Giorgio Gaber
Encyclopedia
Giorgio Gaber, byname of Giorgio Gaberscik (25 January 1939 - 1 January 2003), was an Italian
singer-songwriter, actor and playwright. He was also an accomplished guitar player and author of one of the first rock
songs in Italian
("Ciao ti dirò", 1958). Together with Sandro Luporini, he pioneered the musical genre known as teatro canzone ("song theatre").
The new underground auditorium of the Pirelli Tower
in Milan is dedicated to him.
into a lower middle-class family. His father, Guido Gaberscik, was born in Trieste
, when the city was still part of Austria-Hungary
, most probably to Italianized
Slovene immigrants from the Gorizia
region. The surname Gaberscik is in fact of Slovene origin (Gaberščik). His mother was from the Veneto
region. The two met and married in Veneto and later moved to Milan, where Giorgio was born.
Gaber began to play as rehabilitation for an injury to his hand which required constant but not strenuous activity to recover his motor skill. Since his health as a child was not the best and his older brother Marcello played guitar, he was encouraged to play as well. The outcome was good both in terms of his health and artistically, and at only fourteen years of age he was engaged to play at a New Eve's party and earned his first paycheck of 1,000 lire.
Subsequently he began to frequent the Santa Tecla, a venue in Milan where he had the chance to meet musicians of the time, including Luigi Tenco
, Gianfranco Reverberi
, Adriano Celentano
, Ricky Gianco
, and Mogol
, who obtained a contract for Gaber with Dischi Ricordi. He then played with the Rocky Mountains Old Time Stompers (replacing Tony Dallara who had left to pursue a solo career) and with Rolling Crew.
Because neither Tenco nor Gaber were yet members of the Italian Society of Authors and Publishers
they could not trademark the song "Ciao ti dirò" ("I'll Say Hi to You", inspired by Elvis Presley
's "Jailhouse Rock"), which was signed off by Giorgio Calabrese and Giampiero Reverberi despite being composed by Tenco and Gaber.
The two went on to continue writing music together, developing at the same time a close friendship. In 1958 they toured Germany together with Adriano Celentano
, Enzo Jannacci
, Paolo Tomelleri e Gianfranco Reverberi.
Gaber paired up with Enzo Jannacci
as I Due Corsari ("The Two Privateers"), who made their debut at the end of 1958 with two vinyl singles - "Come Facette Mammeta", a classic song of Neapolitan humour, and "Non occupatemi il telefono" ("Don't Hog the Telephone"). They continued to release singles with Dischi Ricordi throughout the following year, and in 1960 released their first album, Giorgio Gaber - Enzo Jannacci.
After a sentimental-artistic companionship with singer and actress Maria Monti
, he married Ombretta Colli in 1965, then a student of languages (Chinese and Russian) at the University of Milan
.
He took part to Festival di Sanremo
four times, with the songs "Benzina e cerini" ("Petrol and Matches") in 1961, "Così felice" ("So Happy") in 1964, "Mai, Mai, Mai Valentina" ("Never, Never, Never Valentina") in 1966 and "...E allora dai" ("...Well Come On Then!") in 1967.
. The following year, he showed at Piccolo teatro his first ediction of Il Signor G ("Mister G"), a recital
he repeated in many Italian squares.
In 1974 he was given the Premio Tenco in the first edition of that musical award. Later Gaber also received the Targa Tenco in 2001 for his song "La razza in estinzione" ("The Dying Race") and in 2003 for the album Io non mi sento italiano ("I Don't Feel Italian"). After the Tenco award Gaber abandoned television and began to tour only in theatres, as one of the founders of the teatro canzone genre. He would appear again in TV, although sporadically, only in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Giorgio Gaber died, after a long illness, on 1 January 2003 in his country house in Montemagno near Camaiore
(Lucca
, Tuscany
). He is buried in the Cimitero Monumentale in Milan.
There is also a large discography of LPs and 45s related to his production of pop music
songs and ballad
s. Ja-Ga brothers (1983) with Enzo Jannacci, is the reprinting of the 1960 recordings of the two singers.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
singer-songwriter, actor and playwright. He was also an accomplished guitar player and author of one of the first rock
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
songs in Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
("Ciao ti dirò", 1958). Together with Sandro Luporini, he pioneered the musical genre known as teatro canzone ("song theatre").
The new underground auditorium of the Pirelli Tower
Pirelli Tower
The Pirelli Tower , is a skyscraper in Milan, Italy.-History:...
in Milan is dedicated to him.
Debut
He was born in MilanMilan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
into a lower middle-class family. His father, Guido Gaberscik, was born in Trieste
Trieste
Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...
, when the city was still part of Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
, most probably to Italianized
Italianization
Italianization or Italianisation is a term used to describe a process of cultural assimilation in which ethnically non or partially Italian people or territory become Italian. The process can be voluntary or forced...
Slovene immigrants from the Gorizia
Gorizia and Gradisca
The County of Gorizia and Gradisca was a Habsburg county in Central Europe, in what is now a multilingual border area of Italy and Slovenia. It was named for its two major urban centers, Gorizia and Gradisca d'Isonzo.-Province of the Habsburg Empire:...
region. The surname Gaberscik is in fact of Slovene origin (Gaberščik). His mother was from the Veneto
Veneto
Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...
region. The two met and married in Veneto and later moved to Milan, where Giorgio was born.
Gaber began to play as rehabilitation for an injury to his hand which required constant but not strenuous activity to recover his motor skill. Since his health as a child was not the best and his older brother Marcello played guitar, he was encouraged to play as well. The outcome was good both in terms of his health and artistically, and at only fourteen years of age he was engaged to play at a New Eve's party and earned his first paycheck of 1,000 lire.
Subsequently he began to frequent the Santa Tecla, a venue in Milan where he had the chance to meet musicians of the time, including Luigi Tenco
Luigi Tenco
Luigi Tenco was an Italian singer, songwriter and actor.-Biography:Tenco was born in Cassine in 1938, the son of Teresa Zoccola and Giuseppe Tenco. He never knew his father, who died in unclear circumstances...
, Gianfranco Reverberi
Gianfranco Reverberi
Gian Franco Reverberi is an Italian composer and musician. He worked mainly on the soundtracks for Spaghetti Westerns.He was one of the first Italian rock music artists....
, Adriano Celentano
Adriano Celentano
Adriano Celentano is an Italian singer, songwriter, comedian, actor, film director and TV host.-Biography:Celentano was born in Milan at 14 Via Gluck, about which he later wrote the famous song "Il ragazzo della via Gluck"...
, Ricky Gianco
Ricky Gianco
Ricky Gianco , formerly known as Ricky Sanna, is an Italian singer, songwriter, guitarist and record producer, considered one of the founders of Italian rock music...
, and Mogol
Mogol (lyricist)
Giulio Rapetti , in art Mogol, is an Italian music lyricist. He is best known for his collaborations with Lucio Battisti.-Career:...
, who obtained a contract for Gaber with Dischi Ricordi. He then played with the Rocky Mountains Old Time Stompers (replacing Tony Dallara who had left to pursue a solo career) and with Rolling Crew.
Because neither Tenco nor Gaber were yet members of the Italian Society of Authors and Publishers
Italian Society of Authors and Publishers
The Società Italiana degli Autori ed Editori , mostly know by its acronym SIAE, is an Italian public performance-rights organization responsible for the protection and exercise of copyright in Italy...
they could not trademark the song "Ciao ti dirò" ("I'll Say Hi to You", inspired by Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
's "Jailhouse Rock"), which was signed off by Giorgio Calabrese and Giampiero Reverberi despite being composed by Tenco and Gaber.
The two went on to continue writing music together, developing at the same time a close friendship. In 1958 they toured Germany together with Adriano Celentano
Adriano Celentano
Adriano Celentano is an Italian singer, songwriter, comedian, actor, film director and TV host.-Biography:Celentano was born in Milan at 14 Via Gluck, about which he later wrote the famous song "Il ragazzo della via Gluck"...
, Enzo Jannacci
Enzo Jannacci
Vincenzo Jannacci , more commonly known as Enzo Jannacci , is an Italian singer-songwriter, actor and stand-up comedian...
, Paolo Tomelleri e Gianfranco Reverberi.
Gaber paired up with Enzo Jannacci
Enzo Jannacci
Vincenzo Jannacci , more commonly known as Enzo Jannacci , is an Italian singer-songwriter, actor and stand-up comedian...
as I Due Corsari ("The Two Privateers"), who made their debut at the end of 1958 with two vinyl singles - "Come Facette Mammeta", a classic song of Neapolitan humour, and "Non occupatemi il telefono" ("Don't Hog the Telephone"). They continued to release singles with Dischi Ricordi throughout the following year, and in 1960 released their first album, Giorgio Gaber - Enzo Jannacci.
After a sentimental-artistic companionship with singer and actress Maria Monti
Maria Monti
Maria Monti is an Italian film actress, singer and theatre artist.Entering film in 1962 in Canzoni a tempo di twist she made nearly 30 film appearances between 1962 and 2002....
, he married Ombretta Colli in 1965, then a student of languages (Chinese and Russian) at the University of Milan
University of Milan
The University of Milan is a higher education institution in Milan, Italy. It is one of the largest universities in Europe, with about 62,801 students, a teaching and research staff of 2,455 and a non-teaching staff of 2,200....
.
He took part to Festival di Sanremo
Festival della canzone italiana
The Festival della canzone italiana di Sanremo is a popular Italian song contest, held annually in the city of Sanremo, in Italy, and consisting of a competition amongst previously unreleased songs...
four times, with the songs "Benzina e cerini" ("Petrol and Matches") in 1961, "Così felice" ("So Happy") in 1964, "Mai, Mai, Mai Valentina" ("Never, Never, Never Valentina") in 1966 and "...E allora dai" ("...Well Come On Then!") in 1967.
Il signor G
In 1969 he set one of his best known successes, "Com'è bella la città" ("How Beautiful the City Is"), an example of the introduction of social matters in a songSong
In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...
. The following year, he showed at Piccolo teatro his first ediction of Il Signor G ("Mister G"), a recital
Recital
A recital is a musical performance. It can highlight a single performer, sometimes accompanied by piano, or a performance of the works of a single composer.The invention of the solo piano recital has been attributed to Franz Liszt....
he repeated in many Italian squares.
In 1974 he was given the Premio Tenco in the first edition of that musical award. Later Gaber also received the Targa Tenco in 2001 for his song "La razza in estinzione" ("The Dying Race") and in 2003 for the album Io non mi sento italiano ("I Don't Feel Italian"). After the Tenco award Gaber abandoned television and began to tour only in theatres, as one of the founders of the teatro canzone genre. He would appear again in TV, although sporadically, only in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Giorgio Gaber died, after a long illness, on 1 January 2003 in his country house in Montemagno near Camaiore
Camaiore
Camaiore is a town and comune of 31,503 inhabitants within the province of Lucca, Tuscany, Italy. It stretches from the Alps to the east, to the plains and the coast of Versilia to the west.-Morphology:...
(Lucca
Province of Lucca
The Province of Lucca is a province in the Tuscany region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Lucca.It has an area of 1,773 km², and a total population of 372,244...
, Tuscany
Tuscany
Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....
). He is buried in the Cimitero Monumentale in Milan.
Discography
- Il signor G (1970)
- I borghesi (1971)
- Dialogo tra un impegnato e un non so (1972)
- Far finta di essere sani (1973, studio)
- Far finta di essere sani (theatre recording, 1973–74)
- Anche per oggi non si vola (1974)
- Libertà obbligatoria (1976)
- Polli di allevamento (1978)
- Pressione bassa (1980)
- Io se fossi Dio (1980)
- Anni affollati (1981)
- Il teatro di Giorgio Gaber (1982)
- Gaber (1984)
- Io se fossi Gaber (1985)
- Piccoli spostamenti del cuore (1987)
- Parlami d'amore Mariù (1987)
- Il Grigio (1989)
- Storie del signor G (1991, VHS)
- Il teatro canzone (1992)
- Ma per fortuna che c'e`... Giorgio Gaber (1994)
- Io come persona (1994)
- E pensare che c'era il pensiero (1994)
- E pensare che c'era il pensiero (1995)
- Gaber 96/97 (1996)
- Un'idiozia conquistata a fatica (1997)
- Un'idiozia conquistata a fatica" (1998, 2nd version)
- Gaber 1999/2000 (1999)
- La mia generazione ha perso (2001)
- Io non mi sento italiano (2003)
There is also a large discography of LPs and 45s related to his production of pop music
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
songs and ballad
Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...
s. Ja-Ga brothers (1983) with Enzo Jannacci, is the reprinting of the 1960 recordings of the two singers.
See also
- Enzo JannacciEnzo JannacciVincenzo Jannacci , more commonly known as Enzo Jannacci , is an Italian singer-songwriter, actor and stand-up comedian...
- Luigi TencoLuigi TencoLuigi Tenco was an Italian singer, songwriter and actor.-Biography:Tenco was born in Cassine in 1938, the son of Teresa Zoccola and Giuseppe Tenco. He never knew his father, who died in unclear circumstances...
- Adriano CelentanoAdriano CelentanoAdriano Celentano is an Italian singer, songwriter, comedian, actor, film director and TV host.-Biography:Celentano was born in Milan at 14 Via Gluck, about which he later wrote the famous song "Il ragazzo della via Gluck"...
- Festival di Sanremo