Giovanni Lindo Ferretti was born in Cerreto Alpi, Emilia, Italy, on September 9, 1953. After his studies and after working five years as a psychiatric worker, he began to travel around Europe: in Berlin he met Massimo Zamboni, with whom in 1982 he founded CCCP Fedeli alla linea, which later disbanded in 1990. Two years later he created CSI (Consorzio Suonatori Indipendenti).
Also in 2000, he released iCO.DEX, initially conceived as a two-man effort with Zamboni: the pair broke up, the album became a solo effort, and CSI also disbanded. 2003 saw the arrival of INIZIALI:BCGLF, an album based on the play of the same name in collaboration with director Giorgio Barberio Corsetti and with Gianni Maroccolo, former Litfiba bassist and member of CSI, which in the meantime had been reborn under the new guise of PGR, without Zamboni. Instead, in 2004 it was the turn of LITANIA – an album featuring traditional prayers interspersed with the repertoire of CCCP and CSI – in which Ambrogio Sparagna participated.
In recent years he has published a couple of books, and held shows around Italy dedicated to popular music, however at a reduced pace, due to both health and personal problems. In 2009 he returned to collaborate with Maroccolo and Giorgio Canali for ULTIME NOTIZIE DI CRONACA, an album that marked PGR’s closing chapter.
In the following years, Ferretti continued to take several plays around Italy. One of them, with songs from his groups’ repertoire, became a live record in 2012. Instead, 2013 saw the release of SAGA – IL CANTO DEI CANTI, an album of unreleased songs derived from the show of the same name and recorded in the studio with the artistic production of Lorenzo Esposito Fornasari.
July 2018 sees the release of “Bella gente d’Appennino, di madri e di famiglie” (NoMusic), the new live album by Giovanni Lindo Ferretti, recorded at the Church of San Pietro in Reggio Emilia on December 13, 2017.
(Rockol)