Tullio Mobiglia
b: April 12, 1911, Carezzano, Italy; d: July 24,.1991, Helsinki, Finland
Instruments: Violin, tenor saxophone.
In the early 1930s, after his studies at the conservatory in Genova (and some first local engagements), Tullio made several trips to the U.S. A. as a member of an on-board Ship's orchestra. In the U. S. he made the acquaintance of the leading tenor saxophonists, including Coleman Hawkins (1901-1969). In September 1940, Mobiglia visited Berlin as a member of the Italian 'Orchestra Mirador'. In February 1941, Tullio was a member of the Heinz Wehner Orchestra, and from April to November, Tullio with his own Sextet played in the Patria Bar. In September and October he was also in the Komiker Cafe's musical revue "Dreams About Me". 1942/43, Mobiglia's orchestra played in the Rosita Bar. He also did some Film and Recordings during this period. After the World War II, Mobiglia operated mainly in Italy, but among other things also in Germany, -Dortmund and Frankfurt areas. From 1967 into the '80s, he was active as a violin teacher at the Sibelius Conservatory in Helsinki, Finland.
The band that Tullio Mobiglia directed without interruption in Berlin between April 1941 and August '43 was, along with the Kramer's Orchestra of the second half of the Thirties, the only stable group in the history of Italian Jazz between the years 1935 and '43.
Musicians from two different generations formed his orchestra. The trumpet player Alfredo Marzaroli and sax and clarinet player Francesco Paolo Ricci, who had begun their careers in the Twenties, along with the younger members, Tullio Mobiglia, Eraldo Romanoni, Carlo Pecori and the Triestino Angelo Bartole, formed an extremely homogeneous group that performed during the Second World War in Berlin.
Brilliant and inventive, Alfio Grasso, the guitar player, was not part of Mobiglia's orchestra but was called in by the tenor player to take part in the recordings. Almost completely unknown in Jazz histories, he was for many Germans of that time, a real founder.
Tullio Mobiglia
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