Pino Daniele

Pino Daniele (March 19, 1955, Naples) is an Italian pop-blues singer, songwriter and musician. Daniele was born to a low class family, his father being a port worker. A self-taught guitarist, he began his career as a musician playing for other successful singers of 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 defined his music with the term "taramblu", which indicated a mix of tarantella, blues and rumba. Lyrics also attracted critical praise: written and sung in an intense Neapolitan, they contained a strong though bitter accusation against the social injustices of Naples, as well as Italian society in general, as well as melanchonic personal themes. Several of the later songs will be characterized by a free intermingling of English, American and Neapolitan language passages. Daniele's talent was confirmed in the following Pino Daniele of 1979.

He scored his greatest success in 1980, with Nero a metà ("Half-Black Skinned"), which was marked by some authorities as the hallmark for the re-birth of Neapolitan song. In that year Daniele opened Bob Marley's concert in the San Siro stadium of Milan. In 1981 Vai Mo was released. Widely praised in his albums was also the presence as session men of some of the most renowned musicians of the Neapolitan musical milieu, including James Senese, Enzo Avitabile, Tullio De Piscopo and Tony Esposito.

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 La Habana, and later formed a Latin-American band featuring Juan Pablo Torres, Adalberto Lara and Nanà Vasconcelos. In Musicante (1984)) the former King Crimson-member Mel Collins played. Daniele's skills in creating well balanced blends of Mediterranean, Blues, rock, music, salsa and Neapolitan melodies are well shown in his first live work, Live Sciò of 1984. Later Daniele collaborated with bluesman Richie Evans to an album written and played in duo, Common Ground.

His interests for Arabic music are emphasized in Bonne Soirée (1987), while the subsequent Schizzechea With Love (1988) was more Mediterranean-oriented. In the same year 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. A certain loss of inspiration and a move to a more pop-oriened songwriting can be detected in his greatest commercial success, Mascalzone Latino (1989), a success confirmed by the following Un Uomo In Blues (1991) and Che Dio ti benedica. The latter contains two song produced by Chick Corea.

Non calpestare i fiori nel deserto, released Spring 1995, is an attempt to revive inspiratation through African and Ethnic influences, and sell more than 800,000 copies. The subsequent tournée was ended with a doubled date with Jazz guitarist Pat Metheny. In 2002, after a collaboration with Eros Ramazzotti, Daniele sang in trio with two other famous Italian author-singers, Francesco De Gregori and Fiorella Mannoia. His latest album containing unpublished songs is Passi d'autore of 2004.

After the divorce from Dorina Giangrande, who had worked as chorister in Terra Mia and gave him two sons, Daniele currenty lives with Fabiola Sciabbarasi. The two had a daughter, Sara, whom Daniele dedicated an eponymous song in the album Medina.