The only American artist Ennio Morricone called a genius: “I couldn’t decide on one favorite album of his”

 FAR OUT

By Reuben Cross

September 23, 2026

While his compositions and scores are celebrated around the world, there was always a fiercely patriotic side to Ennio Morricone, a proud Italian who rejected the notion that the arts ought to revolve around America.

He famously refused to ever move to Hollywood despite being offered plenty of work in the film industry, preferring to compose scores for films by European directors and forming illustrious partnerships with many fellow Italians. In addition to scoring all of the films in the Dollars trilogy, Morricone worked on every single one of Sergio Leone’s films after this point, while also contributing to movies directed by other celebrated filmmakers from his homeland, such as Dario Argento and Tinto Brass.

That doesn’t mean he didn’t occasionally break his rule of working with those from outside of his home country, but he evidently preferred to associate himself with his compatriots. Later in life, he worked with the likes of Brian De Palma (The Untouchables) and Quentin Tarantino (The Hateful Eight, for which Morricone won an Oscar for ‘Best Original Score’) on scores for their films, but he was still selective about those he worked with. If Morricone didn’t feel as though it was a perfect fit for him, then there was little chance of him budging on his position.

That being said, there has always been an undeniable influence from some Western styles in his composition, particularly coming from the American jazz scene, which he was exposed to from early on in his musical career.

A trumpeter first and foremost, Morricone started out in the 1940s playing jazz music, and as the world’s primary proponent of the genre, the American greats ended up having a significant influence on his style, with one composer and bandleader particularly catching his attention.

It would be hard for anyone to ignore Miles Davis, but as a fellow trumpeter whose adventurous and experimental approach to form and genre aligned with Morricone’s own established ethos of mixing classical, contemporary and avant-garde styles in order to create masterful works, he was naturally impressed with everything he heard from the man.

In a 2010 retrospective on Davis’s career, Morricone was asked to name his favorite album from the composer, but rather than give a straightforward answer, he instead offered a level of praise that he hadn’t bestowed upon any other American musician. “I love Miles Davis,” he proclaimed, adding, “I couldn’t decide on one favorite album of his, but he is what I would call a genius.”

Granted, there are so many albums to choose from in his catalogue, with so many different bases covered, so it’s understandable that Morricone was unable to put his finger on a single album from his œuvre.

One could argue that there are significant parallels between records like the cinematic Sketches of Spain and Morricone’s most ambitious scores, but there have also been times when the expansive and exploratory Bitches Brew, which draws from modernist composers like Karlheinz Stockhausen, can be linked to what Morricone offered as a composer.

There is so much that links the two, and there are many obvious reasons as to why there would be a mutual respect for one another’s work. Whether it’s the overt similarities in their muted trumpet playing style or their fiercely individualistic approaches, there was a definite kinship between Davis and Morricone, and while they never found themselves collaborating, for either of them to have shown respect to the other just demonstrates how elevated they were in their respective fields.