L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2022 www.italoamericano.org 4 NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS F i v e c o n c e r t s around Italy were s o l d o u t i n n o t i m e . O t h e r s across Europe got as much interest and love from local audiences. Finally, on July 27th, he opened for the Rolling Stones in Ger- many, for the second time in his career. This is what any artist dreams of. Simply put, summer 2022 became sort of a perfect one for Zucchero S u g a r F o r n a c i a r i , right before his North America tour officially kicked off in early September. Adelmo Fornaciari was born in a small village near R e g g i o E m i l i a a n d s p e n t most of his childhood in Tus- cany. It was at a very early age that he discovered Amer- ican soul and blues music, through an African-Ameri- c a n f r i e n d s t u d y i n g i n Bologna. He learned how to play guitar and started writ- ing his own songs when he was 13 or 14 years old. Zuc- chero is a child of the 70s a n d p l a y e d w i t h s e v e r a l small bands before visiting San Francisco, where he met Corrado Rustici, who ulti- mately became his record producer. It wasn't until the mid-1980s that Zucchero delivered successful hits. Blue became the then-high- est-selling album in Italian h i s t o r y , w i t h 1 . 5 m i l l i o n copies in 1987 alone. The album, produced by Rustici and featuring musical per- f o r m a n c e s b y C l a r e n c e C l e m o n s , T h e M e m p h i s Horns and David Sancious, included the Italian hit sin- gles Con Le Mani, lyrics by Gino Paoli, and the original version of Senza una Donna ( " W i t h o u t a W o m a n " ) , which later became an inter- national hit in a duet version with Paul Young. During the following Blue Tour, Forna- ciari shared the stage with Joe Cocker (for a cover of "With a Little Help from my Friends"), Ray Charles and Dee Dee Bridgewater. In 1989, Zucchero and his band recorded the album Oro Incenso & Birra in Memphis. The album, influ- e n c e d b y A m e r i c a n s o u l m u s i c , i n c l u d e d g u e s t appearances by Ennio Mor- ricone, Eric Clapton, and blues singer Rufus Thomas. That was the beginning of a f a n t a s t i c c a r e e r : k n o w n today as the "father of Ital- i a n b l u e s , " Z u c c h e r o h a s sold more than 60 million records worldwide, winning m o r e t h a n t w e n t y m u s i c awards and getting a Gram- my Award nomination. His music has a wide range of i n f l u e n c e s i n c l u d i n g B B K i n g , J o e C o c k e r , R a y Charles, Otis Redding, The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, yet it stays unique in many ways. One of them is surely what he gives to the audi- ence during the show. Each c o n c e r t h a s a d i f f e r e n t setlist, thus famous songs alternate with recent releas- es, Discover and D.O.C. Meanwhile, the stage for the World Wild Tour becomes home to a giant sun whose Continued to page 6 Zucchero Sugar Fornaciari brings Italian blues across North America with his 2022 World Wild Tour Zucchero playing his guitar on stage (Photo: Strengthofframe/Dreamstime) SERENA PERFETTO

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