Enzo Jannacci

Vincenzo Jannacci, known as Enzo (Milan, 3 June 1935 – Milan, 29 March 2013), was an Italian singer-songwriter, cabaret performer and actor, one of the leading figures of the post-war Italian music scene.

He was born in Milan on 3 June 1935. His father's side of the family hails from Puglia: his grandfather, Vincenzo, emigrated to Milan from Bari shortly before the outbreak of the First World War. His mother's side is from Lombardy. Enzo's father was an air force officer who worked at Forlanini airport (today better known as Milan Linate), mentioned in "El portava i scarp del tennis"; he would later take part in the Resistance, in particular in the defence of the Air Force headquarters in Piazza Novelli in Milan, an episode that would inspire songs such as "Sei minuti all'alba".

After earning his classics diploma at the Istituto Moreschi, where he put on shows with his fellow student Giorgio Gaberscik (known simply as Gaber), he graduated in medicine from the University of Milan, specialising in general surgery: he would go on to practise as a surgeon for several years.

Since 1967 he had been married to Giuliana Orefice, with whom he had a son, Paolo, in 1972, who also became a musician.

His career as a musician began in the 1950s: after earning a diploma in harmony, composition and orchestral conducting, and eight years of piano study at the Milan Conservatory (under maestro Centemeri), he became drawn to jazz and started playing in a number of Milanese clubs. At the same time, he also discovered rock'n'roll, and from 1956 became the keyboardist of the Rocky Mountains, who performed at the Taverna Mexico, the Aretusa and the Santa Tecla; the singer was Tony Dallara, and when the latter left the group to pursue a solo career, Giorgio Gaber joined as vocalist and guitarist.

The group backed, on many nights, a still-unknown Adriano Celentano, whom Jannacci had met at the Santa Tecla. He formed a particularly close bond with Giorgio Gaber, and the two formed a duo, I due corsari, which debuted at the end of 1958 with two flexy-discs, "Come facette mammata" (a classic of humorous Neapolitan song) and "Non occupatemi il telefono", followed the next year by further singles recorded for Dischi Ricordi.

This was the same period in which the first rock singers emerged on the Milanese music scene, including Celentano himself, Guidone, Ricky Gianco and Ghigo, along with the Genoese singer-songwriters linked to Dischi Ricordi such as Luigi Tenco and Gino Paoli; figures whom Jannacci knew and played alongside.

As a jazz musician he played with artists of the calibre of Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker and Franco Cerri, with whom he recorded numerous records. From Bud Powell he learned to work the keyboard mainly with his left hand. After his first singles recorded with Gaber, he made his debut as a solo artist: already his earliest songs, from "L'ombrello di mio fratello" to "Il cane con i capelli", revealed his humorous approach to songwriting, one that defied every convention of singing and performance, which soon led Jannacci into variety theatre and the first cabaret venues, where he showcased his talents as an entertainer.

Alongside this surreal vein, almost a precursor of the demenziale (nonsense-comedy) genre, came more romantic and introspective songs, such as "Passaggio a livello", a delicate love song that Luigi Tenco would later re-record, also showcasing Jannacci's talent as a songwriter. The two had met when Jannacci was playing in I Cavalieri, the group that backed Tenco's first singles, recorded under the pseudonym Gigi Mai. Also in 1961, Giorgio Gaber took part in the Sanremo festival with a song, "Benzina e cerini", written by Jannacci (who never recorded it himself).

In these early songs one can already find the themes that would recur in his later work: in particular, his attention to the downtrodden and the marginalised ("Un nano speciale", "L'artista").

In 1964, from the show 22 canzoni, staged with Dario Fo, he produced a live album, one of the first of its kind in Italy ("Enzo Jannacci in teatro"), containing songs written specifically for the occasion such as "Prete Liprando" and "Il giudizio di Dio", covers such as "Qualcosa da aspettare" (a song by Fausto Amodei), and tracks already released as singles, such as "Niente", "Veronica", "La forza dell'amore", "L'Armando" and "Sfiorisci bel fiore". Jannacci also included in the show and on the album some songs previously performed by Dario Fo, such as "Aveva un taxi nero" (from the 1954 show "I sani da legare") and "Il foruncolo" (which Fo had presented at Canzonissima in 1962). A curious detail: among the songs performed by Jannacci in the show "22 Canzoni" was one, "La mia morosa la va alla fonte", with words and music by Dario Fo and Enzo Jannacci, based on a 15th-century melody (Jannacci would not record it himself until 1968, on the album "Vengo anch'io. No, tu no"); in the Genoa audience listening to them was a very young Fabrizio De André, who would use that very same melody for one of his most famous songs, "Via del Campo" (the three would patch things up in the 1980s).

He wrote other songs that achieved a certain degree of fame (such as "Soldato Nencini", later also performed by Milva and Bruno Lauzi, and "Faceva il palo", co-written with cabaret performer Walter Valdi), both included on the 1966 record "Sei minuti all'alba", but real success only arrived in 1968, with a catchy hit song, "Vengo anch'io. No tu no", written in collaboration with Dario Fo and Fiorenzo Fiorentini, which topped Lelio Luttazzi's singles chart and would remain forever his best-known song. The album of the same name was also a considerable success, driven by the track "Ho visto un re", which moved from the stage to the streets, becoming one of the anthems of the 1968 protest movement, beloved precisely for its apparent innocence, which concealed a biting social satire.

At the 1969 edition of Canzonissima, Jannacci sang the theme song "Zum zum zum" with the entire cast and made it to the final. He wanted to perform "Ho visto un re" to go head-to-head with Gianni Morandi, but Rai refused. He fell back on "Gli zingari", a poignant, delicate song very different from "Vengo anch'io. No, tu no", which indeed failed to win over the audience. The disappointment was so bitter that Jannacci went off to study medicine in the United States for four years, though he kept releasing successful songs in the meantime, such as "Messico e nuvole" in 1970 (written by Paolo Conte) and "Ragazzo padre" in 1972 (music by Bruno Lauzi).

In the Seventies, his greatest satisfactions came as a songwriter, above all through his collaboration with Cochi e Renato, with whom he wrote dozens of songs, some of which became huge hits ("La gallina", "Canzone intelligente", "E la vita la vita").

In the second half of the Seventies, his work as a doctor took something of a front seat over his career as a singer and performer: for five years, from 1974 to 1979, he didn't play a single concert, while still recording new songs, some hugely successful, like "Vincenzina e la fabbrica" and "Quelli che...", and releasing a masterpiece album, "Fotoricordo", on which his own songs ("Natalia", "Io e te") alternate with tracks by Paolo Conte such as "Bartali" and "Sudamerica" and by Pino Donaggio such as "Mario".

But a guest appearance at one of Paolo Conte's shows was the prelude to a triumphant tour in 1981, when he travelled across Italy with a five-thousand-seat tent and a big band.

In 1983 he released the LP "Discogreve" ("Il maiale", "L'amico", "L'animale", "Zan zan le belle rane...") and the mini-album with Giorgio Gaber "Ja-Ga Brothers", on which he revisited four songs from the "Due corsari" period ("Una fetta di limone", "24 ore", "Tintarella di luna", "Birra").

In 1985 he released the album "L'importante" ("L'importante è esagerare", "Son s'cioppàa", "Il volatore di aquiloni"...).

In 1987 came the album "Parlare con i limoni" ("Parlare con i limoni", "Due gelati", "Poveri cantautori"...) In 1989 he took part for the first time in the Sanremo Festival, without much success, with "Se me lo dicevi prima", a song about the fight against drugs, as well as the 14th Premio Tenco. Also in 1989, during a successful tour, he recorded a double live album featuring most of his hits, titled "Trent'anni senza andare fuori tempo".

In 1991 he returned to the Sanremo Festival with the song "La fotografia", performed alongside Ute Lemper, and won the Critics' Prize; at the same time he made his last vinyl record, arranged by Celso Valli, titled "Guarda la fotografia" ("Il gruista", "I dispiaceri", "La strana famiglia" (sung with Gaber), "L'alfabeto muore", "La fotografia").

In 1994 he appeared for the third time at the Sanremo Festival alongside Paolo Rossi with the song "I soliti accordi", unusually irreverent for the event, which also gave its title to their shared CD, arranged by Giorgio Cocilovo and Paolo Jannacci.

In 1996 he took part in the 21st Premio Tenco.

In 1998 he appeared for the fourth time at the Sanremo Festival with "Quando un musicista ride", which once again won the Critics' Prize for best lyrics, and which spawned an album of the same name featuring three unreleased tracks (one of them, "Già la luna è in mezzo al mare", made together with the now Nobel Prize-winning Dario Fo).

Afterwards, Jannacci returned to his old passion for jazz (in 1999 he presented the special evening "Viva il jazz" at Milan's Teatro Smeraldo, broadcast by Raiuno).

In 2000 he received the Premio Ciampi for lifetime achievement.

In 2001, after a seven-year absence due in part to the difficulty of finding a record label, he released a new CD dedicated to his father, "Come gli aeroplani", made in collaboration with his son Paolo, largely made up of unreleased songs plus an Italian version of Michel Legrand's "The Windmills Of Your Mind".

In 2002 he won the award for best song of the year at the 27th Premio Tenco with "Lettera da lontano".

The CD "L'uomo a metà" dates from 2003, while three years later came the compilation "The Best 2006", his last double CD, containing the 35 most significant songs from 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 4 unreleased tracks ("Rien ne va plus", "Mamma che luna che c'era stasera", "Il ladro di ombrelli" and "Donna che dormivi"), as well as a new version of "Bartali" as a duet with Paolo Conte.

As a songwriter for others and as an arranger, he contributed among other things to the compilations "Milva la rossa" (1980) and "Mina quasi Jannacci" (1977).

He gave his first performances in cabaret theatres in 1955, where his comic talent was soon appreciated. In 1962 director Filippo Crivelli cast him in the show "Milanin Milanon", staged at the Teatro Gerolamo with Tino Carraro and Milly: this marked the start of his parallel career as a stage and later film actor. At the Derby in Milan he had also caught the eye of Dario Fo, who in 1964 created with him the landmark recital 22 canzoni, a huge success that kept Milan's Teatro Odeon sold out for almost a month. He went on to perform in numerous other works such as "Il poeta e il contadino" (1973), "Saltimbanchi si muore" (1979), and "La tappezzeria", co-written with Beppe Viola, with whom he also wrote "L'incomputer", published by Bompiani in a series edited by Umberto Eco (1974).

In 1985 he brought the recital "Niente domande" to the stage; in 1986 the theatrical production "Parlare con i limoni"; in 1988-89 another recital, "Tempo di pace... pazienza!". In 1991, at the Teatro Carcano in Milan, he starred alongside Giorgio Gaber in a classic of the theatre of the absurd, Samuel Beckett's "Aspettando Godot".

In 1998 he staged the show "È stato tutto inutile" (in which he brought back songs like "Pesciolin" and "Brutta gente", long absent from his live performances).

In 2003, opening the concerts of the tour drawn from the album "L'uomo a metà", he delivered a long, affectionate monologue about his friend Giorgio Gaber.

He made his film debut in 1966 with Carlo Lizzani's "La vita agra": he sings "L'ombrello di mio fratello" in a venue entered by the protagonist, played by Ugo Tognazzi. He later starred in an episode ("Il frigorifero") of Monicelli's "Le coppie" (1970) and in Marco Ferreri's "L'udienza" (1971). He also appeared in Ettore Scola's "Il mondo nuovo" (1982), Lina Wertmüller's "Scherzo del destino in agguato come un brigante da strada", alongside Ugo Tognazzi (1983), and Giovanni Robbiano's "Figurine" (1997).

He also composed numerous film scores, including those for Monicelli's "Romanzo popolare" (1974); Lina Wertmüller's "Pasqualino settebellezze", which earned him an Oscar nomination for best score in 1975; "Sturmtruppen" (1976); Mauro Bolognini's "Gran bollito" (1977); "Saxofone", written by and starring Renato Pozzetto (1979); and Ricky Tognazzi's "Piccoli equivoci" (1989). For some of these films he also collaborated on the screenplay.

On television, after a rocky start (he failed his first audition in 1961), some Carosello commercials and an appearance on the show "Quelli della domenica", with Cochi e Renato, Lino Toffolo, Felice Andreasi, Bruno Lauzi and other comedians from the Derby (1968), he was launched by televised adaptations of the stage shows "Il poeta e il contadino" (1973) and "Saltimbanchi si muore", which he wrote and directed.

In 1974 he wrote the theme song for Canzonissima, "E la vita, la vita", sung by Cochi e Renato; in 1977 he wrote and performed the theme song for "Secondo voi?, Secondo te... che gusto c'è".

He took part in the shows "Jannacci Special" (1980), "Ci vuole orecchio" (1981), "Gran simpatico" (1983), and "D.O.C." (1989). In 1991 Raitre broadcast "L'importante è esagerare", an eight-episode series devoted to his career. In 1988 he appeared on Raitre's "Trasmissione forzata", which marked the TV comeback of Dario Fo and Franca Rame. In 1995 he teamed up with Piero Chiambretti on "Il Laureato bis". He wrote the theme song for "Quelli che il calcio..." in the editions hosted by Fabio Fazio.

In 1997 he made the show "M.B.U.* Quelli di Jannacci" (the footnote explains: * = Milano Bolgia Umana), which aired at two in the morning on Raiuno for nine episodes. In 2000 he composed the theme for the TV series "Nebbia in Val Padana", which saw the return of the duo Cochi e Renato.

On January 1, 2003, the very first day of Jannacci's retirement, his friend Giorgio Gaber died after a long illness at his home near Camaiore. At the funeral two days later (at the Abbazia di Chiaravalle, where Gaber had married Ombretta Comelli, known as Colli), Enzo was only able to say "ho perso un fratello" ["I've lost a brother"].

Enzo Jannacci died in Milan on March 29, 2013, aged 77, of cancer.

(source: Last.fm)

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