There are clearly a lot of Italians in the audience so you might have been forgiven for thinking you were opposite the Tiber in Rome or the Arno in Florence on this sunny evening. But no, this is Bonn Germany down by the Rhine. Lorenzo Cherubini aka Jovanotti has just brought huge applause by joining Jack Savoretti on the Kunstrasen stage to sing ‘Lo Che non Vivo’. Jack sings ‘You don’t have to say you love me’, but don’t worry, it’s not chaos, the Dusty Springfield (and Elvis) hit was based on Pino Donaggio’s 1960’s hit. It’s wonderful to see both men clearly so happy in the moment. As Savoretti went on to say on Facebook: “‘They’ say never meet your heroes… but ‘they’ never met Lorenzojova!”
But let’s step back a half hour or so. We haven’t yet settled into Bonn as a possible City by the Tiber yet when Jack Savoretti takes to the stage. I’m glad to see on the timetable that his set time has been extended by 15 minutes. I’ve seen Jack Savoeretti grow from a support act at the Harmonie to twice selling out London’s Royal Albert Hall this year, and by each appearance in Bonn/Cologne he has incrementally increased his backing band from none in the Harmonie to last year’s one supporting Zucchero, to this year’s two – piano and guitarist. Truth be told though I’m not overly sorry for the barebones backing. Savoretti sounds at his best to me as musically raw as possible with just his husky voice and Martin acoustic guitar.
The Italian setting, not just for Savoretti’s set but also for that later by Jovanotti, was established after the first number, ‘Do it for love’. A sip from the red wine glass on the piano set him to remarking it was pretty bad wine – not a good choice to offer an Italian… and with ‘Guten Abend’ straining his German conversation to its limits the choice was: talking in english or italian? It seemed like the whole Front Of House audience WAS Italian, so that settled the matter forboth Jack and Jovanotti. Despite that, most of Savoretti’s songs are in english, with the evening’s only exception being ‘Bada Bing Bada Boom’ which hops between the two languages. Surviving from early releases was one of my favourites – ‘Knock Knock’ with its ‘stick in your head refrain, and then of course that duet with Jovanotti. I still prefer the earlier solo Savoretti style. The guitar toting troubador who made his name around open mike nights on Notting Hill and street music sessions, so I’m looking forward to the release soon of his appearance at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2011. There’s no denying though that the pop style approach of his recent releases has catapulted him to stardom in the UK though (and on that theme, I would love to have heard ‘Catapult’ played this evening. Only 45 minutes though… Hopefully Savoretti will soon have the recognition he deserves in Germany too.
Jovanotti, or Jova as his fans know him – and as confirmed by the red, white and green baseball cap he strolls out onstage wearing, has topped the Italian charts since 1994 with every one of his albums. That goes for the German charts too where ‘Serenata Rap’ was a huge hit. If there was a danger of his becoming bored with music, then a break came for him literally and painfully in 2023. whilst travelling in the Dominican Republic he was involved in a serious bicycle accident that left him with a broken thigh bone and collarbone. The singer, now 59 and an avid cyclist, took more than a year to recover and get back in shape for both recordings and concerts.
A new album, “Niuiorcherubini” (Brooklyn Studio, Jova Session 25),” was released in late November via Universal Music Italia. And Jovanotti seems very happy to be hitting the international road again to promote it. So happy and animated in fact that it was difficult to keep track of him from the photopit, as he seemed to continuously race from one stage side to the other as if he had suddenly thought of something he urgently needed to tell the people over on the left and then those on the right. Clearly the Man loves sharing his creative ideas with his audience and the accident has not dented his upbeat outlook.
You don’t continue topping charts over decades by always repeating yourself of course, and Jovanotti has brought to Kunstrasen this evening a band of a dozen or more musicians who can (and do) tackle every musical style with ease, be it Rock, Rap, Funk, Electropop, Reggae and even Italian Ballads.
“You all speak Italian?” he asks early on. It seemed like everyone front of stage shouted yes. In the end it doesn’t matter too much as he observes that anyway, we are all connected by Nature and also by the Elements – which is a good intro into ‘Oceania’. Me? I’m lost linguistically, but Italian is a language that in its very pronunciation conveys great depth and emotion. Die-hard Jova fans will have been pleased to hear ‘So solo che la vita’ with uplifting lyrics describing how finding love makes even life’s simple pleasures more wonderful, played out to lush Brazilian rhythms by the backing band. ‘Bella’ from 1997’s ‘Lorenzo’ disc; continues the theme telling how love transforms the mundane into the special. It’s clearly a key feature in how Jovanotti sees the World. L’Estate Addosso’ takes on the earlier Nature theme as he implores the listener to celebrate Summer – “To breath this freedom before the winds of September blow everything away and a new Season begins”. A positive spirit with just a hint of sadness and nostalgia to add intensity. There is clearly strong emotion and depth hidden behind the man’s bright, almost jester-like costume, of glittering yellow jacket, bright red braces and pink trousers.
I haven’t understood much of the lyrics this evening, but I did enjoy the atmosphere. A man in the audience sees me with my camera and motions for me to take a picture of him with his family. He speaks no german and very little english, but there’s a universal language of humankind that Jovanotti has got me tapped into. We are after all, whatever our nationality, all connected by Nature. I smile and take a picture.
