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Arrigo Polillo (Pavullo nel Frignano, 12th July 1919 - Milan, 17th July 1984) was an Italian journalist, editor, writer and jazz critic, who began his career as a lawyer before turning to journalism and becoming one of the leading experts of music history in Italy.

Early life & Achievements
Arrigo graduated in law in Milan, where he practiced law until he became manager of Mondadori publishing house until 1968. He was editor-in-chief of Musica Jazz magazine since its foundation in 1945 and became its director in 1965, position which he covered until his death in 1984. The yearly award assigned by Musica Jazz magazine to the best Italian jazz record is, still today, named after him (Arrigo Polillo Award).

Organizer of many jazz festivals (including the International Jazz Festival of Sanremo, 1956-1965, the first of its kind in Europe) and hundreds of concerts, he wrote several books on jazz, of which the most popular to date is Jazz — la vicenda e i protagonisti della musica afro-americana ("Jazz — the story and the protagonists of African-American music"), published by Mondadori in 1975. The book has been reprinted numerous times - including a German translation - and still enjoys the title of the most important work of jazz historiography in Italian.

In 1978 he published with Mondadori a book of jazz memoirs, “Stasera Jazz” (“Jazz Tonight”), which was reprinted in 2007 by the publishing house founded by his son, Marco Polillo Editore, in 1995. After his death, his family donated his collection of records, books and magazines to Siena Jazz. His collection became the founding heritage of the National Centre for Jazz Studies "Arrigo Polillo", founded in 1989.

His articles have oftentimes appeared in Il Giorno, Musica Jazz, Epoca, Panorama and other Italian and foreign periodicals. His radio and television activities are also worthy of remark.

Nonfiction Publications
Enciclopedia del Jazz (The Encyclopedia of Jazz), Messaggerie Musicali Editions, 1954 (co-authored with Testoni, G.C.; Barazzetta, G.; Leydi, R.; Maffei, P.)

Il Jazz Moderno — Musica del dopoguerra (Modern Jazz — post-war music), Ricordi, 1958

Il Jazz di Oggi (Today’s Jazz), Ricordi, 1961

Jazz — la vicenda e i protagonisti della musica afro-americana (Jazz — the story and the protagonists of African-American music), Mondadori, 1975; new edition edited by Marco Fayenz, Mondadori, 2000

La storia del jazz (The history of jazz), five audiocassettes, Mondadori, 1976

Le voci del jazz (The voices of jazz), two audiocassettes, Mondadori 1977

Stasera Jazz (Jazz Tonight), Mondadori, 1978; Marco Polillo Editore, 2007

Polillo, Roberto & Polillo, Arrigo,  Swing, Bop & Free — il jazz degli anni 60 (Swing, Bop & Free  — the jazz of the ‘60s), Marco Polillo Editore, 2006

Children Fiction
L’omino che fermava i sogni (The little man who stopped dreams), Signorelli, 1950; Mondadori, 1966

Mentions
Cerchiari, Luca, JAZZ, The Book of the Year 2009, Istituto dell’Enciclopedia Italiana, 2009

Mini, Maurizio & Pellegrini, Andrea, Livorno, Dalla ‘musica americana’ al Jazz - la storia, le storie, Erasmo, 2013, pp.189-207