Good Italian bistro music?

April 6, 2006 9:03 AM

My SO is putting on an Italian wine tasting, and has tasked me with finding good music. I am clueless. I have three criteria that need to be met...

I have three criteria that need to be met:
1) Genre: EITHER music in the candle-in-a-Chianti-bottle and red-checked tablecloth vein OR
2) Good Renaissance-era chamber music (violas da gamba, etc)
3) Must be available online for download (Itunes, allofmp3, etc)

posted by everichon to Media & Arts (24 answers total)

Sinatra.
posted by Faint of Butt at 9:04 AM on April 6, 2006

How about the soundtrack for Big Night. That's what I think of instantly for something like this.
posted by jdroth at 9:14 AM on April 6, 2006

(p.s. I have no idea what your first criterion means.)
posted by jdroth at 9:15 AM on April 6, 2006

I like Paolo Conte.
posted by contessa at 9:15 AM on April 6, 2006

You can never go wrong with Pink Martini.
posted by Staggering Jack at 9:17 AM on April 6, 2006

I second Paulo Conte.
posted by mustcatchmooseandsquirrel at 9:24 AM on April 6, 2006

Mambo Italiano!
posted by Mach5 at 9:31 AM on April 6, 2006

Dean Martin sings Italian Love Songs? It's on iTunes.
posted by Xalf at 9:38 AM on April 6, 2006

Second the soundtrack to Big Night - it's excellent.

Did Moonstruck have a soundtrack?
posted by SashaPT at 9:47 AM on April 6, 2006

Sergio Caputo is a lot of fun
posted by matteo at 9:53 AM on April 6, 2006

Response by poster: This is excellent, grazie!
posted by everichon at 10:05 AM on April 6, 2006

Here's the Moonstruck soundtrack mentioned above.
posted by nitsuj at 10:21 AM on April 6, 2006

Louis Prima! Fun, light hearted stuff, lots of it 60's Italian vibed.
posted by cosmicbandito at 11:07 AM on April 6, 2006

I downloaded Dino: The Essential Dean Martin from iTunes last time I had a dinner party that was itallian themed, and let me tell you - it's amazing to get hammered on good red wine to it.

You can't go wrong with Dino. Oh, and I think it was only eight bucks or something very reasonable like that for 20 songs.
posted by plaidrabbit at 11:13 AM on April 6, 2006

you gotta put some Jerry Vale into the mix
posted by jockc at 11:14 AM on April 6, 2006

Second Pink Martini. Sophisitcated, international, tasteful.
posted by Gilbert at 11:16 AM on April 6, 2006

Another voice for Dean Martin -- just this morning I was driving into work listening to the same compilation plaidrabbit recommended, and it's really a blast. (Italian Love Songs is great too. Oh, and it's not the season right now, but for future reference the Dean Martin Christmas Album is unbeatable.)
posted by scody at 11:28 AM on April 6, 2006

Steve and Edie
Enzo Stuarti
Jimmy Rosselli
Vicky Carr
posted by thinkpiece at 1:10 PM on April 6, 2006

Mix of Dean Martin, Louis Prima, Jerry Vale, and a few famous Italian Arias. Can't go wrong.
posted by kdern at 2:18 PM on April 6, 2006

You might be able to get or download some "greatest arias of opera." Familiar opera is pretty palatable, and nothing says Italian like opera.
posted by theora55 at 2:36 PM on April 6, 2006

(self-link) Contemporary Italian folk + electronics Fiamma Fumana.

FF's Home album has a version of the WWII resistance song Bella Ciao (wikipedia) -- and here's Chumbawamba's version of Bella Ciao for download.

Somewhere, somewhen I found a music blog post with 20+ versions of the song...but my google-fu and technorati-fu both have failed to re-locate it. (Email me from the profile if you want me to have a look around my HD.)
posted by omnidrew at 3:55 PM on April 6, 2006

The two 'candle-in-a-Chianti-bottle and red-checked tablecloth restaurants' I went to in the past year were playing things like Andrea Bocelli and Luciano Pavarotti -- both popular enough to be available online.
posted by wryly at 4:35 PM on April 6, 2006

If you like trip-hop/jazz/bossa-nova/lounge sort of in the vein of Thievery Corporation, you should look at The Dining Rooms, especially Experiments in Ambient Soul and Numero Deux, and Nicola Conte as both put out some damn smooth, fine Italian tunes.
posted by The Bishop of Turkey at 4:42 PM on April 6, 2006

i am not sure if you can download these, but if you can find the soundtrack of the French movie Diva (1981) - available from amazon - then you can easily convert them to mp3s:

1) the aria "Ebben? ... Ne andrò lontana" from the opera "La Wally" (composer Alfredo Catalani)
2) Sentimental Walk (or Promenade Sentimentale - composer Vladimir Cosma)

They are not very well known, but could be suitable for your party.
posted by eebs at 10:55 PM on April 6, 2006