At 16 he performed with Chet Baker, the American jazz trumpeter, whom he credited as one of his main influences.
He hit his stride in 1971 with a series of albums that sold well and drew critical acclaim. One of his best-known songs, “Caruso,” sold millions of copies and has been recorded by a long list of singers including Julio Iglesias, Luciano Pavarotti and Josh Groban.
“Caruso” was a single on Mr. Dalla’s “DallAmeriCaruso” album, a live recording of a 1986 tour that included the United States and Canada.
“With his versatile and inexhaustible creativity, which ranged freely between Brazilian, jazz or classical inspirations, Dalla was perfectly synched with one of the highest moments of our musical history,” wrote Gino Castaldo, a music critic for the Rome newspaper La Repubblica. “He knew the art of the song well, perhaps better than any other in Italy. With him, the melodic tradition became a receptacle for fado, jazz echoes, folk motifs.”
Mr. Dalla described himself as “a contaminator” of musical genres.
He also wrote the music for films, as well as an opera, “Tosca. Amore disperato,” (Tosca. Desperate Love), which was inspired by Puccini’s opera and had its debut in Rome in 2003.
Mr. Dalla, who leaves no immediate family members, also dabbled in acting, appearing in “I Sovversivi” (“The Subversives”), a 1967 film by the Italian filmmakers Paolo and Vittorio Taviani. He wrote books of short stories, and his lyrics were also published.
Posted from : https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/05/arts/music/lucio-dalla-italian-singer-songwriter-dies-at-68.html
The song, by Lucio Dalla, describes Caruso’s pain and longing in the last year of his life.
It was an Italian best-seller in 1986. Pavarotti recorded it in 1992 with its composer, an old friend of his.
Posted from: https://slippedisc.com/2020/12/the-slipped-disc-daily-comfort-zone-272-pavarotti-sings-caruso-for-real/
