Italian industry veteran Giuseppe Gramitto Ricci, a recording and publishing executive, has died in Milan at the age of 87.
Born in Sicily in 1921, he joined the management team of the Curci music publishing company in 1950 following his marriage to one Clotilde Curci, and worked at the company's offices in Milan's Galleria del Corso, an Italian equivalent of New York's Tin Pan Alley.
During his time with Curci, he discovered a number of high profile artists, including Domenico Modugno, famous for the song 'Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu' (you'll know it as 'Volare') which won the first ever grammy for Record Of The Year back in 1958.
In 1960, Gramitto Ricci founded Carosello Records, which became an important indie label in Italy. He retired from Curci in 1998.