“Ornella recorded a Vivere by Vasco Rossi that gives you goosebumps”

After thousands of people paid their last respects to her by parading in front of her body at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan between yesterday and this morning, this afternoon at 3.00 pm in the church of San Marco in Milan the funeral of Ornella Vanoni disappearance last Friday at the age of 91.

On the disappearance of the Milanese singer National newspaper brought back the memory of Mario Lavezzi, his friend and collaborator for many years. This is what the 77-year-old Milanese musician told, starting from the terrible moment in which he learned of Ornella’s disappearance.

Who warned her?

“Lawyer Annamaria Bernardini de Pace. Friend of both of us. Quite an incredible circumstance, given that it was she who introduced us to each other in ’90. She called me saying that we needed to lend a hand to Ornella and I told her that I had a potential hit aside, written with Mogol. It was ‘Insieme a te’, a song that I had already tried to propose to her a couple of years before, but in vain. In the end, we recorded it together with a new arrangement and we know how it went.”

From there the beginning of your collaboration.

“The start of an agreement that has continued for eleven albums. On November 27th we should have created a new Vanoni-Paoli duet here in Milan, in the same studio where in June-July with Ornella we had recorded a cover of Vasco Rossi’s ‘Vivere’ which, at this point, I hope comes out as soon as possible. Because it is extraordinary, it gives you goosebumps”.

Are there any other new songs on the side?

“I don’t think so. The re-release of the album ‘Sheherazade’ released for the thirtieth anniversary, however, contained the unreleased ‘Bello amore’ (kept off the album with the intention of presenting it at Sanremo ’96, but then disqualified for having been performed first in a Radio Rai program with other lyrics – ed.)”.

What was behind that disruptive personality?

“A great intelligence and a love of being contradictory which is quite difficult to find today in an artistic world populated by yes-men. And then Ornella was extremely meticulous, capable of auditioning a piece even 30-40 times before arriving at the final version”.

Did she decide?

“Yes. In Pisa, during the recording of ‘Sheherazade’, we received the audition of ‘The Best Years of Our Life’ from Maurizio Fabrizio, but due to a singular astral conjunction she didn’t like the piece and said no. She wasn’t the only one, as far as I know, given that before contacting us Fabrizio had proposed it to Giorgia”.

Renato Zero thanks.

“That’s how things go in music. I also proposed ‘Vita’ to Fiorella Mannoia and Mina without success. In hindsight I should say thanks to both of them, given the success subsequently met with Dalla and Morandi’s version.”

Projects?

“She would have liked to make a docufilm of her own and had already gone to Rome to talk about it with the production. Soon, however, the one made last year between Milan and Rome on the occasion of the concerts at the Teatro degli Arcimboldi and the Baths of Caracalla with guests Gigi D’Alessio, Malika Ayane, Mahmood, Elisa, Fiorella Mannoia and others will arrive. I have already optimized the audio”.