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Rating: On March 12, 2000, in Genoa, at the Teatro Carlo Felice and Piazza De Ferrari, where spectators could follow the concert on a giant screen, one of the most beautiful and touching musical events of recent years took place: the tribute concert to the great Fabrizio de André.
The whole event is now documented on CD, thanks to the De André Foundation which arranged its release to donate the proceeds to social solidarity projects. A large number of major and minor Italian artists gathered at that magical evening for a passionate tribute to our greatest singer-songwriter, in the presence of an audience where all those "last ones" he always sang about were in the front row (the homeless, the prostitutes, the unrefined and the well-dressed, the anonymous and the famous, as the booklet attached to the CD states).
Despite the stellar cast, there were some weak moments, but let's go in order. The first CD is opened by Adriano Celentano's embarrassing performance as he couldn't remember (not even with the lyrics on the music stand...) the words to "La guerra di Piero", making one of the most pitiful figures in Italian musical history and rightly receiving boos, along with ridicule. The fact that the CD features a "revised and corrected" version does not justify a professional not remembering the lyrics to a song that I was taught in elementary school... Zucchero suddenly regains all his credibility by proposing a beautiful version of "Ho visto Nina volare". The Premiata Forneria Marconi presents the timeless "Il pescatore", and Gino Paoli sings beautifully "La canzone dell'amore perduto". Franco Battiato gets emotional on "Amore che vieni, amore che vai" and misses the last phrase, Vanoni makes "Bocca di rosa" her own, followed by a French version of "Canzone di Marinella" done by Roberto Ferri. Teresa De Sio turns "La ballata del Michè" into a tammurriata, while the sound of the harp illuminates "Inverno" by Cecilia Chailly. "Verranno a chiederti del nostro amore" is presented elegantly in a piano and acoustic guitar version by Eugenio Finardi, and the Mercanti di Liquore reaffirm their great affinity with Fabrizio with "Geordie". Roberto Vecchioni offers an exciting version of "Hotel Supramonte" and Ligabue slows down "Fiume Sand Creek" just right.
Kudos to Vasco Rossi who offers his own interpretation of a song quite distant from his style, "Amico fragile", and the classy Mannoia with "Khorakhanè". Jovanotti also delivers a good acoustic version of "La cattiva strada", followed by Vittorio De Scalzi with one of New Trolls' cornerstones, "Signore io sono Irish", which Faber co-wrote. Enzo Jannacci recovers "Via del Campo", which would later be revealed as a piece written by Fabrizio to music by Enzo. Loredana Bertè shines with a difficult song about Pasolini, "Una storia sbagliata", then Edoardo Bennato enchants the audience with his "one man band" rendition (guitar and tambourine) of "Canzone per l'estate". From Genoese to Genoese with love, this is the meaning of Francesco Baccini's presence who proposes "La ballata dell' amore cieco". Oliviero Malaspina, who was co-writing an album with Fabrizio when he fell ill, is present with "Canzone del padre", alongside Massimo Bubola with "Andrea", Mauro Pagani with "Sidun" and, together with Cristiano de André, "Creuza de ma".
The closing is with a little opera sung by Gian Piero and Roberta Alloisio, "King", taken from the operetta "Malavitaeterna".
A beautiful tribute for a great singer-songwriter.
Tracklist
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