Salvatore Cucchiara was born on October 30, 1937 in
Agrigento, Sicily, Italy. After studying music in 1955 he began performing in
some shows and in 1956 he made his debut on the radio, and in 1957 he
participated in the television variety show “Voci e volti della fortuna”. He
then was signed to a record contract for the Neapolitan label. Now known as
Tony Cucchiara he was hired by RAI in 1960, and moved to Milan, where he
befriended another young Sicilian immigrant, Pippo Baudo, and where he worked
with many major orchestras, including those of Piero Umiliani and Pippo
Barzizza, and landed a recording contract with Sprint home label for Durium. He
was a regular guest on the 1961 program “Il fico d'India” along with Enzo
Consoli
After a few songs, with little success, Lorelyn' e Lucienne (1962) reached wide
popularity along with Annalisa, which also becomes the theme
song for television’s “Alta pressione” directed by Enzo Trapani. The same year
he participated in the Cantagiro with Genevieve, then participated in the
soundtrack of the film “L'amore difficile” written by the maestro Piero Umiliani
with the love song Cantu d'amuri.
During this time Tony appears in his only Euro-western the musical “A Fistful
of Songs” (1966).
Cucchiara formed a folk duo with his wife, singer Nelly
Fioramonti, recording two albums with original songs and a few covers of American
songs: for example Where Have All the
Flowers Gone by Pete Seeger (the Italian text was written by Daniele Pace)
and Ma sto pagando a cover of There but for fortune by Phil Ochs. In 1969, the two sang Il tempo dell'amore.
Tony would continue as a soloist, and found his greatest
successes Se vuoi andare vai released as a single in the summer
1966, È l'amore was also released the
same year at the Festival of Roses 1966, Ciao
arrivederci came out in the summer of 1967 and Vola cuore mio in the summer 1971.
In the same year he wrote the song Una casa piccola for Donatella Moretti and takes part in the
Sanremo Festival of 1972 with Preghiera
and wrote two songs for Giuliana Valci, Cavaliere
di latta and Come un vecchio amico
In 1973 Cucchiara becomes a widower, as his wife Nelly
died prematurely giving birth to their second child.
Turning to the theater Cucchiara writes the musical
Cassandra 2000, in 1970 the group that accompanies the songs is The Point,
whose drummer is Stefano D'Orazio. It reflects the experience in 1972, when he
puts on stage, with considerable success to the public and critics, "Cain
and Abel", a musical that addresses the issue of violence through the
centuries, in a form that meets the tastes of the general public. This
experience makes Cucchiara slowly abandon the activity of singer-songwriter and
he becomes devoted entirely to the theater and insists on producing other
musicals such as Top Stories in the suburbs (which the participation of Marisa
Sannia), some of his most inspired creations are Tragicomica, La baronessa di
Carini, Swing e Pipino il breve
He then writes Stracci, with the collaboration of the
Teatro Stabile di Catania, Don Chisciotto di Girgenti in 1990-91, and many
other shows, including L'altra Cenerentola and Il conte di Montecristo, both
written with his son musician Gianluca. Over the past thirty years, Tony Cucchiara
has played an influential role in the Italian cultural scene. Today we
celebrate his 75th birthday.
No comments:
Post a Comment