social phenomena which were Fantozzi’s movies. All was a honour for me. Although it was not
commercial production, strictly speaking,
I think that we should also be striving not only to feed our stomach but
also our soul.
MPFR: A technical question:
behind the publication of a work,
editing included, do you have
authors’ contributions as well , whenever possible?
De Gemini: There are some composers that are bound to a sort of
approval of the project, but these are
only few. Others, instead, trust us
blindfolded and they are truly the great
majority. However, in both cases it is very difficult that an author puts a veto
. Perhaps he may suggest a different track list
or a removal of a track because
according to his judgement it is too repetitive or not suitable. But it happens
rarely. Lately however it happened in
“Lo Chiamavano Trinità”. Maestro Micalizzi
approved the reprinting but
requested that we remove three or four tracks
were present in former press, but for a very logic reason as they
belonged to another score which he had recorded soon after “Lo Chiamavano
Trinità”. The problem arose because the tape
was never removed from the moviola (the editing motion-picture and sound
synchronizing device) and all music
ended up on the recordings labelled “Lo Chiamavano Trinità”. Those who
reprinted the music on CD after 30 years never grasped the difference and put
everything on same CD. Maestro Micalizzi was very keen to correct the blunder.
MPFR: Fair enough. Before
you talked about the foreign market. Which is the difference between the
Italian market and the foreign one? Is
it just a matter of numbers or is there a different way to relate to music?
De Gemini: I would say both things. In the music and movie industries we
are very much appreciated in the Far East, in America and in the rest of
Europe. In Italy we mostly find a restricted market that has the will and
determination to follow the complete recordings of a particular movie genre or
artist, giving satisfaction when these groups of people become competent and passionate over the issue.
Abroad, instead, we find curiosity: people happen to buy a record or are
interested in an artist: this may be because the record sleeve has an ancestral
appeal that almost creates an emblem, or because have they heard something
about that particular composer and having each one of these composers an
original style with respect to others, they are intrigued in discovering a new
tile of his releases.
But surely it is also a question of numbers. America remains always a
very important market. They are 300 million inhabitants while in Italy we are only 50 million and if
statistics is not an opinion it gives an estimate that is more or less
inevitable. In any case, the Americans,
have such a cultural musical back-ground
that gives very important satisfaction and does go deeper than just these
so-called specialized groups or restricted market phenomena.
MPFR: In these latter years, we have assisted to the rediscovery of
the old vinyl support, the unforgotten 33 r.p.m. Lp; I have noticed that in the
new proposals available on your catalogue, it is not present. Do you eventually
have the intention to release some titles on vinyl?
De Gemini: Perhaps I shall say something that will ruin my reputation,
if I have one: I adore vinyl
records, because at the present state of
the art, I find it to be the most capturing way of making a record that was
ever created. It must be clear, however,
that I refer to the vinyl made on analog technology against today’s
vinyl, which is at first digitally
recorded and then reversed on vinyl thus receiving a compression during
process. The vinyl of the past
instead had a warmth, a dynamic sound which
I just can’t feel on today’s
perfect digital recordings.
After saying this, the vinyl is actually going through a last effort
after it was sent ko by these new technologies. There is a sort of new
discovery , but unfortunately I believe it could be more noise than substance.
However, I must affirm that there are some markets that appreciate vinyl very
much, especially those in Great Britain, where there are distributors chains
that are specialized in vinyl distribution in shops and lately also in the
American Continent where we are issuing interesting licences with respect to
movie scores that are pressed on vinyl, this to say that the Beat Records could
be interested in pressing vinyl again for many reasons: the first reason is
merely sentimental, seen that that it
was the format on which the company was created on, furthermore the
graphic result of vinyl sleeves is surely wholesome compared to the inferior impact a CD graphic
design might have, even if done very well.
The problem with vinyl is that it requires important investments’ know-how and vast
distribution connections that are not common.
This does not mean that because we have a certain back-ground and decide
to release on vinyl, we’ll be absolutely certain that we are going to recoup on
part of our investments. The record must be promoted and followed in a certain
way and attention.
To quote a metaphor: “When it is obvious that some goals cannot be
reached immediately do not adjust the goals, adjust the action steps”.
Therefore I do not exclude the fact that in the next few years the Beat
will start reproducing on vinyl.
MPFR: With respect to the future, according to your opinion, which
is the forthcoming future for the sector, considering new digital technologies
on internet and seen the general downfall of
CDs?
De Gemini: We are sure that we
will continue to produce CDs for few years to come. The physical support is
something that followers just can’t give up on. In the sense that the CD produced with precise body of rules is
a lounge object, an object that fills both physical and interior spaces. A
thing that we love having around.
Thus, knowing that people love to surround themselves with such physical
objects, perhaps supplied with
additional well-finished booklets which contain additional information material
by a director or composer, knowing well that this is very much appreciated by
collectors, I believe that CDs still have a lot to give.
Ultimately, when CDs will run short of breath, we will pass onto other
means of support and digital music storage , we will try and give people the possibility to have these artworks , because
they should be considered masterpieces, with related gadgets, that will make
the product a unique one, even if downloaded from internet or bought on other
means of communication. We will always try to give a 360 degree dynamicity to
the product and from this point of view, I think that CDs will have another 5
years to go, if not longer.
