Italian funk for the dude !

Piero Piccioni was an Italian composer who made over 200 soundtracks during his career. He was deeply influenced in his use of jazz by 20th century classical composers and US cinematography. Amongst his favourites were Frank Capra and, Alfred Hitchcock. He began writing songs of his own and was soon able to get some of his works published by Carisch editions. Amond directors who sought Piero Piccioni to score the soundtracks for their films were Bernardo Bertolucci, Luchino Visconti and Roberto Rossellini. His song “Traffic Boom” was featured as the song for the fictional Logjammin’ movie-within-a-movie in The Big Lebowski by the Coen brothers. The movie and the soundtrack have an incredible psychedlic feel : One of the most inspired cobbled-together-from-a-stack-of-records soundtrack albums since Pulp Fiction, The Big Lebowski matches the goofily ramshackle spirit of the Dude, the hero of its celluloid companion. While offering Bob Dylan’s luv-addled “Man in Me” together with the Gipsy Kings’ redefinitive “Hotel California” and the psychedelic-era Kenny Rogers nugget “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In),” Lebowski also gives longer play to some cuts barely sampled in the film, including Traffic boom. Whether taken as a Coen brothers mix tape, a one-album CD carousel, or an apropos souvenir of one wiggy flick, this is a must have.

Piero Piccioni – Traffic boom – 1998