Cafe Roma CD

It's no coincidence that director Vittorio De Sica has two songs included on Café Roma ("Tu, Solamente Tu" and "Un Vecchio Cuore"), because the music on the album conjures up scenes from his and other neorealistic films better than anything short of sitting down to watch Ladri di Biciclette itself. Not that the music here is unscripted and tragic; in fact, it's anything but. There are a few names that might be recognized by listeners unfamiliar with Italian music from the 1940s and '50s like Mario Lanza and Domenico Modugno (even Dean Martin has a piece included), but for the most part Café Roma is full of songs that are only hummed by white-haired Italians who still put on their best clothes on Sunday and stroll around town, the men's arms folded neatly behind their backs, the women with furs and pearls as they walk on roads built during the Roman Empire. That's what's makes it so fun, though -- these images of a life, of an experience that seems far removed from what we know. It's a tribute to years passed, when string arrangements and clean vocals with plenty of vibrato were in fashion and loved. Nilla Pizzi, a singer whose fame reached its peak in the 1950s, shows up no less than seven times between the two discs, and tenor Carlo Buti, who was an Italian radio superstar in the '30s and toured the U.S., has four songs, including the bittersweet "Chitarra Romana" and the vaguely Oedipal "Mamma." Some of the pieces have jazz influences, some have opera, but all are able to transport listeners to postwar Rome, when, although Antonioni, Rossellini, De Sica, and Visconti were exploring social issues within the context of film, the music still concerned itself with love, both lost and found. It's not a simple record, yet somehow there's a simplicity to it, making it easy to forget problems (either contemporary or from the postwar period) and focus instead on that perfect shot of espresso waiting on the counter. ~ Marisa Brown