Alessandro Alessandroni

Alessandro Alessandroni may not enjoy widespread name recognition across popular music or film scoring, yet his input across both domains has rendered his performances among the most instantly familiar of any player active since the 1950s. He entered the world in Soriano nel Cimino, north of Rome, in 1925 and never sought formal instruction; instead he remained entirely self-taught, absorbing guitar and mandolin technique simply by observing and listening to the musicians who performed inside the family barber shop. On his own he explored classical repertoire and purchased his first mandolin at age thirteen, while also realizing he possessed an extraordinary gift for whistling that complemented his command of numerous stringed and keyboard instruments. By his early thirties he supported himself through engagements across Germany as vocalist, pianist, and guitarist; later, in Rome, he assembled the Four Caravels, shaping their sound after the Four Freshmen while serving as both leader and arranger. The versatile Alessandroni soon ranked among Italy’s most sought-after session players and unexpectedly attained renown within an entirely unforeseen musical sphere.

In the early 1960s he renewed professional contact with Ennio Morricone, a slightly younger acquaintance from childhood who, after performing in jazz clubs, had begun scoring motion pictures. Morricone had completed his debut Western and was preparing another when he sought fresh sonic elements; Alessandroni’s guitar work and whistling featured prominently on the resulting Guns Don’t Argue soundtrack, integrated into a conventional Western ballad. That assignment proved only an initial step, however, for Morricone had already lined up A Fistful of Dollars (1964), a far less conventional Western that drew Alessandroni into deeper collaboration and wider application of his guitar skills. A solitary, echo-laden whistle floated above a repeating guitar motif, joined by flutes, whip cracks, and Alessandroni’s Duane Eddy-style electric guitar alongside a wordless male chorus supplied by his vocal ensemble—now enlarged to more than a dozen singers and rechristened I Cantori Moderni—thereby creating a title theme that transformed the sonic identity of Western film music. In certain respects Alessandroni functioned as an Italian counterpart to Brian Wilson, drawing on many of the same influences—the Four Freshmen, Duane Eddy’s twang, Dick Dale’s surf guitar—that had shaped the Beach Boys, yet combining them into a configuration peculiarly suited to the Western genre.

Alessandroni subsequently contributed to most of Morricone’s Western scores of the era, among them the luminous theme for A Pistol for Ringo, a striking showcase for his guitar and I Cantori Moderni in a hauntingly lyrical register distinct from the group’s customary rough vocal interjections on Sergio Leone pictures. His guitar and vocal ensemble appeared throughout the main-title theme of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and figured prominently on Once Upon a Time in the West. The pair also collaborated on non-Leone Westerns such as A Gun for Ringo—again highlighting his guitar and the singers in lyrical rather than abrasive style—The Big Gundown, Navajo Joe, and the non-Western Without Apparent Motive. By the close of the 1960s, Hollywood’s recognition of Leone’s commercial success prompted a revival of American Western production; composers including Dominic Frontiere received instructions to emulate Morricone, and therefore Alessandroni, on projects such as Hang ’Em High. Consequently, U.S. session players such as Tommy Tedesco found themselves indirectly saluting the Rome-based guitarist whose own tastes had begun with the Four Freshmen, Duane Eddy, and Dick Dale. Sustained interest in Morricone’s scores, their lasting appeal as concert repertoire, and continued critical regard for Leone’s films have kept Alessandroni among the most significant and influential musicians ever to appear on film soundtracks or, through that medium, to shape popular music worldwide. Across subsequent decades he has recorded with numerous leading artists, among them Paul Anka and most of Italy’s foremost performers.