[1] Jannacci is widely considered as a master of musical art and cabaret,[2] and in the course of his career has collaborated with many famous Italian musicians, performing artists, journalists, television personalities and comedians.

A cardiologist in his day job, he is also regarded as one of the founders of Italian rock and roll music, along with Adriano Celentano, Luigi Tenco and Giorgio Gaber, with whom he collaborated for over forty years.

During the Second World War he took part in the Italian resistance movement, in particular during the defence of Milanese aviation at Piazza Novelli, an act which later inspired songs such as Sei minuti all'alba ("Six Minutes to Dawn").

[4] After finishing high school at the Liceo Scientifico Leonardo da Vinci, Jannacci graduated in harmony, composition and conducting at the Milan Conservatory.

[4] He left Italy for South Africa and the United States to specialise in cardiac surgery, where he joined the team of Christiaan Barnard, the famous surgeon.

[4] In the same years he was able to accompany as a jazz pianist several great names such as Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, Bud Powell and Franco Cerri, with whom he recorded several albums.

[4] Jannacci started his solo career in the early sixties, recording two songs, "L'ombrello di mio fratello" and "Il cane con i capelli", that already revealed his ironic and surreal style.

[4] In these years he also successfully composed several film soundtracks, including Mario Monicelli's Come Home and Meet My Wife and the Academy Award-nominated Lina Wertmüller's Seven Beauties.

[4][9] In 1982 he hosted the variety television Gran simpatico; the same year he reformed the musical duo with Giorgio Gaber for the EP Ja-Ga Brothers.

[4] In 1989 he entered the Sanremo Music Festival with the critically appreciated song "Se me lo dicevi prima"; he came back to Sanremo three more times, in 1990 with "La fotografia" (which won the Critics Award, and was translated in English by Ute Lemper, that recorded with title The Photograph), in 1994 with "I soliti accordi", a duet with the comedian Paolo Rossi, and in 1998 with "Quando il musicista ride".

Just few of them: his son Paolo, Beppe Viola, Cochi e Renato, Bruno Lauzi, Loredana Bertè, Lino Toffolo, Umberto Bindi, Giorgio Strehler, Sandro Ciotti, Lina Wertmüller, Massimo Boldi and Pino Donaggio.