Alberto Onofri: "An encyclopedia for Cam"

 

A new print of the collector who dedicates an opera in six volumes to the famous record company of Colonne Sonore

 

Free Time

By Sofia Coletti

February 5, 2023

 

A new challenge that borders on the incredible for Alberto Onofri, Peruvian collector who has one of the most magnificent and extraordinary collections of discs, soundtracks and musical instruments with another 20 thousand discs of which at least 5 thousand precious, thick unique and unobtainable pieces that savor between jazz, rock soundtracks and first pressings. His hobby gave him an irresistible passion and a search that accompanies him always. Onofri has almost completed an encyclopedia that traces the history of Cam – Creazioni Artistiche Musicali – E 'la più grande record company of Italian cinema, which specializes in soundtracks – he enthusiastically recounts. Among other things, it was founded in 1960 by the Campi publishers, a family from Foligno which was one of the first typographies in Italy at the beginning of the twentieth century.

It’s a new enterprise of the collector who dedicates the work in six volumes to the famous soundtrack record company.

You know Cam well, don't you?

"Of course, I have the complete collection of Cam discs, there are over two thousand 45s and 33s and they concern the most important soundtracks of Italian cinema with the films of Alberto Sordi, Toto, Mastroianni, Vittorio Gassman, just to mention the greatest."

But how was the project born?

“In 2018 I participated in Music Day Rome, an event in the capital where I entered into a contract with the old management of Cam, in particular with Giuseppe Giacchi, producer and publisher of soundtracks and songs of worldwide success, who was general manager of the Room He is the true protagonist of the story because he signed the most beautiful soundtracks of the most beautiful Italian films from the ‘60s up to 1984."

What happened then?

"After the event in Rome, also in that year, I organized a tribute to Ennio Morricone in Perugia, in the Aula Magna of the Faculty of Agriculture. On that occasion we presented Cam and here I decided to start writing its history. Also because I have all the original printouts and the record company matrices. I have the complete collection, even with very rare and never distributed discs missing from the Cam archive that I own thanks to the consent with the Campi family.”

What are the characteristics of your encyclopedia?

“I started writing it in 2018 and finished it after 4 and a half years of work. That's another 2400 pages in six volumes. I wrote and rearranged the entire history of Cam, starting from its origins in Foligno and then gradually recounting the complete collection, based on the years.”

Any particularities?

“It is a work with attention to all details. Each disc is presented in detail and also photographed with the cover. And it is always accompanied by the film, with plot, artistic cast. I would say that many puzzles are solved”

The rarest and most precious pieces?

“The unreleased records of Toto and Alberto Sordi. I am thinking of the singles of "Toto Diabolik", "Toto Against Maciste", "The Monk of Monza", "Toto Leaves and Doubles", all unique pieces. I also have many unreleased records by Sordi to the point that in 2020 I was called for the documentary filmed for the centenary of his birth. I was at Villa Sordi for two days, my records appear in the film, above the piano and the stage costumes.”

Is it true that you have unreleased recordings by Vittorio Gassman?

“Yes, both musical and vocal, I gave some to my son Alessandro. But I also have many other pieces, perhaps less famous but invaluable for collectors.”

The future of the encyclopedia?

“I was contacted by various record companies for the purchase, but I didn't want to give it up, now I'm organizing it for private distribution. This is a precious work, the result of a family history and a passion. It is dedicated to Giuseppe Giacchi and I want to celebrate a somewhat forgotten label, in favor of faster trade, with a story that starts from Foglino.