MAY 30, 2021

by M. A. Avveduto

 

Franco Battiato, a great Sicilian master
 

 

Francesco Battiato, aka Franco, was born in Ionia (Riposto) in the province of Catania on 23 March 1945 and died a few days ago in Milo, also in the province of Catania, on 18 May 2021.
Franco Battiato was a musician, composer and songwriter but not many also know that he was also a director and painter.
He began his musical career by dedicating himself to pop music and then continued with progressive and avant-garde rock composing real masterpieces that are highly appreciated also abroad.
In 1979 he released the album "The era of the white boar" thus passing to pop art.
In 1981 he sold millions of copies with "The Master's Voice".
In his career he has achieved consistent success with audiences and critics and made use of some collaborations including that of the violinist Giusto Pio and the philosopher Manlio Sgalambro.
Franco Battiato's texts reflect the passions he has in his life, including esotericism, philosophical theoretics and meditation.
He is one of the artists who received the highest number of awards from the "Club Tengo" with 3 plaques and a prize.
Between 2012 and 2013 he was Councilor for Tourism of the Sicilian Region in the junta led by President Rosario Crocetta. Work for which he has not received any compensation.
After graduating from the "Archimede" scientific high school in Acireale in the province of Catania, and following the death of his father who was a truck driver and longshoreman in the city of New York, in 1964 he moved to Rome and then to Milan. In Milan he worked playing the guitar in a cabaret, the "Club 64" where Paolo Poli, Enzo Jannacci, Lino Toffolo, Renato Pozzetto and Bruno Lauzi also performed.
Before their performances, Franco Battiato introduced them by playing a couple of Sicilian songs.
Among the audience who attended was also the great Giorgio Gaber who invited Battiato to visit him.
Battiato went there and from that moment their friendship was born.
Franco was attending university but then he decided to interrupt his studies and later published in the late 60s, two singles for the magazine "Nuova Enigmistica Tascabile". He also appearing on the cover of the two issues with the name of Francesco Battiato.
Battiato made his debut on tv in 1967 in the show "Let's go with you"
In 1967, together with fellow countryman Gregorio Alicata, he forms a musical duo, "Gli Ambulanti", performing in front of the schools.
The friend Giorgio Gaber launches them, offering their songs to the Nanni Ricordi record company.
During the processing of these albums misunderstandings arise between Battiato and Alicata, so much so that the duo decides to disband and Battiato decides to continue their musical career individually.
Gaber enters the scene again and procures a contract for Battiato with his record company, the "Jolly".
The first singles recorded were "Il mondo va cosi" and "Triste come me". Instead, the single "La torre" accompanies his first TV appearance in 1967 on the program "Diamoci del tu" conducted by Giorgio Gaber together with Caterina Caselli.
In the same episode of Battiato's TV debut another unknown artist performs, but who will later become one of the masters of Italian music: Francesco Guccini.
Giorgio Gaber will propose to Battiato to change his name to Franco so as not to be confused with Francesco Guccini.
He collaborates with Giorgio Gaber in the drafting of the song ".... so come on!" which was presented at the Sanremo Festival in 1967 and the song "Gulp Gulp", the theme song of the TV show "Diamoci del tu".
In 1968 he changed the record company and moved to Philips and in the same period he collaborated with the guitarist Giorgio Logiri.
In 1971 he published "Vento Caldo", "Marciapiede" and "E 'amore" with which he obtained some success and became the first commercial success of the artist from Catania, selling over one hundred thousand copies.
In 1969 Battiato took part in "Un disco perestate" with the song "Bella ragazza" which was subsequently excluded from the competition. Also in '69 he took part in the "International Light Music Exhibition" presenting the song "It seemed an evening like many others".
In 1971 he abandoned the song to devote himself to experimental music using electronic instruments and sounds.
In the mid-70s, he released some albums for the independent label "Bla Bla", making his debut with the album "Fetus" which featured a fetus on the cover, which was then censored. The album sells about seven thousand copies and also comes out in the English version.
The record is a real psychedelic journey.
The next album "Pollution" gets more success than the first.
In 1973 he released the album "Sulle corde di Aries".
In 1974 he released the album "Clic" entirely dedicated to his musician friend Karlheinz Stockhausen. With this album the artist moves away from progressive music and converts to contemporary music.
The album contains the song "Propiedad prohibida" used as the opening theme of the Raidue program "Tg2 Dossier".
The album was reissued in England with the addition of another song "Revolution in the air" which became "Revolution in the air".
He then releases the album "M.elle le Gladiator" with about ten minutes of overdubs and twenty minutes of organ sounds recorded at the cathedral of Monreale.
In 1972 Battiato's name appears in many albums written and released by other artists but all belonging to the "Bla bla" label circuit.
The previous year he co-authored the single Tarzan of the "Capsicum Red" band and in the same year he founded the band "Osage Tribe" in which he figures as leader and solo voice.
With his band he recorded in 1971 the first single entitled "Un falco nel cielo" and the homonymous song was chosen as the theme song for the television quiz "Who knows who knows?".
The following year or 1972, the band founded by Battiato the "osage Tribe" release a jazz / rock LP but the singer is no longer part of the group.
Subsequently he collaborates on the album "Area di servizio" by Riccardo Pirolli under the pseudonym of "Genco Puro & Co" singing three songs. "Summer day", "Fog" and "Biscuits and tea".
But it is not the only album he collaborates on under various aliases, using the names of "Springfield", "Ixo" and "Colonel Musch".
In 1975 he attended as a guest of the "Festival of the youth proletariat" which took place at the Lambro park which was attended by some of the most famous Italian music artists of the period, such as Francesco Guccini, Lucio Dalla, Giorgio Gaber, Francesco De Gregori and Antonello Sold.
In 1976 he closed the record company "Bla Bla" and Battiato moved to "Dischi Ricordi"
In 1977 Battiato approaches the theater and brings the musical opera "Baby Sitter" to the stage.
In that period, the singer-songwriter met the musician Giusto Pio with whom he formed a fruitful artistic partnership and from whom he learned to play the violin.
In 1978 the album "Juke Box" was released under the label of "Dischi Ricordi", the first collaboration album with his violinist friend, and conceived as the soundtrack of the TV film "Brunelleschi" but later rejected by the producers.
The latest album by Franco Battiato released with "Dischi Ricordi" is "Egypt before the sands" and with the track of the same name he won the Stockhausen Prize for contemporary music in 1979.
Also in 1979 together with Giusto Pio he took over the musical direction of the show "Polli d'allevamento" written and directed by his friend Giorgio Gaber.
In 1978 he released a new single using the pseudonym Astra. The two pieces written with Pio are entitled "Adieu" and "San Marco".
In 1979, thanks to Angelo Carrara who will be his manager and producer until 1986, he moves to the "Italian EMI" thus returning to the song.
The same year he records the album "The era of the white boar" which contains references to the esoteric ideas of the writer and intellectual René Guénon.
Despite the modest feedback from sales and various criticisms from the press, the monthly "Nuovo Sound" defines the record as "the most beautiful Italian LP of the year" on the opinion of a musical jury made up of Renzo Arbore, Sergio Bardotti, Paolo Giaccio and Sergio Mancinelli.
The album also contains the song "Stranizza d'amuri" written in Sicilian language.
In 1980 he released the album "Patriots" and the disc obtained a moderate success.
This new phase of his leads him to collaborate with other artists including Alice with whom he writes the song "The hot summer wind"
In 1982 he released the most successful album entitled "La voce del padrone", the disc was promoted by the TV program "Discoring" by Gianni Boncompagni also hosted by Isabel Roussinova. The album contains the song "Bandiera Bianca" and "Cuccurucucù" in which Giuni Russo is present.
After some success, in 1982 the album began to climb the charts reaching the first position in March of the same year, exceeding one million copies sold.
He receives the "Gondola d'oro" award in Venice and his record is placed by the magazine "Rolling Stone" in the list of the 100 most beautiful Italian albums of all time.
Also in 1982 he released the album "Noah's Ark" which in a few weeks sold about 550,000 copies making it the best-selling Italian record in the year preceded only by the famous album "Thriller" by Michael Jackson.
The song "I want to see you dance" became one of the most played live during the singer's concerts.
In the same period the album "Foreign Legion" by the musician friend Giusto Pio was released, with whom Battiato collaborated on all tracks. Battiato also collaborates on the next album entitled "Restoration".
In 1983 he released "Lost Horizons" which contains the single "The season of love".
In 1984 the singer decides to reduce the concert activity but makes an exception only for there "Eurovision Song Contest" where he performs in tandem with the singer Alice with the song "The Trains of Tozeur" which is placed in fifth place and gets a high sales success throughout Europe.
In 1985 he released the album "Mondi Distantissimi" and with the collection entitled "Echoes of Sufi Dances" he tried to enter the English and Spanish record markets.
Shortly after, the singer-songwriter simultaneously begins a career as a composer which will lead to the publication of some sacred works. The first with release in 1986 entitled "Genesis".
In 1989 Franco Battiato performed in the Vatican.
The artist then decides to move from Milan to Milo in his Sicily, where he lived until the last days of his life.
The fifteenth album of the singer-songwriter is inspired by the works of the philosopher Aristotle and contains some ballads including "And you come to seek" and "Secondo imbrunire".
The record sold over 300,000 copies and thanks to this new LP Battiato in 1989 was called by Pope John Paul II to perform in the Vatican, becoming the first pop singer to hold a concert in the Vatican City.
The next Red Jackets released in 1989 is the musician's first live album.
The work contains the unpublished "Giubbe Rosse", "Alexander Platz" already sung by Milva, "Mesopotamia" modified version of the song "What will remain of me" (written for the album Dalla / Morandi) and "Letter to the governor della Libya "also modified and already written in 1980 for the singer Giuni Russo who will be the second voice also in this section.
Battiato writes for Giuni Russo the entire album entitled "Energie" which will be released in 1981.
In the same year he wrote music for the cinema, signing the entire score for the film "Una vita niche" released in 1990, which focuses on the figure of the artist from Florence, Benvenuto Cellini.
He releases the album called "Like a camel in a gutter" recorded at "Abbey Road Studios" which immediately sells 25 thousand copies.
The most famous song of the album is "Povera Patria" which in 1992 won the Targa Tenco as the best song of the year.
After his participation in the Baghdad Concert held with the Iraqi national orchestra in 1992, Battiato returns to Italy presenting a new unreleased LP entitled "Caffè de la Paix".
In 1994 he began his collaboration with the philosopher Manlio Sgalambro, whom he met the previous year in his Sicily.
The first fruits of this collaboration are the play "The knight of the intellect" and the album entitled "The umbrella and the sewing machine" published by the record company EMI.
In 1996 for the new record company "Mercury" he released the album entitled "L'imboscata" which ranks second in the "FIMI Album" chart, becoming the ninth best-selling album of the year for the Italian market.
The only track not present in the album and released as a single is "Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire".
In 1999 the singer-songwriter released a new album entitled "Fleurs", the disc collects "Era de Maggio" by the Neapolitan poet Salvatore Di Giacomo and "Ruby Tuesday", a hit by Rolling Stones.
Franco Battiato pays homage to the singer-songwriter Fabrizio De André by reinterpreting two of his most famous songs "The song of lost love" and "Amore che vieni amore che vai". Later he will promote another cover of the singer or "Winter" and participate in the celebratory record "Sogno nº 1" which is the homage of the "London Symphony Orchestra" to the Genoese singer-songwriter.
Several albums that followed one after another.
In 2003 she received from the President of the Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi the Medal for Meritorious Culture and Art, which she collected at the Quirinale Palace together with other artists such as Katia Ricciarelli and Susanna Tamaro.
The following year she participates in the first edition of the Giorgio Gaber Song Theater Festival.
In 2004 he released "Ten stratagemmi" produced by Sony Music inspired by Sun Tzu.
In 2012 the album "Apriti sesamo" was released which sold over 30,000 copies sold.
On 6 August 2013 she is the protagonist of the concert / tribute in memory of Lucio Dalla held in the amphitheater of Milo, a town dear to both songwriters. The Sicilian arena, named for the occasion after the Bolognese singer-songwriter, was inaugurated by Battiato himself shortly before the start of the concert.
On 17 September 2017 he held his last concert at the Roman Theater of Catania and the last four dates of the tour were canceled for health reasons.
At the end of August 2019 the release of the last album before the retirement from the scene is announced, entitled "We will be back again" which marks Battiato's return to Sony Music.
The album represents a sort of "musical testament".
With the versatile Milva he made two fascinating albums: "Milva e dintorni" released in 1982 and "Waking up the sleeping lover" released in 1989, also known as "Una storia inventata". In addition, in 2011 he is producer of the latest album by mIlva entitled "I don't know any Patrick".
In 1992 he collaborated on the album "L'amore nuovo" by the Catania singer-songwriter Vincenzo Spampinato, singing more verses in the relative title-track.
In 1996 he collaborates with "CSI" on the album "Linea Gotica". On this occasion the band recorded a cover of his "E ti vengo a ricerca" where the voice of the singer-songwriter himself appears.
In the same year he wrote for Patty Pravo "Emma Bovary", contained in the album "Notti, troubles and freedom".
In 2000 he collaborated on Angelo Branduardi's album "L'infinalmente piccolo" with the song "Il sultan di Babilonia e la prostituta".
He duets, again in 2000, in the piece "L'astronauta" by Federico Stragà.
In 2001 he collaborated on the last album by Francesco De Gregori, taking care of the arrangements of the song "Il cuoco di Salò".
Also in 2001 he appears with the Bluvertigo group in the video "Absinthe". He then participates with his friends Saro Cosentino and Morgan in the tribute album for Robert Wyatt entitled "The Different You" with the song "Alifib".
In 2003 he collaborates with Tony Esposito in the album "Tribal Travel" in which he sings the piece "For me" written together with Esposito himself.
He collaborates with Claudio Baglioni, Mario Venuti, Carmen Consoli, with Francesco Renga in his album "A beautiful day" duet in the song "La strada", with Pino Daniele in the piece "Chi tene 'o mare".
But Battiato is not only a songwriter and composer but a good and successful painter, in the 90s and with precision since 1993, Battiato organizes personal exhibitions in Italy and around the world, touching on cities such as Rome, Stockholm, Florence, Miami and Istanbul.
One of his exhibitions is curated by the artist Piero Guccione.
In over twenty years he has produced about eighty works under the pseudonym of Süphan Barzani.
In addition to music and painting, Battiato also indulges in cinema. Director Nanni Moretti has often used the musician's songs as the soundtrack of his films.
But Battiato not only scores soundtracks but also participated as an actor in a play by William Shakespeare "Much Ado About Nothing" and appears occasionally and uncredited as an actor in Corrado Farina's film entitled "Baba Yaga" starring Carroll Baker.
Over the years he composed several soundtracks collaborating primarily with the Veronese Giacomo Battiato, his namesake but not his relative, in the film "A wicked life" dated 1990, and with fellow countryman Pasquale Scimeca signing the music for the film "The day of San Sebastiano" ( 1994). Some of his songs are also used by Antonello Aglioti in the 1992 film "Il giardino dei cherryi" where the actress Marisa Berenson performs "Indian Moon" and by the filmmaker Nanni Moretti who explicitly mentions him in "Bianca", "La Messa è Finita" and "Palombella rossa". In 2006 the director Alfonso Cuarón used the song "Ruby Tuesday" by the Rolling Stones in the version promoted by the artist for the soundtrack of the film Children of Men. He also collaborated on numerous films of his friend Elisabetta Sgarbi between which "Deserto Rosa" released in 2009 and
"A portrait of Beethoven" to which Battiato dedicated his second film entitled "Musikanten".
His directing aspirations began as early as 1979, when he began directing all his video clips.
In 2003 he wrote, directed and chose the music for his first feature film: "Perduto amor", largely autobiographical with which he won the Silver Ribbon as best new director. Many friends and colleagues of the singer take part in the film, including: Alberto Radius, Morgan, Francesco De Gregori and Giovanni Lindo Ferretti.
In 2005 he presented his second film entitled "Musikanten" at the 62nd Venice Film Festival, which was released in a precarious manner in March 2006. The film tells the story of Ludwig van Beethoven's last four years, played by Alejandro Jodorowsky.
In the June preceding the Pesaro International Film Festival, he announced his third film, also written with Manlio Sgalambro: "Nothing is as it seems" starring Giulio Brogi and which sees the extraordinary participation of Sonia Bergamasco and Alejandro Jodorowsky. After being presented in 2007 at the Rome International Film Festival, the film comes out directly on DVD. In 2007 he directed the docufilm dedicated to the life and work of Giuni Russo for the title "The figure of him".
In 2010 the long docufilm "Auguri Don Gesualdo" produced by the Sicilian Region with Kasba Comunicazioni was presented and focused on the life of the Sicilian intellectual of Modican origins Gesualdo Bufalino.
After announcing the release of the film "Journey into the reign of the return" on the biographical events of Handel and Scarlatti in 2014 he made "Traversando il Bardo" a documentary dedicated to the theme of death in the different spiritual traditions of East and West.
In 2017 he appears in the soundtrack of the film "Call me by your name by Luca Guadagnino" with the song "Radio Warsaw" and in 2018 in "Benedetta follia" by Carlo Verdone with "The season of love".
Very close to his mother Grazia, Battiato has never loved worldly life preferring his Sicilian hermitage of Milo on the slopes of Etna where, among other things, he had his colleague Lucio Dalla as a neighbor for many years. His brother Michele was a republican city councilor of Milan.
Battiato was a believer but did not identify with a particular religion.
Franco Battiato never wanted to confuse musical activity with political one but he never hid that he was close to the center-left area.
Among the acknowledgments and honors received: Gold Medal for Meritorious Culture and Art - ribbon for ordinary uniform, Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, Honorary Degree in Modern Philology from the University of Catania, "Billboard Europe Award" as best first work for the album Fetus, in 1981 he won the Sanremo Festival as the author of the song "Per Elisa", he won the "Disco Verde" at the Festivalbar as the author of the song "A summer at the sea" ,
"International Grand Prize of Entertainment" for participation in the Eurovision Song Contest, "Targa Tenco" for the song "Povera Patria", "Giglio d'Oro at the Galileo 2000 Prize", "Librex Montale Prize" in the "Poetry for Music" section , "Giara d'Argento Award" as "Great Sicilian" from the municipality of Giarre, "Volare" Award for the best arrangement at the Sanremo Festival, in 2003 the asteroid 18556 Battiato was dedicated to him, "Silver ribbon as best director debutant "for the film" Perdutoamor "," Unimarche "award" Università delle Armonie ", award for best director at the" Sicilian Film Festival "," Angelo alla morte "at Terni Film Festival," Ciampi "award for career Lifetime Achievement "," CD Platino Award "at the" Wind Music Awards "," Etna "award from the town of Linguaglossa.
Honorary citizen of the Municipality of Gangi in the province of Messina and of the Municipality of Vittoria in the province of Ragusa
In October 2019, the manager Francesco Cattini announces Battiato's retirement from the world of music.
For some time the singer-songwriter Battiato died on the morning of May 18, 2021 in his home in Praino di Milo, at the age of 76. Regarding his illness, the family has always wanted to keep the utmost confidentiality. The funeral is celebrated the following day in a strictly private way.

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