Pino Daniele
Passi d'autore

"Passi d'autore" was released in 2004, after the excellent work "Medina", in my opinion. Unfortunately, here we are not at the same level as the previous album, although for the breadth of the experiments, which even touch on classical music, we could define it as one of Pino's most ambitious albums. There are numerous important guests on this album as well (peter erskine and dave carpenter above all). But let's analyze the album in detail through its pieces.

Let's start with "Arriverà l'Aurora", one of the three "a cappella" songs on the album, featuring the collaboration of sopranos, baritones, and altos: this song, like the other two of the same genre, namely "ali di cera" and "gli stessi sguardi", a result of D.'s collaboration with maestro Gianluca Podio, does not convince me at all, even bordering on auditory annoyance at certain points. The second piece is the big single "Pigro", a cloying little song about laziness. I've never liked it since the first moment I heard it on MTV, let alone years later, as I listen to it now.

"Bella da vivere" is a lovely love song that includes a good Mark Knopfler-style guitar, but little more..."La mia casa sei tu" continues the same discourse as the previous one, without adding anything new, apart from some feminine backing vocals and a good jazz background... But here too, boredom abounds in buckets, unfortunately..."Nuages sulle note", which should be a half cover of Reinhardt, still explores the territory of jazz and succeeds in its intent if the latter is to relax us and immerse us in a calm summer afternoon atmosphere. The intertwining of guitar and piano that permeates the entire piece is good (but that Pino knows how to play and knows "with whom" to play is not a mystery...).

We dive back into the boredom of Fabiolove songs with "dammi una seconda vita": here the "stupor from you-know-what" (to quote "primiballi") is at very high levels, unfortunately for us... The refrain then is particularly cloying (Give me a second life\uh uh\a second life), one of the worst ever written by D.

"Deja-vu" offers nothing new, apart from presenting an almost disco rhythm base, and with that, I've said it all. "La nostra estate insieme" returns to jazz territories (perhaps the most inspired parts of the album) and is listenable, but without making an impact or leaving the so-called "mark".

The same goes for "Isola grande", a song dedicated to Ernesto Che Guevara, which tries to interest with a mamb-eggian interlude, but gets lost in emptiness; just as the second song dedicated to another great Argentine, Diego Armando Maradona, namely "Tango de la buena sorte" which, as the title suggests, is a light tango dedicated to this footballer's figure. Unfortunately, aside from the perfectly narcissistic, to say the least, classical guitar solos, the song is little inspired, as is much of the rest of the album... It's like hearing the same little song over and over again, the same way of singing...

"Concerto per noi due" is little more than an interlude, while the finale "Sofia sulle note" concludes once again in a jazz-relaxing key, at times managing to be soporific and to put to sleep those who hadn't already fallen into Morpheus's "arms" a few songs ago. The only somewhat original thing is the reprise of some words from "Nuages sulle note" in this piece as well, words reminiscent of the atmosphere of jazz clubs and cities, thus having the good effect of evoking nostalgia for the golden age of this musical genre...

In conclusion, what can be said: "passi d'autore", an album ambitious even from the title, in my opinion, succeeded in being one of those episodes that in the career of a famous artist are called "remarkable own goals", and one of those own goals that only the feeling of "having arrived" can dictate to an artist.

And this, at least for us fans, is not at all good.