Pino Daniele: the story and growth of an artist at the cinema

The 4-5-6 January the film will be in cinemas “Pino Daniele – Half black”, the documentary that draws a profile of the Neapolitan artist ten years after his death on 4 January 2015.

The film, signed by Mark Spaniards And Stephen Senardi – record producer of Pino Daniele and friend of the singer-songwriter, recounts the birth and artistic growth of Daniele until the publication of the third album “Black in half”, which took place in 1980, an album that introduced him among the greats of both modern Neapolitan song and the panorama of Italian author music.

To tell of that journey, that growth with its prerogatives, there are many of the musicians who played with him in those years, especially James Senese, Tullio De Piscopo, Tony Esposito, Tony Cercola And Enzo Avitabile but also its first producer and discoverer and numerous Neapolitan artists such as Enzo Gragnaniello, Lino Vairetti frontman of the Neapolitan band Osanna, Fausta Vetere of the Nuova Compagnia di Canto Popolare, Montecorvino stone, Teresa De Sio. Obviously the friend is inevitable Massimo Troisi to which Pino he plays an intense version of “ Quando ” (from 1991, therefore following “ Nero a mezzo ” ) on the acoustic guitar just for him in a hotel room.

The whole is enriched by numerous archive interview clips, on the occasion of the singer-songwriter’s television appearances, among the interviewers Gianni Minà And Jocelyn.

“Pino Daniele – Nero a mezzo” shows the musician’s sources of inspiration (especially the Showmen), which we discover being “born” as a guitarist to then become a singer, his ability to combine black music, in particular blues and jazz with Neapolitan culture, the dialect and the history of the city’s music, providing from a lyrical point of view a very particular and attentive to his Naples.

Naples which is the backdrop to Pino’s story, just as it did for his art, especially at the beginning of his career.

There is also space for the live part, with extracts from concerts from the early years, including the famous concert of 19 September 1981 in Piazza del Plebiscito in Naples, when (it is estimated) 200,000 people found themselves “in the city’s parlor” to celebrate the music of their illustrious fellow citizen (then 26 years old) but also to exorcise the drama of the earthquake that hit Irpinia in November 1980 and (partly minor) Naples.

To underline the mark left by Pino Daniele there are the very particular reinterpretations of some of his songs made by young and interesting Neapolitan artists.

Stefano Senardi, with his sensitivity and friendship for Pino, takes us inside the life and art of the Neapolitan singer-songwriter with much affection and delicacy. An opportunity to discover or revitalize the memory of one of the most important singer-songwriters, told here in his rise and in the moment of his “explosion”.