26 June 2022 (gig)
07 July 2022
For Italians, Paolo Conte is more of an institution than just a musician. A constant presence in the evolution of Italian popular song from the early 1960’s as an eminent songwriter for the top artists of that generation such as Adriano Celentano and Enzo Jannacci, then his foray into jazz bringing him international success and finally the extensive use of his music as film and tv soundtracks such as ‘French Kiss’ (1995) and most recently ‘The New Pope’ (2020).
He was born in Asti, Piedmont 85 years ago and has managed to be successful as a singer, pianist, songwriter and lawyer no less. Deeply enamoured with jazz, he has been able to infuse it with various styles of music such as French Chanson and Latino rhythms which together with his deep, vibrant, gravelly voice has created his own inimitable style which is instantly recognisable.
Performing at the Lucca Summer Festival on this hot June summer night, the Piazza Napoleone is choc a bloc there being a seated crowd of 8000 people. An 11 piece band is performing with him and each one of the musicians will have a personal spotlight solo during the course of the evening, Paolo Conte announcement of their names for a well-deserved applause being the only words spoken by the maestro. Instead he communicates as Italians do by hand gestures and facial expressions which the big screens so ably amplify and so the crowd respond to his suggestions with applause or silence as required.
When you age, you tend to become a caricature of your young self: The ears and nose gets bigger, the eyes smaller, the mouth tight, the lips thinner. But what character that face has and indeed, Paolo Conte’s now well-worn features help to add weight to the performance as unlike most rock artists, he allows close ups of his face. The ambience in the square with this simply wonderful music creates a languid feel, very atmospheric, taking you back to the past and your mind fills of filmic images of 1940’s French war battered towns and backstreet bars, or streets filled with Latino music, south American dancers and gauchos swanning about.
Highlights are a subtle, understated but exquisite ‘Sotto Le Stelle Del Jazz’, a quite invigorating and engaging ‘Dancing’, a hauntingly ghostly performance of ‘Madeline’, the fun filled ‘Messico e Nuvole’. His most famous song ‘Via Con Me’ is replayed as the encore with the crowd singing the chorus and after 90 minutes his cutthroat gesture, as he stands up, marks the end of the concert and a most entertaining evening. Indeed the Lucca festival crowd applaud for many minutes even after all musicians have left the stage.
