Natalino Otto

Early years

Natalino Otto was born at Cogoleto, province of Genoa, in northern Italy.

His career as a singer and musician started in the clubs of his native region, Liguria. During the 1930s he worked as an entertainer on board transatlantic liners on the routes between Europe and North America, which gave him the opportunity to get to know American music genres, especially jazz and swing.

In 1935, he was hired by an Italian-American radio station in New York. Back in Italy in 1937, Otto presented an innovative repertoire, strongly influenced by American music of that era. But he had to face Italian Fascist regime censorship, that banned anything foreign. He was forced to translate song titles and lyrics into Italian. The Italian state radio company EIAR did not broadcast his songs, and labelled them as "barbaric negro antimusic".

Banned from the radio, Natalino Otto worked for recording companies instead, together with two great Italian bandleaders, Gorni Kramer and Pippo Barzizza. In a short while he won the audience with his records – one of the few Italian singers of those times, if not the only one, to achieve success without his songs playing on the radio. Italian people danced to his swing tunes, which earned him the nickname "King of Rhythm".