Gianfranco Baldazzi

Gianfranco Baldazzi (28 July 1943 – 25 June 2013) was an Italian lyricist, record producer, author and journalist.

Life and career
Born in Bologna, Baldazzi started his career as a stage actor. Active from the second half of the 1960s, he wrote songs for Mina, Lucio Dalla, Gianni Morandi, Ornella Vanoni, Peppino di Capri, Ron among others. He was also a producer, and between 1991 and 1994 he was artistic director of the label Pressing. As an author, Baldazzi wrote several books about Italian music history, some biographies and a historical novel set in the Middle Ages, "Il Silenzio della Cattedrale" (The Silence of the Cathedral). He also collaborated with several magazines and newspapers, and with the TV-channel RAI International.

Publications

 * La canzone italiana del Novecento (Newton Compton, 1988), a history of Italian Song from Enrico Caruso to Eros Ramazzotti
 * I nostri cantautori (Thema, prima edizione 1990), a history of Art Song in Italy from Odoardo Spadaro to the present day
 * Dalla (Muzio, prima edizione 1990), a biography of singer-songwriter Lucio Dalla, told by a friend from his same hometown
 * Le parole che cantavamo (50&PIÙ, Le Perle della Memoria, 2004)
 * Lucio Dalla. L'uomo degli specchi (Minerva Edizioni, 2013) with photos by Roberto Serra