Riz Ortolani

Riziero Riz Ortolani 25 March 1926 23 January 2014 was an Italian film composer Ortolani scored over 300 films working mostly within the Italian genres of Mondo Giallo and the Spaghetti Western Ortolani also scored many Hollywood films and has had some of his compositions reused in films like Drive and Django Unchained Ortolanis most famous composition is More which he wrote for the infamous film Mondo Cane It won the 1964 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Theme and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 36th Academy Awards The song was later covered by Frank Sinatra Kai Winding Andy Williams Roy Orbison and others Ortolani was born on 25 March 1926 in Pesaro Italy He was the youngest of six children Ortolanis father a postal worker gave his son a violin at age 4 Ortolani later switched to flute after injuring his elbow in a car accident He studied at the Conservatorio Statale di Musica Gioachino Rossini in his hometown of Pesaro before moving to Rome in 1948 and finding work with the RAI orchestra Though the chronology is unclear he also likely served as a musician in the Italian Air Force orchestra formed a Jazz ensemble and came to the United States as a Jazz musician in Hollywood all before scoring his first film Ortolani married Katyna Ranieri in 1956 In the early 1950s Ortolani was founder and member of a wellknown Italian jazz band One of his early film scores was for Paolo Cavara and Gualtiero Jacopettis 1962 pseudodocumentary Mondo Cane whose main titlesong More earned him a Grammy and was also nominated for an Oscar as Best Song The success of the soundtrack of Mondo Cane led Ortolani to score films in England and the United States such as The Yellow RollsRoyce 1964 The Spy with a Cold Nose 1966 The Biggest Bundle of Them All 1968 and Buona Sera Mrs Campbell 1968 He also scored the 1972 film The Valachi Papers directed by Terence Young and starring Charles Bronson Ortolani scored all or parts of over 200 films including German westerns like Old Shatterhand 1964 and a long series of Italian giallos Spaghetti Westerns Eurospy films Exploitation films and mondo films These include Il Sorpasso 1962 Castle of Blood 1964 Africa Addio 1966 Day of Anger 1967 Anzio 1968 The McKenzie Break 1970 The Hunting Party 1971 A Reason to Live a Reason to Die 1972 Seven BloodStained Orchids 1972 The Fifth Musketeer 1979 From Hell to Victory 1979 the controversial Ruggero Deodato films Cannibal Holocaust 1980 and The House on the Edge of the Park 1980 and the first series of La piovra 1984 In later years he scored many films for Italian director Pupi Avati His music was used on soundtracks for Grand Theft Auto London 1969 1999 Kill Bill Volume 1 2003 Kill Bill Volume 2 2004 Drive 2011 and Django Unchained 2012 In 2013 he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the World Soundtrack Academy Ortolani died on 23 January 2014 in Rome aged 87 Source Article Riz Ortolani from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30