Niccolò Fabi

Niccolò Fabi came into the world on May 16, 1968, in Rome, the son of a leading producer within the Italian prog movement of the 1970s whose own father had taught piano. Music surrounded him from the outset: he began studying recording methods at age three and classical piano at five. Contemporary songwriters captured his focus by thirteen, prompting him to play drums in a Police cover band and to take up acoustic guitar so he could perform material by Bob Dylan and James Taylor. In high school he switched to bass in a funk group, all while logging additional hours in the studio with his father to absorb recording techniques.

While enrolled at a Rome university to examine medieval manuscripts in the early 1990s, Fabi appeared regularly in city clubs and formed friendships with fellow singer-songwriters Max Gazzè and Riccardo Sinigallia. The latter submitted Fabi’s demo to Virgin in 1996, resulting in a recording contract. His debut album, Il Giardiniere, containing the singles “Dica” and “Capelli,” reached stores in 1997; that same year he performed at the San Remo Festival and drew favorable critical notice. The self-titled follow-up arrived in 1998 and featured his Italian-language rendering of Duncan Sheik’s “Barely Breathing,” retitled “Il Male Minore.”

A period of reflection kept Fabi from releasing new material for several years, yet home recordings from that time surfaced on the 2000 album Sereno ad Ovest. He also opened shows for Sting across Italy, gaining wider national exposure and sharpening his live performance skills. La Cura del Tempo appeared in 2003, after which he toured extensively and took part in multiple peace benefits. In 2006 the retrospective collection Dischi Volanti 96-06 marked his first decade of recordings, while Novo Mesto became his fifth studio album; the Spanish-language release Dentro followed in 2007.

After contributing to the multi-artist projects Violenza 124 and Artisti Uniti per l’Abruzzo, Fabi left Virgin for Universal and issued his sixth album, Solo un Oomo, in 2010. Months later his two-year-old daughter Olivia, affectionately called Lulubella, died of meningitis. He organized a memorial benefit concert that enlisted artists including Elisa and Jovanotti; proceeds supported construction of a children’s hospital in Angola. The concert was filmed and issued as the DVD Parole per Lulu, which included a duet with Italian diva Mina on her classic “Parole, Parole.”

Ecco, Fabi’s seventh LP, surfaced in 2012 and became his first Top Ten entry by debuting at number three. Four years later he reached the summit of the chart with Una Somma di Piccole Cose.