The causes of Ivan Graziani’s death in 1997
What were the causes of the death of Ivan Graziani, the singer who died at the age of 51? The singer, who had been suffering from colon cancer for almost two years, died on 1 January 1997 in his home in Novafeltria, where he had asked to return from hospital for the Christmas holidays. Buried with him in the local cemetery were one of his guitars (a Gibson that he called “mother guitar”) and his leather vest to which he had attached a hook so that it could support the guitar.
In homage to his passing, all the albums recorded for Numero Uno were reissued, while Antologia collects the songs recorded for Carosello and CGD. In 2012 the tribute album Tributo a Ivan Graziani was published (published by Sony Music), in which numerous Italian artists participated, including Filippo Graziani (Ivan’s son), Marlene Kuntz and Simone Cristicchi.
Who was
Ivan Graziani (Teramo, 6 October 1945 – Novafeltria, 1 January 1997) was an Italian singer-songwriter and guitarist. Ivan Graziani was born on 6 October 1945 in Teramo to a father from Abruzzo and a Sardinian mother from Alghero. Already as a child his passions were the guitar and drawing and his artistic nature led him to enroll at the state art institute of Ascoli Piceno. He married Anna Bischi in 1972, whom he met in 1965, and with whom he had two sons Filippo and Tommaso.
Still eighteen, Graziani was chosen by Nino Dale to play the guitar as a whole, taking over from guitarist Gino della Porta, founder of Gino Guitars. It was with Nino Dale & His Modernists that Graziani also made his recording debut as a singer. The experience with the Nino Dale complex ends with Ivan’s admission to the graphic art institute in Urbino.
In 1966 he founded the group Ivan e I Saggi with Velio Gualazzi (father of Raphael Gualazzi) and Walter Monacchi, also participating in the Davoli Italia Beat Tournament in April 1967, and then changing its name to Anonima Sound. In the same year the group took part in the Bellaria Festival and recorded its first 45 rpm Fuori pione/Parla tu, published in January of the following year.