Enzo Jannacci

Enzo Jannacci, born Vincenzo Jannacci (Milan, 3 June 1935 - Milan, 29 March 2013), was an Italian singer-songwriter, stand-up comedian, pianist, composer, actor, screenwriter and doctor, one of the major protagonists of the Italian post-war music scene .

Head of the Italian cabaret, during his more than fifty-year career he has collaborated with various personalities of Italian music, entertainment, journalism, television and comedy, becoming a multifaceted artist and model for subsequent generations of comedians and songwriters.

Author of nearly thirty albums, some of which represent important chapters of the Italian discography, of various soundtracks and songs for other artists (the most famous, Cochi & Renato), Enzo Jannacci, after a period of shadow in the second half of the nineties , has returned to be talked about by obtaining various career awards and recognition for his latest record works.

He is remembered as one of the pioneers of Italian rock and roll, together with Adriano Celentano, Luigi Tenco, Little Tony and Giorgio Gaber, with whom he formed the Due Corsari. He dies at the age of 77, after a long illness. He is one of the artists with the highest number of awards from the Tenco Club, with four Plaques and a Tenco Award.

Biography

Origins and family

The paternal branch of the family is of Apulian origin: grandfather Vincenzo was of ancient Macedonian origins and the grandmother was originally from Bisceglie; the couple then emigrated to Milan shortly before the outbreak of the First World War. His father Giuseppe had two brothers and a sister: Vincenzo, Giacomo, and Angioletta from whom Pierangela, Domenico, Alfredo, Bruno, Lorenza and Enrica were born. From Domenico in turn was born Tiziano Jannacci, known mainly for having organized some events in honor of his father's cousin.

Giuseppe Jannacci, Enzo's father, was a Marshal of the Italian Air Force and worked at the Forlanini airport, participated in the Resistance and in particular in the defense of the Milanese Air Force headquarters in Piazza Novelli. His father's tales will inspire songs like El purtava i tennis shoes, Six Minutes at Dawn and The Night My Father Left. His mother, Maria Mussi, was from Como.

After having finished his high school studies at the Liceo Scientifico "Leonardo da Vinci" in 1954, he graduated in harmony, composition and conducting at the Milan Conservatory.

Activities as a doctor and cardiac surgeon

Subsequently, in 1967, he graduated in medicine from the University of Milan. His choice was influenced by his father, who wanted him to learn what suffering was and being close to people.

To obtain the specialization in general surgery, he moved to South Africa, joining the team of Christiaan Barnard, the first cardiac surgeon to perform a heart transplant. His training also included studies at Columbia University in New York (where he also dealt with intensive care and thoracic surgery) and later at Queens College.

Alongside his musical activity, Jannacci has always continued to practice as a doctor until retirement, despite the fact that he had already graduated from the Conservatory before graduating in Medicine.

Among his first patients were his friends Teo Teocoli, Massimo Boldi and Renato Pozzetto. Reflecting on his professional experience, Jannacci stated that he had always felt like a doctor before being a musician, that he had been a public health advocate - a position that did not find favor with some of his colleagues, who referred to him as a "communard" for his positions of left - and to have always limited the number of his patients in order to guarantee them an adequate service.

Personal life

On November 23, 1967 he married Giuliana Orefice, who on September 5, 1972 gave birth to their only son Paolo, who had become a musician and conductor.

On January 1, 2003, Jannacci's first day of retirement, his friend Giorgio Gaber dies. At the funeral two days later (in the Abbey of Chiaravalle), Enzo participates, managing only to say "I have lost a brother".

Career

The beginnings and the partnership with Giorgio Gaber

His career as a musician began in the 1950s. After graduating in harmony, composition and conducting and eight years of piano at the Milan Conservatory with maestro Gian Luigi Centemeri, he began - at the age of twenty - to attend cabaret environments, immediately showing his skills as an entertainer and presenter.

In the meantime, he approaches jazz and starts playing in some Milanese clubs, but at the same time he also discovers rock and roll, a new genre that was achieving great success in the United States of America with artists such as Chuck Berry, Bill Haley and Elvis Presley .

In 1956 he becomes keyboardist of the Rocky Mountains, under whose voice is Tony Dallara, who repeatedly perform at the Taverna Mexico, the Aretusa and the Santa Tecla club, obtaining great success; however, at the end of that year Jannacci left the group and, thanks to his friend Pino Sacchetti, met Adriano Celentano. Celentano offers him to enter as a keyboard player in his complex, the Rock Boys, with whom he performs in the aforementioned clubs and in particular at Santa Tecla.

On May 17, 1957 the band plays at the first "Italian Rock and Roll Festival", held in the Palazzo del Ghiaccio in Milan, which constitutes a turning point within the Italian music scene. The performance of the group sends the audience into a frenzy, and allows Celentano to acquire a wide reputation and, above all, gets him a contract with the Music record company.

At the end of 1958 Jannacci, while continuing to play with the Rock Boys, forms a duo with Gaber, known as "I Due Corsari", who made his debut in 1959 with some singles recorded for Dischi Ricordi.

The fortunate experience continues also in the following year with two other 45 rpm and with two flexy-discs, entitled Come facette mammeta (a classic of the Neapolitan humorous song) and Non occupatemi il Telefono, released in conjunction with the magazine "Il musichiere".

In that period, the Milanese musical environment became fervent thanks to rock singers such as Clem Sacco, Guidone, Ricky Gianco and Adriano Celentano, with whom Jannacci continues to collaborate as a pianist in some recordings for the Jolly.

An equally important evolution in Italian popular music is also recorded in other centers such as, for example, Genoa where the singer-songwriters Umberto Bindi, Bruno Lauzi, Luigi Tenco and Gino Paoli, close to Dischi Ricordi, are established: with the latter Jannacci collaborates in various projects.

The beginning of the solo career and the theatrical experience

As a jazz player he plays with musicians of the thickness of Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker and Franco Cerri, with whom he records numerous records, while it is from Bud Powell that he learns to work on the keyboard mainly with the left hand.

After the first single recorded with Gaber, he made his debut as a soloist with songs such as The umbrella of my brother and The dog with the hair: these are songs in which the Milanese singer-songwriter already suggests a close relationship between music and surreal comedy, a bond that will characterize a large part of his artistic production.

This trend, almost a precursor of the demented (which he himself defines "schizo", short for schizoid), is immediately flanked by more romantic and introspective pieces, such as Level Passage, a delicate love song that Luigi Tenco reincides, enhancing Jannacci also as an author and published by the Round Table together with Il giramondo in 1961.

Meanwhile, the fortunate experience of the Two Corsairs continues; all the singles released in the two-year period 1959-1960, including the famous Birra, Slice of lemon and Tintarella di luna, were collected about ten years later in the Giorgio Gaber and Enzo Jannacci album, published by the Family, a sub-label of Ricordi.

In the meantime the Rock Boys broke up, and from their ashes (with some lineup changes) I Ribelli were born: Jannacci continues to play with them, and participates in the first two singles of the group (Enrico VIII and Alle nove al bar, both from 1961); he then leaves the ensemble to devote himself above all to his solo career.

In February 1961 Giorgio Gaber participates in the Sanremo Festival with a song written by Jannacci, Benzina e cerini, which however does not have great luck, being excluded from the final.

Subsequently he writes A special nano and The artist, in which Enzo talks about poor, pathetic and marginalized individuals, a theme that will be very dear to him and that he will face repeatedly throughout his career as a songwriter.

On 1 December Ricordi publishes Enzo's single Il cane con il Capelli / Gheru gheru, distributed - in a bizarre as well as forerunner marketing operation - combined with a large plush dog complete with hair.

At the beginning of 1962, the theater director Filippo Crivelli wrote him for the show Milanin Milanon, in which he sang and acted together with Tino Carraro, Milly, Sandra Mantovani and Anna Nogara, and for which he composed one of his first songs in the Milanese dialect , He went to Rogoredo. Shortly after, with the help of the animator Bruno Bozzetto, he signs a nice sketch for television, Pildo and Poldo, which will appear in the Carosello broadcast until 1964.

The debut on small and big screen and the first albums

In 1963 he followed his friend Sergio Endrigo's tour as a pianist, and in the same year he began performing at the Derby, a Milanese cabaret club, where he first met Dario Fo, and then Cochi and Renato: in both cases, spontaneous friendships were born that lead to the beginning of interesting collaborations, especially in the musical field.

Shortly after he participates as an extra in La vita agra, a film signed by Carlo Lizzani; he sings Ti te se 'no in a club when the protagonist, played by Ugo Tognazzi, enters it. Another small part will be reserved for him in 1967, when he will play for Giorgio Bianchi in the film When I say that I love you.

In December 1964, his debut album, La Milano by Enzo Jannacci was released, made up entirely of pieces sung in dialect and containing one of his masterpieces, El porta i scarp del tennis, a moving tale of the sloppy and modest life of a Milanese homeless man. ; Jannacci sings it at the end of the year in Mike Bongiorno's program The fair of dreams: it is his television debut.

Two singles date back to the same period: Veronica, with text written by Fo and Sandro Ciotti (story of a mercenary love consumed in the cinema) and Sfiorisci bel fiore, (on deaths in the mine) reinterpreted after many years by Mina, Gigliola Cinquetti, Pierangelo Bertoli and Francesco De Gregori.

The following year Jannacci returns to the theater with the show 22 songs, co-written with Dario Fo, where he takes advantage of the opportunity to propose many new songs, then inserted in a live record: Enzo Jannacci in the theater, published by Jolly nel 1965.

The method of composition of the album is decidedly innovative, being in fact the first Italian live album ever: the pieces on the disc are therefore those sung during one of the replicas of the theatrical representation, recorded and then reproposed in LP format. Jannacci also inserts two more passages, which had previously been interpreted by Fo: Aveva un taxi nero (from the show I sani da legare, from 1954) and Il furuncolo (which the playwright from Varese himself had presented at Canzonissima in 1962).

Among the songs played during the show, which is a great success and for this reason is repeated numerous times (always at the Odeon Theater in Milan), the most curious is La mia morosa la alla Fonte, based on a melody by XV century that the very young Fabrizio De André will later use as a melodic accompaniment for one of his most famous songs, Via del Campo.

In doing this, the Genoese singer-songwriter knew that the ballad had been modified by Jannacci, and for this reason he became aware of the plagiarism: however, after a few years the two became clear, so that De André gladly returned the musical authorship to Jannacci. of the song.

1966 is the year of Six Minutes at Dawn, in which the title track deals with the theme of the Resistance, one of the Milanese musician's most cherished topics due to his father's past in the partisan corps during the Second World War; the song, dedicated to the parent and to all those who shared this difficult experience, speaks of the short time that separates the partisan, captured by his enemies, from his shooting, which will take place right at sunrise.

Soldato Nencini, on the other hand, tells of the integration difficulties of a soldier, coming from southern Italy, in a barracks in the North and precisely in Alessandria, where the letter of his beloved Mariù is added to the problems of acclimatization with his fellow soldiers, announcing the desire to separate, thanks to the inability to bear the terrible distance from the lover; on the album there is also Faceva il Palo, an amusing piece in Milanese dialect written with Walter Valdi.

He then creates "Papalla", another skit for the Carosello commercials that will last five years.

The catchphrase I'm coming too ... and the success soon faded

Enzo Jannacci returns to the fore two years later with a new album, made with the usual collaboration of Fo and together with Fiorenzo Fiorentini: I come too. No, tu no, driven by the single of the same name, quickly became a sales champion and jumped to the top of the Italian charts, and the song even reached the top of Lelio Luttazzi's hit parade.

The singer-songwriter suddenly gained a large following, which earned him participation in several TV shows, such as Those of Sunday, which began on February 4, in the company of some friends connected to the environment of the Derby (Cochi and Renato, Bruno Lauzi, Lino Toffolo and Felice Andreasi in the first place).

Jannacci does not pay the price of being a "rookie" in front of the cameras, demonstrating that he knows how to tread in the best way the television stages like those of the theater, usually more suited to him.

Critical appreciation also comes with I saw a re, a song sung together with Fo and an accompanying chorus: the piece appears ironic and nonsense at first listening but, in reality, it is infused with political metaphors.

Not surprisingly, it becomes one of the symbolic songs of '68, loved precisely for its apparent innocence that hides a biting social satire. This characteristic can also be seen in the most famous song on the album, the aforementioned Vengo too.

No, you no, whose exploit is certainly due to the apparent simplicity and catchiness of the text and in particular of the refrain: in reality, the definition of "ditty" that is usually attributed to it is very reductive. In fact, as pointed out by the music critic Gianfranco Manfredi, the one who utters the recurring question "Am I coming too?" and who is rejected by the others with an eloquent and significant "No, tu no", symbolizes the typical character who, according to the collective imagination, tries at all costs not to feel excluded from the group of friends to which he refers, asking to be there - whatever the project and the intention of the mass - like all the others. But other people reject him just for the sake of seeing someone in the role of the outcast, the one "who must be laughed at but who must not laugh".

Furthermore, Manfredi himself, reporting the complete and original text of the song, revealed the existence of two stanzas which, for reasons related to censorship, have been removed from the song; their text refers to the tragedy of the Italian miners in Belgium (Marcinelle Disaster) and to the bloody dictatorship of the Congolese general Mobutu, whose brutality in matters of human rights was shaking the conscience of the West at that time.

In 1968 he took part in the twelfth edition of Canzonissima, where he reached the final. He would like to present I saw a king in the direct confrontation against Gianni Morandi, but the Rai commission opposes it, considering it excessively imbued with political significance and a polemical tone.

He then falls back on Gli zingari, a poignant and delicate piece, very different from the lightness and goliardic tone of his most recent hits and, in fact, does not get the appreciation of the public.

This disappointment, which goes beyond the lack of victory at the event, is so burning as to induce Jannacci to move for four years (alternately), first to South Africa and then to the United States, in order to resume his medical studies, in particular of surgery and cardiology, which he had temporarily abandoned after graduating and starting his career in the entertainment world. In the African state he collaborates with the cardiologist Christiaan Barnard, thanks to whom he considerably deepens his knowledge in the medical field.

Fame wanes, not so much creativity

In the period of medical specialization, the notoriety of the character Jannacci undergoes a noticeable decline. However, the Milanese singer-songwriter does not completely abandon his passions: he continues to write new songs.

After the publication of a sort of collection, however including some unreleased pieces, entitled The songs of Enzo Jannacci, between 1970 and 1972 two other brand new LPs are released: La mia gente and Jannacci Enzo in which Mexico stand out among the songs. and clouds, written by Giorgio Conte, and Boy Father, a manifesto of the indifference and disinterest of the State and the Church towards those who do not follow the ethics given by public and religious authorities.

In the same period, to try to relaunch himself, Jannacci realizes a program with his friend and writer Luciano Bianciardi (whom he had met in the mid-sixties when he sang a lot in Milanese). The title of the program is "Ohé sunt chì", like the song written with Dario Fo that opened the historic Recital "22 Canzoni" from 1965.

Also in 1972 Giorgio Gaber and Enzo Jannacci came out, a record that contains all the successes signed by the "Due corsari" between 1959 and 1960. On June 20, 1970 he took part with Mina in the first episode of the third series of the show Senza Rete, where he sings Mexico and clouds, My people, a medley of L'Armando / He made the pole / El was wearing tennis shoes [14] / I'm coming too. No, not you, concluding the exhibition by interpreting the closing theme with Nicola Arigliano and the "Tigre di Cremona" Hello, I have to go. Two years later he is a guest of Cochi and Renato in the sixth episode of their TV show The Good and the Bad: with them he sings El carrete.

In periods of break from work, he then returns to Milan, where he dedicates a lot of time to the realization, with the journalist Beppe Viola, of a theatrical show, La Tapparella and a book, L'incompiuter, published by Bompiani in a series directed by Umberto Eco.

In 1970 he is the protagonist of an episode (The refrigerator) of Mario Monicelli's film The couples, in which he plays the role of Gavino Puddu, a poor chestnut seller of Sardinian origin who, in agreement with his wife (Monica Vitti), he buys a refrigerator in installments that he will lose by not being able to pay off his debts; in the end, he will gladly support his wife's decision to prostitute herself in order to get by.

The following year he is the protagonist of The Audience of Marco Ferreri, where he plays the part of a modest and bewildered official on leave, Amedeo, who wants to meet the Pope at all costs, fails to do so due to the slowness of the Vatican bureaucracy and for various vicissitudes, and eventually dies under the colonnade of San Pietro.

Having returned permanently to his homeland, in a few months he wrote two theatrical plays which he almost immediately brought to television: Il poeta e il peasant (1973) and Saltimbanchi si muore (1979), which he also directed.

The first of the two shows, thanks to the commitment of Cochi Ponzoni and Renato Pozzetto, also has a television transposition: Enzo participates in it only once, interpreting Il panettiere, Canzone intelligent and La mia zia with Felice Andreasi and Teo Teocoli.

From 1974 he began successfully composing soundtracks for cinema: the first in chronological order accompanies Mario Monicelli's popular novel, director who, as mentioned, had already chosen the role of Gavino Puddu in The couples in 1970. In 1975, it was the turn of Pasqualino Settebellezze, signed by Lina Wertmuller. From 1975 to 1988 Jannacci will take care of the musical accompaniment of four other films: L'Italia s'è broken, directed by Steno, 1976; Sturmtruppen, by Salvatore Samperi; Great boiled meat, Mauro Bolognini, in 1977; Saxofone, by Renato Pozzetto, 1978; Little misunderstandings, by Ricky Tognazzi, 1988.

In 1974, together with Cochi and Renato, he created the theme song for Canzonissima, better known with the title E la vita, la vita, as well as other comic-demented songs (La gallina, Silvano, Il bonzo, L'uselin della comare and others yet).

Four records and no concert

In the second half of the seventies, Jannacci devoted himself above all to his profession as a doctor, but did not abandon music; in fact he releases four unreleased albums in just five years.

His music remains somewhat hidden, but Jannacci doesn't seem to care too much about it; In fact, his appearances on television are becoming more and more sparse, and the same trend is also recorded with regard to tours for Italy, which he will not organize before 1979, in conjunction with the release of Saltimbanchi si muore. Meanwhile, in 1974 he took part in Un disco per estate with Brutta gente.

In January 1975 Jannacci ended up with Tullio De Piscopo and Bruno De Filippi in the Regson studios in Milan; in two months he recorded his seventh studio album, Quelli che ..., the first released under the Ultima Spiaggia label. Contains the single of the same name, very ironic in the lyrics, Vincenzina e la factory, a portrait of a poor girl intent on facing, with regret and for the first time, industrial reality, El me indiriss, where the author tells about his childhood, The monument, an invective against the war and Nine in the evening, a nice translation of a piece by Chico Buarque.

Do not miss the precious collaboration of Beppe Viola, who lends the voice of him in Doctor ..., one of the many spoken interludes that appear in the disc.

O vive o ridere was released in June 1976: the funny cover of Vivere, written in the fascist era by maestro Cesare Andrea Bixio and Rido are the only singles on the album to appear in the 45 rpm format.

In 1977, on the other hand, According to you ... What taste is there ?, whose song of the same name was chosen by Pippo Baudo as the theme song for his Sunday program; he records The Construction, a version of another song by De Hollanda, Saxophone and Jannacci surrender !, an exhilarating monologue with lyrics and music by Jannacci himself.

The orchestra that accompanies him on this record is that of Pippo Caruso, a great friend of Baudo's musical director, whose decision to entrust the composition of the music for his transmission to Jannacci was probably recommended by the master himself. In the same year, Mina reinterprets ten songs by Jannacci and has them published in the Mina quasi Jannacci collection, where the Milanese singer-songwriter duets with her in the piece E l'era Late.

In 1978 he recorded the Saxofone soundtrack, by and with Renato Pozzetto, with whom he also edited a large part of the screenplay. Then following the rampant fashion of the music video to accompany the songs, he chooses to renew his image: he shoots the video of Quelli che ..., skating along via Dante and through the center of Milan and several videos at the Derby Club with Massimo Boldi, Giorgio Faletti, Diego Abatantuono and others.

The resumption of the direct relationship with the public

The musical career of Enzo Jannacci, after a long period of semi-obscurity, resumed successfully from 1979. Both for the new record release and for his decision to return to live music, what was previously a constant, for the frank contact and sincere that Jannacci had always had with the spectators of the Derby and the theaters, but which had been lost in recent years.

Meanwhile, Paolo Conte becomes a point of reference for Jannacci both in recording studios and in private life; the two created South America together but above all Bartali, a tribute to cycling and to the man who most embodied the spirit of competition and self-denial typical of this sport.

Conte invites him to participate in one of his evenings, which are held at the "Pier Lombardo" theater in Milan: Jannacci accepts and thus breaks the long period of fasting from the stage. A short time later he shoots Bartali's video, where his wife Giuliana Orefice, usually reluctant to appear in public with her husband, makes her appearance together with Massimo Boldi.

It is the beginning of a professionally rich period of satisfaction; before he returns to television, then he gives Riccardo Rinetti, journalist of the highly popular Ciao 2001 magazine, a long interview in which he describes the background of his great friendship with Dario Fo.

At the beginning of 1980, the Lato Side publishing house published the volume Canzoni di Enzo Jannacci, a volume of texts with cover by Emanuele Luzzati and a powerful initial essay by the writer, screenwriter and songwriter Gianfranco Manfredi, who reports on his first twenty-five years as a musician.

In 1980 Jannacci thus regains a prominent place in Italian music; the change of label - he goes back to his origins working again for Ricordi - is a sign that Jannacci arouses the interest of the masses again: a fact confirmed by the jump in the audience when public television broadcasts a special about him, hosted by Fo . Subsequently, she is in concert with his band in Switzerland, where state television records his show, broadcast on a delayed basis and then released in VHS format.

On the wave of success, in just over a year he wrote Ci takes ear, which, driven by the great favor met by the title track, became Jannacci's best-selling record since I come too. No, you don't.

The month of December sees the publication of New Recordings, which collects some of his hits (such as L'Armando, El wore tennis shoes and The moon and the light bulb). He takes care of the arrangements of Milva's new album, which pays homage to him by interpreting Per un basin, Soldato Nencini, Non finerà mai and other songs that denote a notable change in the vocal timbre; the melodious but strong and decisive singing of the "Rossa" is light years away from the almost croaking tone of Jannacci's voice, which will only later be abandoned to make room for a more harmonious and musical mode of singing (his son Paolo will play a substantial role in this phase).

On February 14, 1981, a triumphal tour of Italy begins for Jannacci. In touring the peninsula, the singer-songwriter brings with him a 5000-seat tent, set up in the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium in San Siro by ARCI and the orchestra with which he recorded the last five discs, numerically composed of eight elements, including Sergio Farina on guitar, the only one of the ensemble at the time to be part of the group of musicians who accompanied Jannacci's singing performances until the last.

Also in the same month, public television broadcasts another special dedicated to the figure of Enzo Jannacci, where the singer-songwriter tells the stages of the making of the last studio album and recalls the carefree years of the collaboration with Giorgio Gaber, declaring with sincerity :

"... We were terrible, out of tune ... We wanted to do a duo like Everly Brothers but we were denied, a disaster, with the result that we did sketches rather than songs."

Jannacci protagonist on television and in the theater

Three concerts broadcast by Rai

After the publication of the album "And then concert", in which Beppe Viola also collaborates, at the end of 1981, the Enzo Jannacci concert in Verona was broadcast by Rai, which reserves the right to censor the most questionable parts (for example, when the singer-songwriter states that "La televisiun, la t'endormenta cume un cuiun") amplifying the noise produced by the applause of the crowd watching the show.

Two months later, he plays a small part in Ettore Scola's The New World, with Marcello Mastroianni. He then composes the theme song for the program The Straight, slightly modifying the single of the same name that Jannacci had launched with Ci takes ear the year before. Public television broadcasts two other concerts by Jannacci, of which the first, probably recorded in Milan, in two episodes.

On 17 October 1982, his friend Beppe Viola died; the disappearance of the journalist, who had left his mark in the pivotal songs of the repertoire of the "medical singer-songwriter" (Laugh, In your opinion ... What's the taste ?, Saxophone, Vincenzina and the factory), strikes him to the point that let him take a pause for reflection, considerably prolonging the work on the new album, Discogreve: the disc, released in 1983, will however be a failure.

The following year is particularly full of commitments. He collaborates with Lina Wertmuller playing the role of escaped terrorist Gigi Pedrinelli in his new film, Joke of Destiny lurking around the corner like a street brigand; accepts the proposal of Matia Bazar, offering his voice in some clips of their new single Elettrochoc and re-recorded with Giorgio Gaber four old songs, included in the mini album Ja-Ga Brothers, released by CGD on 21 July.

The conduct of Gran simpatico and the new recitals

In October and November, TV appointments multiply in the company of Jannacci. Together with Maria Teresa Ruta and Josy Nowack, he leads the first episode of the Gran simpatico variety on Rai 2; guests include Massimo Boldi, Teo Teocoli, Paolo Conte, Dario Fo, Alberto Fortis, Diego Abatantuono, Maurizio Micheli, Vasco Rossi (duet with him in Vita spericolata) and Giorgio Gaber, a regular guest with whom he plays, one for each evening (plus the unreleased There's Only the Road), all the tracks from the very short compilation recently released. Also, during the first episode, she plays all of his hits, plus two pieces from his latest solo album.

In 1984 he wrote the anthem of Milan, of which he declares himself a diehard fan; in the month of October Antenna 3, the Lombard television broadcaster, during the Effetto concerto program broadcasts a show by Jannacci, where Mario sings, written in the late seventies by Pino Donaggio.

1985 begins with the release of a new album, L'Importante, made up of apparently simple and goliardic songs (like the song that gives the album its title), but which actually strongly reflect the distance that Jannacci feels towards the new musical trends of the eighties.

There is also a profound criticism of the Italian society of the 1980s: "Son s'cioppàa", with its references to clothing and the way of dressing, of those years, is addressed to the young people of those years (the so-called " Yuppies "). He then brings a new show to the theater, the recital No questions, after which he takes a prolonged break, which lasts until most of 1986, when the recordings of another album begin. Jannacci plays a concert live in Lugano which five years later will be released in VHS format, and later on CD and DVD.

On March 17 '87 the new album Parlare con i limoni lands in record shops; the single of the same name contains a learned and touching quote about Luigi Tenco, whom Jannacci knew personally and whose song Il tempo dei limoni remembers, stating that («My friend Tenco didn't even show him lemons»).

Meanwhile, he kicks off the new tour to promote the latest album; in one of the shows, he arouses the hilarity of the audience by dialoguing with the image of him projected on the big screen:

"You don't understand the words when you speak ... Look at Gaber, he understands himself!"

The interview granted on the Naviglio in November 1989 will be broadcast in accompaniment to the seven episodes of The important is to exaggerate, dedicated to Jannacci's thirty-year career, from the beginnings to the most recent appearances. The same thing happens on December 18, when the RAI troupe goes directly to his house to record Jannacci's impressions on the evolution of Italian music throughout the post-war period.

At the end of the month he starts with his last traveling show, entitled Tempo di pace ... Pazienza!.

From 1989 to 2011

In 1989 he participated for the first time at the Sanremo Festival, without too much success, with Se me lo dicevi prima, focused on the fight against drugs, as well as the XIV Tenco Award.

Also in 1989 he recorded, during a successful tour, a double live album that contains most of her successes and is called Thirty Years Without Going Out of Time.

In 1991 she returned to the Sanremo Festival with the song La fotografia paired with Ute Lemper, and received the Critics' Award; at the same time he realizes his latest microgroove, with arrangements by Celso Valli, entitled Guarda la fotografia: it is an important album, one of the best of his discography, which contains notable songs such as Il gruista, I dispiaceri, La strana famiglia (sung with Gaber) , The alphabet dies, Photography.

In 1994 he presented himself for the third time at the Sanremo Festival paired with Paolo Rossi with the song I soliti agreements, unusually irreverent for the event, which is also the title of the respective CD, arranged by Giorgio Cocilovo and Paolo Jannacci. In 1996 he took part in the XXI Tenco Award.

In 1998 he participated for the fourth time at the Sanremo Festival with When a musician laughs, which again won the Critics' award for the best text, and from which a collection of the same name was born with three unpublished songs (one of which, Already la luna è in mezzo al mare, is created together with the now Nobel Prize for Literature Dario Fo).

Subsequently, Jannacci returns to his old passion for jazz (in 1999 he presented the extraordinary evening Viva il jazz, broadcast by Rai 1 at the Teatro Smeraldo in Milan). In 2000 he received the Ciampi Lifetime Achievement Award.

In 2001, after seven years of absence due also to the difficulty of finding a record company, thanks to the Ala Bianca label, he presents a new CD, dedicated to his father, Come gli aeroplani, made in collaboration with his son Paolo, composed largely of songs unpublished (Come gli aeroplani, Cesare, Sono shy, Varenne, Luna rossa ...) plus an Italian version of The windmills of your mind by Michel Legrand.

In 2002 he won, with Letter from afar, the Targa for the best song of the year at the XXVII Tenco Prize. In 2003 he released the CD Man in Half (Man in Half, The Second Lieutenant, Maria, Gino ...), whose homonymous song wins again the Targa Tenco for best song.

The Best 2006 collection is his latest double cd, containing the 35 most significant songs of the Milanese singer-songwriter's forty-year career, rearranged and produced by his son Paolo: more than two and a half hours of music, with 3 unreleased tracks (Rien ne va plus , Mamma che luna che c'e tonera and Il thief of umbrellas) and an Italian version of Dona che te durmivet (contained in "Six minutes at dawn"), which becomes Donna che dormivi; there is also a new version of Bartali in duet with Paolo Conte.

As an author for others and arranger, he contributed among other things to the albums La Rossa (1980) by Milva and Mina quasi Jannacci (1977) by Mina, as well as to several records by Cochi and Renato.

In 2011 the Ala Bianca record label released, for the first time in a format other than vinyl, Souvenir photos, O Vivere O Ridere, Quelli Che ... e According to you ... What taste is there? and a box containing the four albums, which had been released in the 70s by the small label "Ultima Spiaggia".

Theater

He made his first shows in cabaret theaters in 1955, making himself appreciated for his comic talent. In 1962 the director Filippo Crivelli wrote it for the show Milanin Milanon, which was staged at the Teatro Gerolamo, with Tino Carraro and Milly: thus began his parallel career as a theater actor and then also in cinema.

At the Milan Derby he was also noticed by Dario Fo, who in 1964 made with him the historic recital 22 songs, which was a great success: the Odeon Theater in Milan recorded almost a full month.

An absolute rarity as a theatrical actor Jannacci played it with Franca Valeri and Francesca Siciliani in 1970, in the one-act "The so-called fiancée". It was broadcast on TV on November 20, 1970 and is part of a series of one-acts by Valeri entitled "Le donne balorde". It was revived on TV in 1976 and was commissioned by Rai in 1975 by Raffaele La Capria who was then an official. The text of "The so-called fiancée" is present in the book "Tragedie da ridere" by Franca Valeri, published by "La Tartaruga" in 2003.

He then interprets numerous other works such as The poet and the farmer (1973), Saltimbanchi si muore (1979), The upholstery, written jointly with Beppe Viola, with whom he also writes L'incomputer published by Bompiani in a series directed by Umberto Eco (1974).

In 1985 he brought the recital No questions to the theater; in 1986 the theatrical show "Talking with lemons"; in 1988-89 another recital, Tempo di pace ... patienza !.

In 1991, at the Carcano theater in Milan and at the Goldoni theater in Venice, he played (in a very personal way) in the company of Giorgio Gaber, Felice Andreasi and Paolo Rossi a classic of the theater of the absurd, Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett.

In 1998 he presented the show It was all useless in the theater (where he re-proposes songs such as Pesciolin and Brutta gente, absent from live performances for some time). In 2003, at the opening of the concerts of the tour taken from the album "L'man in mezzo", he made a long and affectionate monologue on his friend Giorgio Gaber.

In 2004, at the Teatro dei Filodrammatici in Milan, he directed the story of the magician, a pastiche of his texts, interpreted by his four loyal students: Osvaldo Ardenghi, Andrea Bove, Egidia Bruno and Enzo Limardi.

Also in 2004, he signed the direction and music of La Mascula for Egidia Bruno, based on the story of the same name by Bruno, winner of the Massimo Troisi 2002 Award.

The cinema

He made his debut in the cinema in 1964 with the film La vita agra by Carlo Lizzani: he sings "Ti te se no" in a room where the protagonist enters, played by Ugo Tognazzi.

At the cinema he is then the protagonist of an episode (The refrigerator) directed by Monicelli for the film The couples (1970), and of L'udienza by Marco Ferreri (1971). He also starred in Ettore Scola's Il mondo nuovo (1982), Lina Wertmüller's Joke of Destiny lurking around the corner as a street brigand, alongside Ugo Tognazzi (1983) and Giovanni Robbiano's Figurine (1997). In 2010 he is one of the interpreters of The beauty of the ass, directed by Sergio Castellitto, a film in which he plays the role of the elderly boyfriend of the protagonists' teenage daughter.

He has also composed numerous soundtracks, such as those of Monicelli's Romanzo Popolare (1974), of which together with Beppe Viola he also translated the dialogues of Age and Scarpelli into a very happy Milanese slang and to which he gave one of the most poetic and intense songs written by him, Vincenzina and the factory); Pasqualino Settebellezze (1975), by Lina Wertmüller; Sturmtruppen (1976); Great boiled meat by Mauro Bolognini (1977); Saxophone by and with Renato Pozzetto (1979), Matlosa by Villi Hermann (1981) and Piccoli equivoci by Ricky Tognazzi (1989).

The television

In the same year (1963) he began his collaboration with the animator Bruno Bozzetto, who included his sketch Unca Dunca in the successful show Carosello, broadcast on television until 1970.

The following year the director Filippo Crivelli wrote it for the show Milanin Milanon, with Tino Carraro and Milly, thus starting his parallel career as a theater actor and then also in cinema. For the show Jannacci composes a new song, Andava a Rogoredo, recorded on disc two years later, while the recording of the show will only be printed in 1972.

On television, after a problematic start (he rejected his first audition, in 1961), some commercials of Carosello and participation in the show Quelli della Domenica, with Cochi and Renato, Lino Toffolo, Felice Andreasi, Bruno Lauzi and other comedians of the Derby ( 1968), was launched by the reduction of the theatrical performances The poet and the farmer (1973) and in 1974 he was the author of the theme song for Canzonissima E la vita, la vita, sung by Cochi and Renato; in 1977 he is the author and interpreter of the theme song for Secondo tu ?, According to you… what taste is there.

In 1980 he made Saltimbanchi si muore, a comic variety with Boldi, Abatantuono, Teocoli, Porcaro, Thole, Di Francesco, Giorgio Faletti, Guido Nicheli, Gianrico Tedeschi of which he was the author and director. Later he made the shows Jannacci Special (1980), It takes ear (1981), Gransimpatico (1983), In 1988 he participated in "Forced transmission" on Rai 3, which marks the television return of Dario Fo and Franca Rame. In 1989 he was in the cast of D.O.C.

In 1991 Rai 3 broadcast The important is exaggerate, a series of eight episodes dedicated to his career. In 1995 he teamed up with Piero Chiambretti in Il Laureato bis. He is the author of the initials for Quelli che il calcio ... in the editions conducted by Fabio Fazio, derived from the historical Quelli che ..., originally written with Beppe Viola. In 1997 he made the broadcast M.B.U. * Quelli di Jannacci (the final indication explains: * = Milano Bolgia Umana), which airs at two in the morning on Rai 1 for nine episodes. The cost of the transmission is very low: «In total 80 million. Why? Simple, we do not steal », comments Jannacci.

In 2000 he composed the theme song for the TV series Nebbia in Valpadana, which sees the return of the couple Cochi and Renato, who in 2007 called him as a regular guest of their television program We are working for us. In 2006, on the occasion of the eighty years of the Nobel Prize, Fabbri Editori reissues on DVD all Il Teatro by Dario Fo and Franca Rame, including 2 DVDs of the Trasmissione Forzata program.

In 2010 and 2011 he appears several times in the popular TV show Zelig, of Canale 5, as a singer and stand-up comedian; Enzo's son, Paolo Jannacci, holds the position of master of the orchestra of the same show in 2011.

On 19 December 2011 Fabio Fazio conducts a special on Enzo Jannacci in which long-time friends of the Milanese musician, present in the studio with his son Paolo, pay homage to him by interpreting songs by him; among them Dario Fo, Ornella Vanoni, Fabio Fazio, Cochi and Renato, Paolo Rossi, Teo Teocoli, Roberto Vecchioni, Massimo Boldi, Antonio Albanese, J-Ax, Ale and Franz, Irene Grandi and others. Enzo Jannacci appears in the last part of the event singing two of his songs, including the famous Quelli che ... revisited and updated for the occasion.

The passion for karate

Passionate about martial arts, Jannacci has dedicated many years to the practice of karate (even before that he was interested in judo), under the guidance of the Japanese master Hiroshi Shirai (tenth dan), specializing in the Shotokan style and in the practice of kumite (training with opponent ), and eventually reaching the rank of black belt (third dan). Having become a teacher himself, he also made a videotape in which he and the teacher Enzo Montanari (sixth dan and former world vice-champion) expose the rudiments of martial art.

The end times and death

In this period he begins to span concerts and public appearances due to age and health problems and reveals his new interest in religious issues and Christian spirituality, even though he sometimes defines himself as a "very imprudent secular atheist" and sometimes a "believer".

Enzo Jannacci died in Milan on March 29, 2013, just under 3 months before he turned 78, due to a tumor he had been suffering from for some years; he was admitted to the Columbus clinic.

Great condolences expressed by personalities from the world of entertainment and sport, of which he was a well-known fan and in particular of football (he was a great fan of Milan). The funeral home was set up on March 31st and April 1st in the foyer of the Dal Verme Theater. The funeral was celebrated on April 2 in the Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio and the singer-songwriter was buried in the Crypt of the Famedio in the Monumental Cemetery.

External link

Enzo Jannacci on Wikipedia

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