Enzo Jannacci

Not only a musician but also a doctor -- a job that he kept until retirement -- Enzo Jannacci was one of the first rock & roll singers to emerge from Italy, over the years becoming a successful entertainer and chansonier but never losing his very peculiar irony, in many ways his most distinctive trademark. Born in Milan on June 3, 1935, Vincenzo "enzo" Jannacci debuted in the 1950s as a jazz pianist, playing with the likes of Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, and Stan Getz. In the same years, he started working in the cabaret theaters as a comedian and a showman. At the end of 1956 Jannacci quit his first band, Rocky Mountains, in order to start playing with the young Adriano Celentano, with whom he took part in the first Italian rock & roll festival, in Milan's Palazzo del Ghiaccio during 1957. Then, at the end of the following year, he started a duo with Giorgio Gaber called I Due Corsari, with whom he released some singles (one of them being the famous "Tintarella di Luna"), later re-released on the album Giorgio Gaber -- Enzo Jannacci. At the same time he started his own solo career, immediately revealing a unique personality in mixing together rock & roll and a strong Milanese feeling, depicting the life and characters of the suburbs of the city -- often using the local dialect -- in an immediately recognizable miscela of irony and sadness, as demonstrated by songs such as "El Portava i Scarp del Tennis." In 1962 he took part in the theatrical show Milanin Milanon with Milly and Tino Carraro, and in 1963 Ricordi released the singles collection Le Canzoni di Enzo Jannacci. In the same year he met Dario Fo, who wrote the show 22 Canzoni for him; the show's songs can be heard on the live album In Teatro and on La Milano di Enzo Jannacci, both dated 1964. Sei Minuti all'Alba followed in 1966.

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