“Myou come back to mind, beautiful as you are … “, who knows how many millions of people would not have been able to hear or sing her if it hadn’t been for him, with his intuition and his being an influencer in the world of music from ’58 to early 1980s: Nanni Rememberthe.
Nanni Ricordi with Mariaa Callas (© Ricordi Archive).
Yes why he invented and discovered the songwriters himself. “Cantautori”, or the authors who also sang, which has always been talked about and which is talked about a lot today, perhaps with nostalgia. The vinyl restyling is proof of this, in addition to the recent golden ambrogini to Ricky Gianco and Mogol.
Carlo Emanuele Ricordi, known as Nanni, born in Milan, was the heir to the dynasty of one of the most famous record companies in the world. Tall, handsome, fine, captivating smile, easy-going (like all true greats), sometimes even gruff, infallible talent scout nose thanks to his DNA.
His great-grandfather Giulio, in fact, discovered and launched Puccini, against the opinion of Casa Ricordi, as Nanni, many decades later, among many, discovered Lucio Battisticlashing with the management of the company, who considered it “not very commercial” … He discovered and launched many talents, almost all of them!
The statue dedicated to Giulio Ricordi is located in Largo Ghiringhelli, in Milan, right where the windows of the historic Ricordi shop overlooked.
At the end of the 1950s, with the development of the author’s song, Ricordi became one of the record and publishing companies – (editorial was already so since 1808 with the opera) – among the most important in Italy but also in Europe and the south America.
Nanni is appointed artistic director of Dischi Ricordi, the new recording division of the G. Ricordi & C. editions. After two years of work, he fully achieved his goal.
But the revolutionary significance of his work in pop music was fully understood only later, when it became clear that it was not just a new trend but an important cultural change, tastes and trendswhich would have had an influence on the production choices of the entire record industry.
A magical period begins and an unrepeatable season, with authors and songs that still remain among our favorites and that have accompanied and gladdened millions of lives of people.
From Sergio Endrigo, to Enzo Jannacci, from Gino Paoli to Gaber, from Vanoni to Milva … all owe their success to Nanni, he is the “artistic father”. Impossible to list them in full here.
His charisma also infects those already established, from Patty Pravo to Mina, to Francesco De Gregori and Lucio Dalla … friend and teacher, everyone loved him very much.
His large house in Porta Nuova 10 in Milan, where he lived with his wife Marisa and children, Camillo and Marella, was always open to everyone, at all hours. Point of passage (today called hub) for friends, acquaintances, artists, musicians, aspiring stars, minstrels, schoolmates of their children, lounge for the after Scala. We talked, ate, listened to the music of the 45 rpm and then the 33, or the music from the piano …
A mentor and a teacher, always careful to identify, respect and promote the aspirations and attitudes of those who worked with him; gentle but also direct, so much so that he is no stranger to anger, quick decisions and concreteness.
Above all far-sighted, so much so that he never set artistic or stylistic limits, as when he discovered Lucio Dalla and Ivan Cattaneo. She always had a sense of responsibility for the name she bore.
Like Susanna Agnelli who in hers We dressed in the sailor’s style she remembers being raised with the mantra repeated by the English nannies: “remember, you are an Agnelli!”, so Nanni joked about his important surname: “There are those who live on memories, I am Ricordi!”, As Caterina Caselli reveals in the book Do you remember Nanni?by Claudio Ricordi.
Not only do I work in the wake of family tradition, but something different and more, to be left to posterity, and a mark also in popular music. His passion for politics, his commitment, his friendship with Dario Fo and Franca Rame cannot be overlooked..
Nanni went on like this, until, for diversity of views with the record company, he decided to leave the (family) company and play as a free hitteruntil the early 80s, when he started to be a producer, but now, with the advent of pop music, times had changed inexorably.
Nanni “retires” (with the same passion to look for new talents) in the Monferrato countryside with Sandra, his second partner, until in 2012, just under the age of eighty, he died on a cold January day, after fighting for 9 years against a neurodegenerative disease.
The poster of the event “Nanni Ricordi, the man who invented records”
On 8 June an exhibition dedicated to him will be inaugurated at AEM in Piazza Po, with historical materials from the Ricordi Archive: Nanni Ricordi, the man who invented records.
Afterwards, a preview screening of a documentary about his life is scheduled.
INFO: AEM FoundationMilan, piazza Po, 3.
Free entry.
fondazioneaem.it/nanni-ricordi
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