Otto Cesana Night Train (1953)
from Gustavo Morales Battaglini
Other classical composers heavily influenced by jazz -- Darius Milhaud or Karlheinz Stockhausen, for example -- do not show up in Feather's reference. But other blockades await as Cesana is herded over to the classical ranch. Noted Brazilian music critic José Domingos Raffaelli feels the composer should be associated with lighter forms of music, writing "...in my opinion easy listening music is the kind of music played by the string orchestras of Mantovani, Otto Cesana, David Rose, Peter Yorke, and others." Even without a clear consensus of how he should be categorized, Cesana also caused a form of retrospective controversy with the titles of his other compositions, particularly a piano roll entitled "Negro Heaven." Cesana began his study of the piano in 1909. One fact beyond dispute is that the man liked to learn; he had many teachers and became adept at organ, orchestration, and harmony. He turned out compositions and arrangements for radio stations and the Hollywood film studios and began premiering his original works in the early '40s at prestigious venues such as New York City's Town Hall. The direction taken by his subsequent recording career tends to underscore the comments of Raffaelli. For example, Cesana was contracted by Columbia alongside company such as Ray Conniff. Clearly it was the easy listening, lounge, and bachelor pad/hi-fi crowd that was being aimed at, not serious modern classical listeners.
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