Fabrizio De André

Fabrizio de André (born February 18, 1940 in Genoa - died January 11, 1999 in Milan) was an Italian singer-songwriter. His father welcomed him to the world by playing Gino Marinuzzi's "Country Waltz" on the home gramm

Fabrizio de André (born February 18, 1940 in Genoa - died January 11, 1999 in Milan) was an Italian singer-songwriter. His father welcomed him to the world by playing Gino Marinuzzi's "Country Waltz" on the home grammophone. Twenty-five years later, Fabrizio de André would set his "Waltz for a Love" to Marinuzzi's waltz tune. When the war broke out, the De Andrés had to seek refuge in a country farm near Revignano d'Asti, in Piedmont. Fabrizio's father, who was an Anti-fascist and was pursued by the police, joined the Maquis. In 1945 the De Andrés came back to Genoa. Fabrizio went to the primary school, first at the Marcellian Sisters' School and, later, at the Cesare Battisti public school. He attended then the Gymnasium and, after his school-leaving examination, he enrolled in the Law faculty of the University of Genoa; but he did not graduate (he gave up when only six examinations were left). Fabrizio de André had a strong feeling for music; he practised first the violin, then the guitar, and joined a number of local jazz bands (jazz was his "first love").

His career as a songwriter and performer began in the late fifties, under the strong influence of the French chansonniers, especially Georges Brassens (1921-1981), whose songs he admirably translated into Italian and sung together with his first own songs.