ITS NEVER OVER: JEFF BUCKLEY di Amy Berg

After the success at the Sundance Festival and the Rome Film Fest, IT'S NEVER OVER: JEFF BUCKLEY arrives in Italian theaters as a special event, only on March 16, 17, and 18, celebrating 60 years since his birth. The film is directed by Oscar-nominated director Amy Berg (Deliver Us from Evil, Janis: Little Girl Blue, West of Memphis) and co-produced by Brad Pitt. The list of theaters is available on nexostudios.it.

Starting February 13, the deluxe version of “Live at Sin-é,” the famous EP by Jeff Buckley released in 1993, is also available on vinyl and CD from Sony Music. The original version, composed of four tracks recorded in a small club in Manhattan, has been expanded into a hard box set that contains four vinyl records with individually designed covers, a booklet with liner notes and color photos, and live versions of iconic songs such as “Grace,” “Last Goodbye,” and Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” “Live at Sin-é” is available for pre-order at the link: https://bio.to/JeffBuckley.

Just one album, the first (Grace, 1994), was enough for Jeff Buckley (1966-1997), son of the great Tim Buckley, to enter the history of music, before his tragic death in the waters of a Mississippi tributary at the age of thirty in 1997. Amy Berg's documentary reconstructs his life and artistic journey within the cultural context of New York in the 1980s and 1990s. Told through never-before-seen archival materials from Buckley’s personal collection and intimate testimonies from his mother Mary Guibert, former partners Rebecca Moore and Joan Wasser, his former bandmates—including Michael Tighe and Parker Kindred—and artists like Ben Harper and Aimee Mann, IT'S NEVER OVER: JEFF BUCKLEY shines a light on one of the most iconic and enigmatic figures in contemporary music.

Jeff Buckley was born on November 17, 1966, in Orange County, California, and died in a tragic drowning accident in Memphis on May 29, 1997. Emerging in the avant-garde club scene of New York in the early 1990s, he established himself as one of the most extraordinary musical artists of his generation, acclaimed by audiences, critics, and fellow musicians. His first commercial recording, the four-track EP Live At Sin-é, was released in November 1993 by Columbia Records: it captured Buckley and his electric guitar in a tiny café in the East Village of New York, the neighborhood he had chosen as home. At the time of its release in the fall of 1993, Buckley was already in the studio working on his debut album, Grace, alongside Mick Grøndahl (bass), Matt Johnson (drums), and producer Andy Wallace. During that phase, seven original songs (including Lover, You Should Have Come Over and Last Goodbye) and three covers, including Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah and Benjamin Britten’s Corpus Christi Carol, were recorded.

Guitarist Michael Tighe later became the last stable member of Jeff Buckley's ensemble and co-wrote the song So Real, which was added to the album just before its release. Grace was released in the United States on August 23, 1994. In June 1994, Jeff Buckley and his band embarked on the first of a series of consecutive tours that would last for over two years. Much of the material performed during the tours of 1995 and 1996 was recorded and released both on promotional EPs, such as the Grace EP, and posthumously on albums like Mystery White Boy and Live à L'Olympia. On April 13, 1995, it was announced that Grace had earned Jeff Buckley the prestigious Grand Prix International du Disque – Académie Charles Cros 1995, an award given by a jury made up of producers, journalists, the president of France Culture, and music industry professionals. Previously, the recognition had been given, among others, to Édith Piaf, Jacques Brel, Yves Montand, Georges Brassens, Bruce Springsteen, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Joni Mitchell. After the long and demanding tours for Grace, Buckley began working on material for his second album. Between mid-1996 and early 1997, he experimented with new recording sessions with the band in New York and Memphis, with Tom Verlaine as the producer. After that cycle of sessions, Jeff sent the band back to New York, staying in Memphis to continue developing the ongoing work and making numerous four-track home recordings to present to his bandmates and record label executives. Some were revisions of the songs recorded with Verlaine, while others were entirely new compositions. Buckley also began a series of regular—yet mostly anonymous—solo performances every Monday night at Barrister's in Memphis, where he tested the new material. His last concert there took place on Monday, May 26, 1997. The night of his death, Jeff Buckley was on his way to meet the band, arriving from New York, to begin three weeks of rehearsals for the new album My Sweetheart, The Drunk; producer Andy Wallace, who had already worked on Grace, would later join the group in Memphis to record the album. After Buckley's death, the recordings produced by Verlaine and Jeff's demos were released by Columbia under the title Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk on May 26, 1998. Nearly thirty years after his passing, and with numerous posthumous releases, Jeff Buckley’s legacy continues to grow, and his music lives on. His fans include rock legends, pop artists, loyal followers, and an entire new generation of enthusiasts around the world. The only studio album released during Jeff Buckley's lifetime, Grace, continues to endure over time.