page_title: Enzo Jannacci
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Enzo Jannacci / Career
caption_attribution_description: screenshot from the film La Vita Agra (1964)
context_page_description: Vincenzo Jannacci, more commonly known as Enzo Jannacci, was an Italian singer-songwriter, pianist, actor and stand-up comedian. He is regarded as one of the most important artists in the post-war Italian music scene.
  Jannacci is widely considered as a master of musical art and cabaret, and in the course of his career has collaborated with many famous Italian musicians, performing artists, journalists, television personalities and comedians. He has written around thirty albums and soundtracks, some of which have since come to be seen as milestones in the history of Italian popular music.
  A cardiologist in his day job, he is also regarded as one of the founders of Italian rock and roll music, along with Adriano Celentano, Luigi Tenco and Giorgio Gaber, with whom he collaborated for over forty years.
context_section_description: Jannacci started his musical career in 1956, becoming the keyboardist of the group "Rocky Mountains". Lead member of the group initially was Tony Dallara, later replaced by Giorgio Gaber. In 1957 he became the keyboardist of the Rock Boys, a rock'n'roll group accompanying Adriano Celentano. In 1958, even keeping on perform with Rock Boys, he formed with Gaber the musical duo "I due corsari" with whom he made his first recordings. In the same years he was able to accompany as a jazz pianist several great names such as Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, Bud Powell and Franco Cerri, with whom he recorded several albums.
  Jannacci started his solo career in early sixties, recording two songs, "L'ombrello di mio fratello" and "Il cane con i capelli", that already revealed his ironic and surreal style. In 1962 he debuted on stage with the recital Milanon Milanin.  The following year he made his debut as stand-up comedian in the Milan comedy club Derby; there he met Dario Fo and the duo Cochi & Renato, with whom he collaborated several times over the years.
  In 1964 his popularity grew significantly thanks to the recital 22 canzoni, of which he was the author together with Dario Fo, and thanks to the song "L'Armando", his first real success. In 1968 he topped the Italian hit parade with the main success of his career, "Vengo anch'io (no tu no)". The same year he took part at the musical contest Canzonissima; he reached the final, but the song he had chosen for the final, "Ho visto un re", was censored by RAI and replaced with "I due zingari".  "Ho visto un re" despite the ostracism (RAI even forbade the radio broadcasting of the song) became a classic and reached 7th place on hit parade.
  Between 1968 and 1972 Jannacci temporarily slowed his activities focusing on his activity of doctor; during these years he however appeared as leading actor in two films, Mario Monicelli's Le coppie (in the segment Il frigorifero) and Marco Ferreri's L'udienza. In 1973 he wrote the comedy play Il poeta e il contadino, that was later turned in a TV-series broadcast by RAI, and in 1974 he wrote, together with Beppe Viola, the book L'incompiuter. In these years he also successfully composed several film soundtracks, including Mario Monicelli's Come Home and Meet My Wife and the Academy Award-nominated Lina Wertmüller's Seven Beauties. In 1975 he published the album Quelli che... which eponymous single was one of his most known songs, especially thanks to the variety show Quelli che... il Calcio that had it as the theme song for eight years.
  In 1977 Mina covered ten songs of Jannacci in the album Mina quasi Jannacci, where the songwriter duet with her in the song "E l'era tardi". In 1978 he composed the soundtrack and collaborated to the screenplay of Saxofone, the directorial debut of his longtime friend Renato Pozzetto. In 1979, after several years off, he went back to make live concerts. In these years he also collaborated with Paolo Conte, singing successful songs such as "Sudamerica" and "Bartali".
  In 1980 Jannacci released the album Ci vuole orecchio that, pulled by the title song, realized excellent sales. In 1982 he hosted the variety television Gran simpatico; the same year he reformed the musical duo with Giorgio Gaber for the EP Ja-Ga Brothers. Starting from the second half of eighties he focused his activity on stage leading several recitals. In 1989 he entered the Sanremo Music Festival with the critically appreciated song "Se me lo dicevi prima"; he came back to Sanremo three more times, in 1990 with "La fotografia" (which won the Critics Award, and was translated in English by Ute Lemper, that recorded with title The Photograph), in 1994 with "I soliti accordi", a duet with the comedian Paolo Rossi, and in 1998 with "Quando il musicista ride". In 1996 he hosted, together with Piero Chiambretti, the Raitre late night show Il laureato.
caption: Jannacci in La vita agra (1964)
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