Calibro 35 (caliber 35) is an Italian cinematic

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

band formed in 2007 in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

. The band has released seven albums and several movie soundtracks. Different songs from the band have been sampled into hip hop productions including

Dr. Dre Andre Romell Young (born February 18, 1965), known professionally as Dr. Dre, is an American rapper, record producer, record executive, and actor. He is the founder and CEO of Aftermath Entertainment and Beats Electronics, and co-founder of ...

's " One Shot One Kill" and

Jay Z Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969), known professionally as Jay-Z, is an American rapper, businessman, and record executive. Rooted in East Coast hip-hop, he was named the greatest rapper of all time by ''Billboard'' and '' Vibe'' i ...

's " Picasso Baby".

Biography

The band started in 2007 when Italian producer Tommaso Colliva and guitarist Massimo Martellotta invited Enrico Gabrielli, Luca Cavina and Fabio Rondanini to what was supposed to be a five days long one-off studio project re-recording obscure music from Italian exploitation movie soundtracks. The first self-titled ''Calibro 35'' album was released worldwide by Cinedelic Records in 2008. The album mostly contains re-works of 1970s soundtracks by the genre's maestros such as

Ennio Morricone Ennio Morricone ( , ; 10 November 19286 July 2020) was an Italian composer, Orchestration, orchestrator, conductor, trumpeter, and pianist who wrote music in a wide range of styles. With more than 400 film score, scores for cinema and televisi ...

Armando Trovajoli Armando Trovajoli (also Trovaioli, 2 September 1917 – 28 February 2013) was an Italian film composer and pianist with over 300 credits as composer and/or conductor, many of them jazz scores for exploitation films of the Commedia all'italiana g ...

and

Luis Bacalov Luis Enríquez Bacalov (30 August 1933 – 15 November 2017) was an Argentine (naturalized Italian) film composer and musical director. He learned music from Enrique Barenboim, father of Daniel Barenboim - conductor of the Berlin and Chicago or ...

but also first original compositions by the band. The unexpected critical acclaim the album received led the band to perform the project live too, touring Italy and Europe. Live concerts proved to be even more successful than the album with the band winning the "Best Italian Tour" award at PIMI/MEI 2009. That same year, the group embarked on its first tour in the United States. Calibro 35 played at HitWeek Festival in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

and at Nublu and Zebulon in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. They also performed on

Jason Bentley Jason Bentley (born July 27, 1970) is an American DJ, Producer, and music executive who has played an influential role in the evolution of dance and electronic music in the US. Having hosted music programmes on a variety of commercial and public r ...

radio show A radio program, radio programme, or radio show is a segment of content intended for broadcast on radio. It may be a one-time production, or part of a periodically recurring series. A single program in a series is called an episode. Radio netw ...

Morning Becomes Eclectic ''Morning Becomes Eclectic'' (MBE) is an American three-hour adult album alternative radio program first aired in 1977 and broadcast live every weekday from KCRW in Santa Monica, California. The show's name is a play on the Eugene O'Neill t ...

'' on

KCRW KCRW (89.9 FM broadcasting, FM) is an NPR member station broadcasting from the campus of Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California, where the station is licensed. KCRW airs original news and music programming in addition to programming ...

, one of the most important broadcasts of

live music A concert, often known informally as a gig or show, is a live performance of music in front of an audience. The performance may be carried by a single musician, in which case it is sometimes called a recital, or by a musical ensemble such as an ...

in the United States. In September, they co-headlined the closing event of the

Milan Film Festival Milan Film Festival (''MFF'', ') is an annual independent film festival held since 1996 in Milan, Italy. It was founded as a competition of only local short films, but grew to have a feature film competition program along with numerous other sect ...

with Australian band Jet. In February 2010, their second album '' Ritornano quelli di...'' was released by Ghost Records in Europe and by Nublu Records in the United States. The album contains several original songs written and recorded as the soundtrack for American documentary ''Eurocrime''. One of the songs from the album, "Convergere in Giambellino" was used as the end titles music for Hollywood blockbuster film ''Red'' starring

Bruce Willis Walter Bruce Willis (born March 19, 1955) is a retired American actor. He achieved fame with a leading role on the comedy-drama series ''Moonlighting (TV series), Moonlighting'' (1985–1989) and has appeared in over one hundred films, gaining ...

and

John Malkovich John Gavin Malkovich (born December 9, 1953) is an American actor. He is the recipient of several accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and ...

. During the same year, Calibro 35 recorded its first full-length soundtrack for the Italian-Spanish production ''SAID'' at

's studios in Rome. On June 8, 2010 they opened for English rock band

Muse In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, the Muses (, ) were the Artistic inspiration, inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the poetry, lyric p ...

at their concert at San Siro Stadium in

. In September, they won "Best Band 2010" at the Keep On Music Awards. In October, Calibro 35 played at the

CMJ CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events, online media company and a distributor of up and coming music CDs, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music ...

Festival in New York. Back in the US to play the

SXSW South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

Festival in Austin in spring 2011, the band decided to stop at Mission Sound and Brooklyn Recordings Studios in New York to record their third album. The album, titled ''Any Resemblance to Real Persons or Actual Facts Is Purely Coincidental'', was released in February 2012 by Nublu Records in the US and by Tannen Records/Rough Trade Distribution in Europe. The title track of the album would be sampled by

for his '' Compton'' album in 2015. In summer 2012, Calibro 35 opened for

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings were an American funk and soul music, soul band signed to Daptone Records. They were part of a Retro-soul, revival movement of mid-1960s to mid-1970s style funk and soul music. They released their debut album Dap D ...

in Bari. In March 2013, the band travelled to Brazil for the Nublu Jazz Festival, sharing the stage with

the Headhunters The Headhunters was an American jazz fusion band formed by Herbie Hancock in 1973. The group fused jazz, funk, and rock music. History and band name Hancock had grown dissatisfied with his prior band, Mwandishi, and wanted to make a band with ...

Roy Ayers Roy Edward Ayers Jr. (September 10, 1940 – March 4, 2025) was an American vibraphonist, record producer, and composer. Ayers began his career as a post-bop jazz artist, releasing several studio albums with Atlantic Records, before his tenure ...

and

Robert Glasper Robert Andre Glasper (born April 5, 1978) is an American pianist, record producer, songwriter, and Arrangement, musical arranger. His music embodies numerous musical genres, primarily centered around jazz. Glasper has won five Grammy Awards from ...

's Experiment. On June 29, Calibro 35 opened again for Muse at the Olympic Stadium in Turin. In October a new album, '' Traditori di tutti'', was released worldwide by Record Kicks. For the first time, the album contained only original music. After the album release, the band embarked on another extensive tour playing in all major European cities. In 2014, Italian public national broadcaster Rai Radio 1 commissioned all its jingles and library music to the band. Meanwhile, the band scored its second full-length soundtrack for the Italian film ''Sogni di Gloria / Daydreaming'', awarded as "Best Feature Movie" at the Houston Film Fest and Rome Independent Film Fest. They further released the albums ''S.P.A.C.E.'' in 2015, ''Decade'' in 2018, and ''Momentum'' in 2020.

Sampling

Several songs of the band have been sampled into modern style productions. Most notably, "Ogni riferimento a fatti realmente accaduti" was sampled by

in "One Shot One Kill" (featuring

Snoop Dogg Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. ( ; born October 20, 1971), better known by his stage name Snoop Dogg (previously Snoop Doggy Dogg), is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. Rooted in West Coast hip-hop, he is widely regarded as one of t ...

and Jon Connor)"; "Il consigliori" was sampled by

Jay-Z Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969), known professionally as Jay-Z, is an American Rapping, rapper, businessman, and record executive. Rooted in East Coast hip-hop, he was named Billboard and Vibe's 50 Greatest Rappers of All Time, the ...

in " Picasso Baby", "Una stanza vuota" was sampled by Child of Lov in "One Day" (featuring

Damon Albarn Damon Albarn (, ; born 23 March 1968) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as the frontman, main vocalist, and lyricist of the rock band Blur (band), Blur and the co-creator and primary musical con ...

)"; and "Eurocrime" was sampled by

Demigodz Demigodz are an American hip hop collective founded by Connecticut rappers Open Mic and Reflex. The group was originally named "The Nobility" but Open Mic renamed the group "The Demigodz" with inspiration from one of his own verses. The group ha ...

in "Summer of Sam".

Personnel

*Enrico Gabrielli - keyboards,

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

xylophone The xylophone (; ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Each bar is an idiophone tuned to a pitch of a musical scale, whether pentatonic or heptatonic in the case of many African ...

*Luca Cavina -

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

*Massimo Martellotta -

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

, keyboards *Fabio Rondanini -

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

* Tommaso Colliva - Sound Researches and Production

Discography

* 2008 - ''Calibro 35'' (Cinedelic Records CNCD14) * 2010 - ''Ritornano quelli di...'' (Ghost Records GHST 035) * 2012 - ''Ogni riferimento a persone esistenti o a fatti realmente accaduti è puramente casuale'' - (Tannen Records FIR.Y15) * 2013 - ''Traditori di tutti'' - (

Record Kicks Record Kicks is an independent record label based in Milan, Italy, set up in 2003 by Nicolò Pozzoli (aka Nick Recordkicks) and specializing in both new and vintage black sounds: deep funk, Deep Funk, Soul music, Soul, northern soul, Northern Soul, ...

RKX046) * 2015 - ''S.P.A.C.E.'' * 2018 - ''DECADE'' * 2020 - ''Momentum'' * 2022 - ''Scacco al Maestro - Volume 1'' * 2022 - ''Scacco al Maestro - Volume 2''

References

{{Authority control Italian rock music groups Funk musical groups Musical groups from Milan Musical groups established in 2007

Biography

Sampling

Personnel

Discography

See also

References