FLORENCE, ITALY – Musicians, fans, family praise work of Neapolitan artist Pino Daniele, who died at age 59 on Monday January 5th, 2015. As plans were announced for a Wednesday January 7th, 2015 funeral in Rome, the mayor of Daniele’s hometown of Naples lowered flags there to half-mast and declared a day of mourning for the same date.
The singer had apparently began to feel ill Sunday night while at his isolated vacation home in the countryside near Orbetello in the Maremma region of Tuscany. By the time he arrived in hospital in Rome, he was in critical condition and died soon after.
Fans carrying cards and flowers had queued outside Rome’s Sant’Eugenio hospital, where Daniele died, to see the body being held there before Wednesday’s funeral.
Italian President Giorgio Napolitano praised the musician, whose music was infused with the rhythms and the dialect of his native city. “I learned with painful surprise the news of the death of Pino Daniele, a songwriter who was able to give an original contribution to the musical tradition of his city,” Napolitano, who is also from Naples, said in a statement. “To his family and the people who loved him, and the world of music, I express my most sincere condolences,” said the president.
Pino Daniele was born to a working-class family in Naples, his father being a port worker. A self-taught guitarist, he began his career as a musician playing for other successful singers of the 1970s.
His striking debut in the Italian music world was in 1977 with the album Terra mia, which proved to be a successful mix of Neapolitan tradition and Blues sounds. Daniele’s talent was confirmed on the following album Pino Daniele (1979). He scored his greatest success in 1980, with Nero a metà (“Half-Black Skinned”), which was noted by some authorities as the hallmark of the rebirth of Neapolitan song. In that year Daniele opened the Bob Marley concert at the San Siro stadium in Milan. In 1981 Vai Mo was released. The presence of some of the most renowned musicians of the Neapolitan musical milieu, including James Senese, Enzo Avitabile, Tullio De Piscopo and Tony Esposito, as session men on his albums has also been widely praised.
In 1982 Daniele gradually shifted to a personal and early version of world music: in Bella ‘mbriana musicians such as Alphonso Johnson and Wayne Shorter appeared as guest players. In the following year Daniele held a concert in Havana, and later formed a Latin-American band featuring Juan Pablo Torres, Adalberto Lara and Nanà Vasconcelos.
In 1988 he started a collaboration with the Italian actor and director Massimo Troisi: Daniele completed the soundtracks for Troisi’s films Le vie del Signore sono finite and Pensavo fosse amore invece era un calesse.
Other great commercial success wasMascalzone Latino (1989), a success confirmed by the following albums Un uomo in Blues (1991) and Che Dio ti benedica (1993), Non calpestare i fiori nel deserto (1995). The subsequent tour ended with a double date with Jazz guitarist Pat Metheny.
In 2002, after a collaboration with Eros Ramazzotti, Daniele sang and toured with two other famous Italian singers, Francesco De Gregori and Fiorella Mannoia. His latest album containing previously unpublished songs is Passi d’autore of 2004. Pino Daniele is still considered one of the best singer-songwriters in Italian history.