Lucio Dalla in concert
with Notti di Luce Jazz Orchestra
orchestrations of Fabio Coppini and Gabriele Comeglio

Dalla and jazz music represents an unavoidable union both for his music background and for the great influence of American black music on his compositive aspects At first Lucio Dalla was a “New Orleans” clarinet player in Bologna’s lively music background at the end of the ‘50s where he got to know modern jazz, bebop and, later, contralto sax, together with talented musicians like Franco D’Andrea. Dalla had also the opportunity to play with great jazz players like Chet Baker, introducing in his songs “scat”- like vocal improvisation colored by remarkable blue notes and highly syncopated rhythmic accents. It was only in 2004 anyway that Dalla decided to face a real jazz tournee together with Stefano Di Battista gaining an unexpected success from the audience and the critics as well. The exclusive concert for “Notti di Luce” represents indeed an important step in Dalla’s jazz evolution since the arrangements for big bands by Fabio Coppini (his pianist and inseparable assistant) and Gabriele Comeglio will develop the innest “black” characteristics of his music to lead to vocal and instrumental interpretation/improvisation for Lucio himself and for the musicians of the band. Besides well-known songs like “Caruso” or “Piazza Grande” and incursions in the jazz repertory like Charlie Parker’s famous blues “Au Privave” and the ever popular “Over the rainbow” are due to be played.

Lucio Dalla
Author and interpreter of absolutely remarbable songs, on several occasions he proved to be eclectic and brilliant in other fields as well, so to actually undertake parralel careers, from movie music composer to the ideation of successful TV programmes like “La Bella e la Bestia” (“The Beauty and the Beast”) (Raiuno, 2002) with Sabrina Ferilli. Lucio Dalla was born in Bologna in 1943 and in 1962 joined as clarinet player the Flippers, a group made of people destined to make themselves known in the journalism and show business. In 1964 his debut in the world of music, thanks to singer Gino Paoli who made him turn to soul music. From 1965 to 1970 he applied himself to experimentation and to his first musical compositions. His first success as composer was in 1970 with “Occhi di ragazza” (“Girl eyes”) recorded by Gianni Morandi who made it reach the top of the sales chart. In 1971 his irresistible rise started: he was at San Remo Festival with “4/3/1943”, renamed by the public “Gesù Bambino” (“Jesus Child”). Then “Piazza Grande”, “Il gigante e la bambina”(“The Giant and the Child”) and “Itaca” followed, each destined to become part of his huge repertory. In 1977, with the album “Come è profondo il mare” (“How deep is the sea”), Dalla began to be the writer of his own songs.
It was the time of the great common consent hallowed in all his following tours that carried out albums destined to enter the history of music: from “Banana Republic” in 1979 with Francesco de Gregori to “Dallamericaruso” in 1986, a double live album with the masterpiece “Caruso”, that sold nine million copies all over the world across manyversions. In 1990 the song “Attenti al lupo” (“Mind the wolf”) held the sales record in Italy with almost 1.400.000 copies. In 1999 the album “Ciao” was released, followed, in 2000, by a tour that was a sold out event everywhere. In 2001 “Luna Matàna” was released and his first story book, “Bella La vita” (“Life is beautiful”), edited by Rizzoli, while in 2002 it was up to his anthology album “Caro amico ti scrivo” (“Dear friend, I’m writing to you”), sixteen hits in thirty years and in 2003 the dvd “Retrospettiva” (“Retrospective”), that was released on occasion of his 60th birthday. In 2003 it was the turn of “Tosca. Amore disperato” (“Tosca. Desperate love”), a brand new opera that Dalla wrote finding inspiration from Puccini’s hononymous opera. Dalla’s “Tosca” is considered one of the greatest theatre representations ever made.

(Warning: audio or video shooting of the show is forbidden)