Grégoire Maret and Romain Collin's Homage to Composer/Arranger Ennio Morricone on "Ennio"

Ennio: Grégoire Maret Romain Collin Act 9959-2

Two, European-born musicians, the Swiss born chromatic harmonica master Grégoire Maret and the impressionistic French born pianist Romain Collin, both currently based in New York City,  grew up with listening to and developing a passion for the music of the Italian composer/arranger Ennio Morricone. The product of their exploration into the man's music is a fitting homage, their latest collaboration Ennio on ACT Records and released in April of 2024. I share the appreciation and enthusiasm of these musicians for the music of Mr. Morricone who passed away after a long and productive life in 2020 at the age of ninety-one. The album is a dedication, a respectful and moving remembrance, of Morricone's mastery as a film scorer. The maestro has written the music for over four hundred films, and it is a testimony to how much his music affected these talented and expansive musicians as well as film lovers around the world.

In case you don't recognize the name, it's unlikely that you too haven't been indelibly touched by the man's work. Ennio Morricone's music graced the films of so many great and iconic movies that it's almost hard to comprehend. He worked closely composing and orchestrating for Italian director Sergio Leone, on such films like The Good The Bad and the Ugly( 1966), Fistful of Dollars (1964) and Once Upon a Time in America (1984). He scored Giuseppe Tornatore's "Cinema Paradiso (1988) and Terrence Mallick's Days of Heaven (1968). His only Academy Award for his work, despite receiving seven nominations, came for his score of Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight (2015). Along the way this prolific, in- demand artist worked for notable directors like Bernado Bertolucci, John Huston,  William Friedkin, Roman Polanski, John Carpenter and Brian DePalma amongst others.

Romain Collin and Grégoire Maret (photo credit unknown)

There was something always engaging about Morricone's work in film, he possessed a sixth sense of what it took musically to enhance what was being portrayed on the silver screen. Sergio Leone was so comfortable with Morricone's innate ability to compose what was complimentary to his films, that he reportedly requested Morricone to score Once Upon in Time in America before filming. He did this so that the actors could use the music as an inspiration, acting  their scenes out with the music playing in the background during the actual filming.

Maret, is one of the most sought after musicians on his instrument. The influence of the late Belgian harmonica master Jean "Toots" Thielemans is obvious on Maret's fluid and expressive playing. It is likely that Maret has become Thieleman's heir apparent, arguably the premiere player of this instrument in the world! 

Maret came to New York in 1993 at the age of eighteen to study at The New School after having graduated from Conservatoire de Musique de Geneva in Switzerland. His marvelous facility and inventiveness led him to be sort after as a sideman for such luminaries as Pat Metheny, Cassandra Wilson, David Sanborn and Herbie Hancock. 

Romain Collin is a pianist from Antibes in southern France and studied music in  Europe before coming to study Berklee in Boston in 2004 where he received a degree in Music Synthesis. He studied for his masters at The Herbie Institute of Jazz in 2007 and was  chosen by the school to tour promotionally with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock. He has also studied with artists like Larry Goldings, Russell Ferrante, Charlie Haden, Ron Carter and Mulgrew Miller.

Maret and Collin have collaborated previously. Their 2022 album Americana, had the two Francophiles join forces with guitar ace Bill Frisell to create an airy, melodic travelogue through America. It has elements of jazz, blues, folk and gospel woven into a gorgeous tapestry and the album was rightly nominated for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album of 2022. I named it as one of Notes on Jazz's Best Releases of 2022

On Ennio, Maret and Collin have chosen twelve of Morricone's compositions to express their musical appreciation of the master. The opener "Once Upon a Time In America," also known as Deborah's Theme, comes from the 1984 Sergio Leone film of the same name. The music is beautifully played with Collin's delicate piano lines accentuated by Maret's somber and almost mournful wails. 

"For a Few Dollars More: Watch Chimes" from another of Leone's spaghetti westerns, is a one minute fourteen second peek into how brilliantly composed music can evoke a tense filled mood on film. Collin's metronomic keyboard, maybe a Celesta, mimics the chime sounding tune that emanates from a gunslinger's musical pocket watch. The tension is palpable and the anticipation is masterfully sustained with Maret's harmonica adding a soulful element.

"The Good the Bad and the Ugly: Ecstasy of Gold" is a main theme also from Sergio Leone's Dollar Trilogy. The music brings you back visually to Clint Eastwood's, serape clad, gunslinger character. Collin and Maret are joined by bassist Burniss Earl Travis II's and the drummer Marcus Gilmore. Collin's ostinato piano opening is embellished by some booming lines by Travis and percussive accents by Gilmore as Maret's lines soar over the rhythm. Gilmore's cadenced drum work set the stage for Maret's expressive harmonica improvisation. Collin's piano work builds up tension and he and the rhythm section interact with precision likely accentuating the action on the film that the music was written for.

The album is predominantly cinema generated music. "Suoni oer Dino" or Sounds for Dino offers a train inspired drum line by Gilmore and throbbing bass line by Travis, as Maret wails simulating the approaching train engine whistle. The sentimental intro to "Once Upon a Time in the West" is a mere 54 seconds and leads into the rousing theme to the movie which finds Collin playing a melodically  inspired barroom honky-tonk. The moving theme to "Cinema Paradiso" has Collin and Maret trading melodic lines, transporting the listener back into a simpler time that is presented in Guiseppi Tornatore's film.

Morricone, outside of his film work, also wrote prodigiously for pop music (Paul Anka, Céline Dion and Astrud Gilberto have sung his songs), countless television scores, fifteen piano concertos, over thirty symphonic pieces, an opera (Andrea Bocelli sang one of his songs) and even the music for a mass.

On Morricone's "Se Telefonando", ("If She Calls") is a 1966 pop song about unrequited love and was sung by the Italian pop vocalist Mina.  Here, Maret and Collin are again joined by the empathetic rhythm section of Travis and Gilmore and with a tasty slide guitar intro by Marvin Sewell. The sensuous, smoky contralto of Cassandra Wilson opens the song and she is joined by the distinctive voice of Gregory Porter. Maret's harmonica adds his own accents as Collin's piano leads the group through the memorable melody. Just beautiful.

"Chi Mai" was a song written in 1971 and used in the film Le Professionnel by director Georges Lautner in 1981 starring Jean-Paul Belmondo. Collins piano work is soulful on the opening. Maret's harmonica provides an eerie sensitivity that just hangs in the air like a desperate sigh. 

"The Sicilian Clan" is an French-Italian gangster movie directed by Henri Verneuil and released in 1969 with music by Morricone. Here the music evokes a hip, late sixties period sound with Collin on electric piano, Gilmore on drums and Travis on bass. The melody has an electronic lounge-like feel to it and Maret's eloquent harmonica adds his own sense to the musical palette.

"Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man" was a movie by Bernardo Bertolucci and released in 1981. Morricone's music is beautifully rendered by Collin's emotive piano work  Maret's harmonica often evokes a pleading human voice. The two respond to each other's musical expressions like two threads finely woven into the same tapestry, separate but somehow strengthened by each others presence. 

It is so appropriate that these two serious Morricone fans would end their homage album with one of the maestro's most iconic songs from his film work. "The Man with a Harmonica"  was a eerie song that that was played throughout the film adding tension, anticipation and suspense. In the Leone movie "Once Upon a Time in the West" (1969), a reticent but deadly gunslinger played by Charles Bronson is often heard playing his diatonic harmonica rather than speaking. The harmonica part was hauntingly played on a chromatic harmonica by Francesco "Cheeco" Rizzoli on the original movie soundtrack. It was Morricone's simple use of the droning instrument's voice-like qualities in an experimentally daring way that changed the way movie music would be used going forward. Maret is a master and evokes the same agitation and pressure building tension as Collin's piano and electronics add to the other worldly feel and the escalating danger that is featured in the movie. As with first encountering the original film and sound, this music it is hard to forget.

In a 2020 retrospective on film Mark Lager said in a Cine Action article that Morricone's music has "...melodic splendor" and "revolutionary textures."  Others have praised Morricone's experimental daring and he is often considered one of the most influential and copied composers in film scoring of all time. Clearly Grégoire Maret and Romain Collin are two musicians who agree with the iconic importance of Morricone's body of work. With their own love of melodic beauty, textural manipulation and musical daring they have taken the maestro's music and made it their own vehicle of expression and a fitting homage to their hero's legacy.