Ezio Leoni
Ezio Leoni (17 July 1927, in Milan – 22 February 2015, in Capriate) was one of the pioneering forces behind the Italian music scene of the "anni d'oro" (golden years) of Italy's "musica leggera" (popular music). A composer, arranger, orchestra conductor, producer and A&R executive, "Maestro" Leoni's contributions span from helping lay the foundation for Italian pop music in the 1950s and 1960s to opening the Southern European markets for some of the most influential American artists of the time. As a composer, he wrote the music of iconic Italian songs such as "24.000 Baci", "Si e' Spento il Sole", and "Il Tuo Bacio e' Come un Rock", while as arranger/conductor, producer, and A&R executive he collaborated with Italian music personalities such as Adriano Celentano, Tony Dallara, Fausto Leali, Luigi Tenco, Franco Simone, Iva Zanicchi and Fausto Papetti, among many others. Later in his life, Leoni focused his efforts on protecting and upholding the rights of Italian composers and publishers, holding positions of leadership within SIAE (Societa' Italiana Autori Editori), the Italian copyright agency for music, and UNCLA (Unione Nazionale Compositori Librettisti Autori) eventually becoming its Honorary President in 2011. Maestro Leoni's artists won the Sanremo Festival five times (Sanremo is often referred to as the Italian version of the United States' Grammy Awards, with the exception being that, unlike the Grammys, Sanremo only recognizes one official winner each year). He won three times with Iva Zanicchi ("Non pensare a me" - 1967; "Zingara" - 1969; "Ciao, cara, come stai?" - 1974), as well as with the group Homo Sapiens ("Bella da Morire" - 1977) and singer Mino Vergnaghi ("Amare" - 1979). By the 1980s, Adriano Celentano was recognized as the singer with the highest number of number 1 singles on the Italian charts, while Fausto Papetti was recognized as the Italian artist with the highest number of albums ever sold, evidencing Maestro Ezio Leoni's level of impact on Italian pop music (as Leoni was instrumental in laying the foundation for the commercial success of both performers). Leoni's collaboration with artists beyond the Italian borders started as early as the late 1950s with Chet Baker, when, working under the pseudonym of Len Mercer, he led the orchestration and production of two albums between 1957 and 1959 (often referred to as "The Milano Sessions"), which started establishing Baker on the Italian and European music scene. In the 1960s, while A&R Executive at Ri-Fi, he was instrumental in securing the distributing rights for the Italian and other European territories for two of America's major labels, Motown Records and Atlantic Records, working directly with Berry Gordy (founder, Motown) and Ahmet Ertegun (co-founder, Atlantic), with whom he developed a close friendship. This agreement enabled the exposure to the Italian market for the two record labels' stable of artists, which at the time included Ben E. King, Otis Redding, James Brown, The Jackson 5, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Led Zeppelin and Wilson Pickett, who, in 1968, joined Fausto Leali at Sanremo