Zucchero

Adelmo Fornaciari Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI born 25 September 1955 more commonly known by his stage name Zucchero Fornaciari or simply Zucchero is an Italian singer musician and songwriter His stage name is the Italian word for sugar as his elementary teacher used to call him His music is largely inspired by gospel soul blues and rock music and alternates between Italian ballads and more rhythmic RBboogielike pieces He is credited as the father of Italian blues introducing blues to the big stage in Italy He is one of the few European blues artists who still enjoys great international success In his career spanning four decades Fornaciari has sold over 60 million records around the world and internationally his most successful singles are Diamante Il VoloMy Love Baila Sexy ThingBaila morena and the duet Senza una donna Without a Woman with Paul Young He has won numerous awards including four Festivalbar nine Wind Music Awards two World Music Awards 1993 1996 six IFPI Europe Platinum Awards and a Grammy Award nomination He has collaborated and performed with many famous artists including Eric Clapton Jeff Beck Stevie Ray Vaughan Brian May Miles Davis Ray Charles B B King Sting Bono Dolores ORiordan Paul Young Peter Gabriel Luciano Pavarotti and Andrea Bocelli Adelmo Fornaciari was born 25 September 1955 in Roncocesi a frazione small village near Reggio Emilia His father Giuseppe Fornaciari and mother Rina Bondavalli came from rural families At a young age he was the goalkeeper of AC Reggiana 1919 He spent most of his childhood in the seaside town of Forte dei Marmi Province of Lucca Tuscany There he sang in the choir and played an organ in the local church At the age of 12 or 13 he discovered American soul and blues music thanks to an AfricanAmerican friend who was studying in Bologna and lived near his home The first song he played to Fornaciari was Sittin On The Dock of the Bay by Otis Redding and this immediately inspired his interest in soul music The friend taught Fornaciari how to play on the guitar songs by Redding Marvin Gaye and Sam Dave Fornaciari then got together with friends to play rhythm and blues finding his own way to fuse black music and Mediterranean music He started writing his own songs when he was 13 or 14 years old and after learning basic instruments from 16 he moved on to learning the tenor saxophone In Forte dei Marmi he finished his technical high school studies and moved again this time to the city of Carrara His musical career began in 1970 with several small bands such as I Duca Le nuove luci I Decals Sugar Daniel Sugar Candies At that time he was studying veterinary medicine although he liked animals and the course taking 39 out of the 51 exams he wanted to be different from his parents and withdrew from the course in order to pursue his aspirations In 1975 he went to San Francisco and there met the thenyoung Corrado Rustici from Naples his future record producer They talked about a future collaboration on a project with AfroAmerican influences which was then unusual for Italy Source Article Zucchero Fornaciari from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30