Enzo Jannacci

Enzo Jannacci maintained a parallel vocation as a physician until his retirement, yet he ranked among Italy’s earliest rock & roll vocalists and later flourished as a distinctive entertainer and chansonier whose ironic perspective remained his defining trait. Born Vincenzo “Enzo” Jannacci in Milan on June 3, 1935, he began the 1950s as a jazz pianist alongside Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, and Stan Getz while also performing stand-up and variety routines in cabaret venues. Late in 1956 he left the Rocky Mountains to join the emerging Adriano Celentano, sharing the bill at the first Italian rock & roll festival held at Milan’s Palazzo del Ghiaccio in 1957. The following year he formed the duo I Due Corsari with Giorgio Gaber; their singles, among them the well-known “Tintarella di Luna,” were later compiled on the album Giorgio Gaber -- Enzo Jannacci.

Simultaneously launching a solo career, Jannacci fused rock & roll with a pronounced Milanese sensibility, chronicling suburban life and characters—frequently in local dialect—through an unmistakable blend of irony and melancholy, as heard in pieces such as “El Portava i Scarp del Tennis.” In 1962 he appeared in the stage production Milanin Milanon alongside Milly and Tino Carraro; Ricordi issued the singles anthology Le Canzoni di Enzo Jannacci the next year. That same year he encountered Dario Fo, who supplied material for the revue 22 Canzoni, selections from which appeared on the 1964 live sets In Teatro and La Milano di Enzo Jannacci. Sei Minuti all’Alba arrived in 1966.

Jannacci achieved further commercial success with the 1967 album Vengo Anch’Io, No Tu No!, whose title song reached number one on the Italian charts in 1968; the same collection contained the politically charged “Ho Visto un Re,” which Italian state television banned. Throughout the first half of the 1970s he issued La Mia Gente (1970) and Jannacci Enzo (1972), scored Mario Monicelli’s Romanzo Popolare (1974, featuring “Vincenzina e la Fabbrica”) and Lina Wertmuller’s Pasqualino Settebellezze (for which he earned an Academy Award nomination), and took an acting role in Marco Ferreri’s L’Udienza. He also spent time in South Africa and the United States, refining his skills in cardiac surgery under Christiaan Barnard. The 1975 album Quelli Che reaffirmed his popularity through its title track, followed by O Vivere O Ridere (1976), Secondo Te...Che Gusto C’È? (1977), and Foto Ricordo (1979). In 1977 Mina devoted an entire album, Mina Quasi Jannacci, to his compositions, and Milva followed suit in 1980 with Milva la Rossa.

Although Jannacci continued to record throughout the 1980s—releasing Ci Vuole Orecchio and Nuove Registrazioni (1980), the live E Allora...Concerto (1981), Discogreve and the Ja-Ga Brothers collaboration with Giorgio Gaber (1983), L’Importante (1985), and Parlare con i Limoni (1987)—he also expanded his television presence, notably on Gran Simpatico in 1983. His Sanremo debut came in 1989 with “Se Me Lo Dicevi Prima,” the same year he issued the thirtieth-anniversary retrospective 30 Anni Senza Andare Fuori Tempo. He returned to the festival three more times in the 1990s: with the reflective “La Fotografia” from Guarda la Fotografia in 1991, the Paolo Rossi duet “I Soliti Accordi” (later included on the anthology of the same name) in 1994, and “Quando un Musicista Ride” from the greatest-hits package of that title in 1998. In 1991 he joined Giorgio Gaber in a new staging of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot.

The 2000s opened with Come Gli Aeroplani (2001) and L’Uomo a Metà (2003). Milano 3.6.2005 appeared in 2004, presenting fresh renditions of his best-known Milanese-dialect songs. The 2006 anthology The Best gathered earlier material and added previously unreleased tracks, including a duet with Paolo Conte.