Jazz in Italy: A journey across Mussolini's war, the Italian Social Republic and the «Southern Kingdom» (1940-1945)

To analyse the relationship between jazz and Italy during World War II, the discourse must be articulated according to three perspectives: the war under Mussolini - a period that involves the whole of Italian society between 1940 and 1943; the progressive liberation of the Southern front thanks to the Allies; the North governed by the RSI under the German occupation. In each of these areas, the circulation, adoption or rejection - and eventually the mode of reception as well as the political use of jazz - take on specific aspects. Such peculiarities - in a war where even opposing commands are likely to paraphrase Italy's own political culture in different languages capable of stirring scorching feelings and passions, turning everything into a "battlefield" - not only stand for different musical aesthetics, but also for significant differences in propaganda techniques between regime fascism and republican fascism, and also emphasise two different realities between the South and North, within a "divided" Italy looking forward to shape a new ethical citizen.