In 1987, Massimo Catalano, Antonio Sechi, and Stefano Torossi released Life is a Trumpet: La tromba di Massimo Catalano, part of Costanza Records’ Musica per commenti sonori series. The album is a showcase for trumpet player-composer Massimo Catalano.

Side A begins with “After Midnight,” “Reggae Blues,” “Memories,” “Springtime,” “A Foggy Night,” and “Nose Up,” with “The Fox,” “The Desperate,” “Carnival,” “Jam Session,” “Chili Trumpet,” and “Renaissance” on the back. The three composer-musicians share the writing credit on each composition.

Massimo Catalano, Antonio Sechi, and Stefano Torossi’s “A Foggy Night” is on YouTube:

The three worked together on numerous albums, most in the production music and soundtrack genres. For example, in 1986, Antonio “Tony” Sechi and Stefano Torossi made Musica per commenti sonori: Pianoforte for Italy’s Costanza Records label–reissued two years later as part of Fonit Cetra’s Strumentali series under the title Pianoforte solo (Nello stile di…).

Between 1986 and 1988, the two prolific composers released four more full length albums for Fonit Cetra’s Strumentali series: Capolavori, Favole, Paesaggi, and Genere romantico – classico – moderno – infinito orizzonte. This is in addition to Jazz, Fonit Cetra’s reissue of Musica per commenti: Life Is A Trumpet in 1989.

Antonio Sechi also contributed compositions on several compilation albums produced by Stefano Torossi, such as Fonit Cetra’s Romanticherie, In giro per il mondo, and La fatica di vivere, plus Sechi’s full length Situation Comedy in 1990. Torossi produced Bruno Lauzi and Sechi’s Foglio di diario album in 1988 and Sandro Brugnolini and Sechi’s Il mondo del lavoro in 1989, as well.

Massimo Catalano, Antonio Sechi, and Stefano Torossi’s “Memories” is online:

Sechi’s compositions appear on at least six compilation albums in the Fonit Cetra-RAI Commenti musicali series between 1988’s Agreste / Bucolico and 1993’s Musica d’epoca – dal medioevo all’800, all produced by Stefano Torossi. They also have compositions on Primrose Music’s Industry compilation in 1991, produced by Torossi, and Sechi has eight cuts on the Torossi-produced Kaleidoscope in 1991.

Unlike most of the Musica per commenti sonori and Strumentali albums, all the Primrose Music albums have been issued in both CD and are currently available as digital downloads. Primrose Music is part of the Flippermusic stable of labels specializing in soundtrack and production music.

Antonio Sechi’s Musica per commenti sonori: Pianoforte is one of the few original vinyl releases to be reissued in both CD and digital format. Fonit Cetra and RAI added eleven extra tracks, to boot.

Massimo Catalano, Antonio Sechi, and Stefano Torossi’s “Chili Trumpet” is here:

Massimo Catalano and Stefano Torossi’s musical association goes back much farther although they also contributed compositions to soundtracks and production music albums. For example, along with Guido Cenciarelli, they composed “Tragicomic” and “Procession” for the BMG Production Music compilation Neorealism: Italian Post-War Cinema.

Their “Thrills and Spills,” also with composer Guido Cenciarelli, was included in another BMG compilation, Comedy Burlesque & Circus. TV fans may be familiar with it from HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm series.

The track also appears on the 2006 soundtrack released by MellowDrama Records.

Massimo Catalano, Antonio Sechi, and Stefano Torossi’s “The Desperate,” is on YouTube:

In 2011, Deneb Records released Massimo Catalano and Stefano Torossi’s Dark City, an album of soundtrack music that was reissued as a digital download in 2016 under the title Black Light.

It was originally issued on vinyl and was part of a series of albums the pair did, according to Stefano Torossi:

“intended for use on the air.”

Some of these albums have been released, he added, and others still remain in the record company vaults.

Catalano and Torossi are also listed as composers for Terzo Mondo, a collection of “music especially recorded for film, radio and television” released in 1972 on the Iller label.

They both made contributions, along with Sandro Brugnolini, on Franco Tamponi’s Un volto una storia soundtrack on Flower–reissued by Pinball Music in digital format in 2011, as well.

Massimo Catalano, Antonio Sechi, and Stefano Torossi’s “Renaissance,” the final track, is online:

More from the Artists: Pop Music in the 60’s

A couple of decades before Massimo Catalano and Stefano Torossi were composing and recording music for Life is a Trumpet, they were both members of a pop band called The Flippers.

Besides appearing on The Flippers’ Way, the group’s 1960 debut album for RCA, Massimo Catalano played trumpet on “Non gridar bambina,” a non-album track Torossi wrote with Prosaico (aka Sergio Jacquier) the same year.

Catalano is in the middle and Torossi on the far right in the picture on the 45 sleeve that RCA ended up using for half a dozen single releases over several years.

The Flippers’ “Non gridar bambina,” with Massimo Catalano on trumpet, brother Maurizio Catalano on double bass, Romolo Forlai on vibraphone and vocals, Jimmy Polosa on piano, and Fabrizio Zampa on drums is on SoundCloud:

Note: If any legal rights holders object to the posting of this rare track ripped from this correspondent’s long out of print 45, please drop a line and it will be removed immediately.

And here’s one more Flippers’ track showcasing Massimo Catalano’s magnificent muted trumpet, “Happy Cha Cha.” Released as a single, this was also on The Flippers’ Way. Stefano Torossi plays double bass on the composition by Franco Bracardi and Marcello Gigante.

This was also used in the film Un alibi per morire, one of Stefano Torossi’s first appearances on a film soundtrack–“Baci Cha Cha Cha,” a track Torossi plays double bass and Massimo Catalano the trumpet that was featured in director Franco Rossi’s 1961 film Odissea nuda (Nude Odyssey) may have been released earlier.

The photo on the left side on the back of the “Happy Cha Cha” 45 sleeve includes, L to R, Stefano Torossi, Fabrizio Zampa, Franco Bracardi, Romolo Forlai, and Max Catalano.

The Flippers’ “Happy Cha Cha,” with Massimo “Max” Catalano on trumpet, Romolo Forlai on vibraphone, Franco Bracardi on piano, Fabrizio Zampa on drums, and Stefano Torossi on double bass, is online:

Note: If any legal rights holders object to the posting of this rare track ripped from this correspondent’s long out of print 45, please drop a line and it will be removed immediately.

More from the Artists: Blues and Prog Rock in the 70’s

Massimo Catalano, Stefano Torossi, and Sandro Brugnolini are listed as composers, along with Ninety, aka Gianfranco Giacomo Reverberi, for “Missa Ground.”

This final, seemingly-tacked-on cut on Beppe Carta’s Ventaglio musicale album, was released by Lupus Records in 1971. It seems entirely possible this could be an outtake from another album from the same year by Gianfranco Giacomo Reverberi, Psychedelic And Underground Music–reissued in 2009 by AMS Reissue, and one of this correspondent’s favorite albums.

This site will revisit the music of Gianfranco Giacomo Reverberi and The Psycheground Group in the near future when the 1971 Leo Records’ MacQueen album is profiled, a compilation that features tracks by Ninety (aka Gianfranco Giacomo Reverberi), Giuliano Sorgini, Rino de Filippi, Salvatore D’Esposito and Tito Manilo, Gino Redi and Nisa (aka Nicola Salerno), and a guest vocal by Edda Dell’Orso.

Ninety’s “Missa Ground,” composed by Sandro Brugnolini, Massimo Catalano, Stefano Torossi, and Ninety (better known as Gianfranco Giacomo Reverberi), is on SoundCloud:

Note: If any legal rights holders object to the posting of this rare, out of print, and unavailable track ripped from this correspondent’s personal collection, please drop a line and it will be removed immediately.

Sandro Brugnolini, Massimo Catalano, Stefano Torossi, along with Federico Monti Arduini and Giuliano Sorgni, are credited with composing on another extraordinary album from Italy in the early 1970s, Fourth Sensation on Ricordi International.

The eponymous progressive rock release features Ellade Bandini on drums, Ares Tavolazzi on guitar, Vince Tempera on organ, and Angelo Vaggi on bass. Unbelievably, it remains out of print and virtually impossible to find.

Hoping some enlightened record company reissues this monster album sooner than later.

Fourth Sensation’s “Elena” is on SoundCloud:

https://soundcloud.com/dj-el-topo-1/elena-the-fourth-sensation