In Sanremo it was after ten, and he didn’t go out. It was eleven o’clock, and he wasn’t coming out. At the stroke of midnight there was a slight anxiety floating on the Internet: what happened to him Peppe Vessicchio? «I was worried: I wondered if I would have to conduct on Tuesday evening». The next day, finally, the long-awaited announcement from Carlo Conti: «Maestro Peppe Vessicchio conducts the orchestra». Ariston roar. «It was embarrassing, there was a legend like Patty Pravo on stage and people applauded me. I didn’t expect such a welcome.”
Benjamin Franklin said that there are only two things in the world for sure: death and taxes. The third is Peppe Vessicchio at the Sanremo Festival. From 1990 to today he will have missed a maximum of three times (“I don’t remember, numbers are not my strong point”, he says), it “won” four editions (with Avion Travel in 2000, Alexia in 2003, Valerio Scanu in 2010 and Roberto Vecchioni in 2011), and three times he received the award for best arranger (in ’94, ’97 and ’98). His beard is reminiscent of Giuseppe Verdi’s and for this reason Gigi Proietti enjoyed putting his big face on the thousand lire. His father wanted him to be an architect and instead he became a composer and conductor as well as an all-round television personality. And now, he who is not on Facebook and does not use Twitter, is also an internet idol with the hashtag #exitvessicchio which was a huge success at the last festival.
Neapolitan by origin, Roman by adoption, 60 years old on March 17, he has been married to Enrica since 1989 (“but we’ve been together since ’77”), has a daughter, Alessia, and a granddaughter, Teresa, 19 years old. “The only males in the house,” she notes, “are me and the cat who has the same birthday as me.” The debut on the Sanremo stage dates back to 1990, the year of the reunification of the two Germanys, the First Gulf War and the death of Sandro Pertini, Aldo Fabrizi and Greta Garbo.
An era ago, Master.
«We were not at the Ariston but at the Palafiori. That year the orchestra returned to the stage as we see it today and the duets with foreigners with super guest Ray Charles. I directed Mia Martini who sang The snowfall of ’56 which is also my birth year. My mother always told me about that historical event because it also snowed in Naples, my city.”
What was your childhood like?
«Carefree. I was born in the Cavalleggeri district, between the bourgeoisie of Fuorigrotta and the working-class area of Bagnoli where Eternit thrived. My father worked there as a clerk. I made my toys with asbestos.”
In Bagnoli, asbestos fibers killed hundreds of people.
“Many of my childhood friends are no longer here.”
Have you ever been afraid of getting sick?
«When you are at peace with yourself and with what surrounds you you become almost a fakir, you can drink poison and not suffer any consequences».
Neapolitan philosophy. Your first encounter with music?
«My brother Pasquale strummed the guitar at home and played the accordion and mandolin. He, I and my sister would liven up after Sunday lunch when my father’s sisters arrived at our house.”
Maestro Peppe Vessicchio with his wife Enrica (left), daughter Alessia (right) and granddaughter Teresa (photo Gloria Fegiz)
But after high school he enrolled in Architecture.
«I attended for a few years with excellent results but my heart was divided in half. During the day I studied, in the evening I went to play and attended the Conservatory as an auditor with people of the caliber of Enzo Avitabile, Enzo Amato and Francesco Matrone”.
Was there a “piece of paper” rule in your house?
“Yes. Studying guitar, at the time, only earned you a certificate, not a diploma. To convince me, my father told me that the architect, in his own way, is an artist.”
He didn’t convince her, apparently.
«One day, I was 21, he said to me: “But if you graduate, will you ever become an architect?”. “No,” I replied.”
End of the architect Vessicchio. Your first musical experiences?
«One day my brother brought home a record by Antônio Carlos Jobim, one of the inventors of bossa nova, and I was struck by that harmonic rhythm. I became passionate about Brazilian music which is very similar to Neapolitan music. First with the Aquarius group and then with the Vessicchio trio we went to play in the dance halls. And then I also did cabaret.”
With who?
«They asked Mirko Setaro and me to support some actors for a cabaret show and thus the Rottambuli group was born. I arranged the pieces and played. Among our rivals were Troisi and his Smorfia. Then a girl left and we became Trettré. I eventually decided to leave the trio because it distracted me from my musical goals and they became very successful at Drive In».
Regretful?
«No, I asked to be replaced. I felt that something important would soon arrive for me too.”
And who arrived?
«I tried to hook up with Peppino Di Capri and wrote him a song, Capri always bluewho agreed to sing.”
Was it the turning point?
«No, the turning point came when I met Gino Paoli in 1983. It was a fantastic season. We rewrote the arrangement together The sky in a room and then many other songs: Having you on top of me, A long love story, I’ll leave you a song. Then Zucchero arrived and gradually all the others: Fiorella Mannoia, Ornella Vanoni, Andrea Bocelli, Ron. In 1986 I started working on television.”
Until he became a judge Friends by Maria De Filippi.
«Until then he was more famous among mothers and grandmothers, then I also became famous among their children and grandchildren».
Sanremo 2013, maestro Vessicchio with Fabio Fazio and Luciana Littizzetto
Do you like talent shows?
«McLuhan said that TV has only one purpose: itself. Cultural TV does not exist. In the last fifteen years no interesting young person has arrived from Sanremo, which is the most important stage of Italian pop music. Characters like Noemi, Marco Mengoni, Valerio Scanu, Alessandra Amoroso all come from talent shows.”
Why aren’t more talents found in Sanremo?
«Because today TV rules. Everything that comes from TV is already consecrated and works. In the past, record companies worked on a guy for years. There are great artists like Renato Zero who were born like this, experimenting, making records, perhaps making mistakes at first. Today the trend is to make a product that is not too scary, not very innovative and that pleases the radio.”
What is your opinion of Pippo Baudo, the great lord of Sanremo?
«He was the most passionate about music and a great experimenter. It was he who brought Elio e le Storie tese in ’96. Baudo saw the Festival as a rainbow: the public can choose their favorite colour.”
Carlo Conti?
«As a former disc jockey he is very attentive to the times. If Baudo is like an imaginative jazz player also available for improvisation, Conti is an impeccable metronome.”
Who is Peppe Vessicchio?
«A man who deals with music. Music is good for us regardless of whether we like it, it manages to communicate with our cells, it instills hope. I notice it when on Sunday mornings I go to play in hospitals and senior centers with my string quintet and accordion.”
Do you believe in God?
“Yes. And I believe that everything I manage to do is not mine but is something that I am given to discover.”
But, in your opinion, is God a musician?
«Much more: he is the composer of everything».
Your best Sanremo?
«The first time I directed Avion Travel in ’98 was very special because they let me dress up their song, Sleep and dreamwith all the freedom, exactly as I had imagined.”
And the ugliest one?
“When I wasn’t there.”
How was that week going?
«I used to go abroad on holiday in the sun and watch it on TV with the lump. Sanremo, for me, is an early spring. Every time I go the mimosas open up and it feels like I’m returning to Naples, where I was born.”
