Massimo Milano (born

Torino Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

, 1967) is an

ethnomusicologist Ethnomusicology is the multidisciplinary study of music in its cultural context. The discipline investigates social, cognitive, biological, comparative, and other dimensions. Ethnomusicologists study music as a reflection of culture and investiga ...

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as Art criticism, art, Literary criticism, literature, Music journalism, music, Film criticism, cinema, Theater criticism, theater, Fas ...

and sound experimentalist. Member of "A.I.STU.GIA" (Italian Association for Japanese Studies, Venice) and of the International Jury of the

Down Beat ''DownBeat'' (styled in all caps) is an American music magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond", the last word indicating its expansion beyond the jazz realm that it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1 ...

Annual Critics Poll (USA), he has been editor-in-chief of the monthly magazine ''Finis Terrae'', for which he interviewed Zimbabwe's musical icon in exile Thomas Mapfumo. In addition, he regularly contributes to several Italian and Spanish leading newspapers and magazines (

Il Manifesto (; English: "the manifesto") is an Italian daily newspaper published in Rome, Italy. While calling itself " communist" and broadly left-wing, it is not connected to any political party A political party is an organization that coordin ...

Classic Rock Classic rock is a radio format that developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, it comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the early-1990s, primarily focusing on comm ...

, Jam, Rumore, Jazzit, Il Giornale della Musica, Carnet, Amadeus,

Playboy ''Playboy'' (stylized in all caps) is an American men's Lifestyle journalism, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, available both online and in print. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, funded in part by a $ ...

, Cuadernos de Jazz). His activity also includes extensive studies, researches and essays on contemporary Brazilian music (

Música popular brasileira (, ''Brazilian Popular Music'') or MPB is a trend in post-bossa nova urban popular music in Brazil that revisits typical Brazilian styles such as samba, samba-canção and Baião (music), baião and other Brazilian regional music, combining them ...

), its social implications and its leading role in the collective imagination as a paradigm of the so-called "World" sound. He co-authored the "Encyclopedia of Rock", recently re-published by Arcana Editrice, and during the 90's he actively collaborated as a consultant both for

Blue Note Blue Note Records is an American jazz record label now owned by Universal Music Group and operated under Capitol Music Group. Established in 1939 by German-Jewish emigrants Alfred Lion and Max Margulis, it derived its name from the blue no ...

artists the Doky Brothers and pianist

Niels Lan Doky Niels Lan Doky (born 3 October 1963) is a Danish jazz pianist, composer and producer. He is the older brother of jazz bassist Chris Minh Doky. Biography Doky was born in Copenhagen of a Danish mother and Vietnamese father. His father worked as ...

, for whom he wrote the liner notes for the album "Haitek Haiku", produced by Gino Vannelli. In 1998 he published a book of essays and conversations with Japanese composer

Ryuichi Sakamoto was a Music of Japan, Japanese musician, composer, keyboardist, record producer, singer and actor. He pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the Synthesizer, synth-based band Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With his ...

("Ryuichi Sakamoto. Conversazioni"), featuring a foreword by

Banana Yoshimoto is the pen name of Japanese writer . From 2002 to 2015, she wrote her name in hiragana (). Biography Yoshimoto was born in Tokyo on July 24, 1964, and grew up in a progressive family. Her father was the poet and critic Takaaki Yoshimoto, and he ...

. A year later he contributed with a semiological essay ("Transiti/Transits") to the catalog for the exhibition "Musica Senza Suono" ("Soundless Music"), conceived and realized by producer Francesco Messina and critic Enzo Gentile for the Museo Revoltella in Trieste (Italy). In 2003/2004 he settled in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

to conduct researches for the

Japan Foundation The is a Japanese foundation that spreads Japanese culture around the world. Based in Tokyo, it was established in 1972 by an Act of the National Diet as a special legal entity to undertake international dissemination of Japanese culture. I ...

in collaboration with

Kyoto University , or , is a National university, national research university in Kyoto, Japan. Founded in 1897, it is one of the former Imperial Universities and the second oldest university in Japan. The university has ten undergraduate faculties, eighteen gra ...

, under the supervision of philosopher Akira Asada, on the theme of the 'reversed exoticism' in modern Japan'.Milano, M. (January 2005). ''Speciale Giappone: Mis(jap)understanding - Riflessioni su un 'altrove' (im)perfetto''. Pavia: Rumore. Since 2015, Milano hosts The Tinseltown Tracks, a weekly radio show aired on Radio Flash 97.6, that has produced tenths of monographic broadcasts and boasts an audience that spans several countries around the world. His upcoming projects include a short essay about the perception of Western pop culture in the Far East; a book about

Alejandro Jodorowsky Alejandro Jodorowsky Prullansky (; born 17 February 1929) is a Chilean and French Experimental film, avant-garde filmmaker. Known for his films ''El Topo'' (1970), ''The Holy Mountain (1973 film), The Holy Mountain'' (1973) and ''Santa Sangre'' ...

and his influence on the psychedelic movement, the neo-mysticism and the

counterculture of the 1960s The counterculture of the 1960s was an anti-establishment cultural phenomenon and political movement that developed in the Western world during the mid-20th century. It began in the early 1960s, and continued through the early 1970s. It is ofte ...

; and a self-produced DVD about

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

for which he's currently writing the music and the screenplay.

References

External links

Massimo Milano on MySpaceA monograph on the music of Claus OgermanThe Official Page of The Tinseltown Tracks radio show hosted by Massimo Milano
{{DEFAULTSORT:Milano, Massimo 1967 births Living people Italian ethnomusicologists Musicians from Turin Date of birth missing (living people) Italian music critics Writers from Turin