Jovanotti Announces US Tour

"Culminating a lifelong love affair with America," Jovanotti (Lorenzo Cherubini) is now engaging professionally with the U.S. as never before. ATO Records is determined to introduce American audiences to him with today’s release of Italia 1988-2012, a career retrospective including four new tracks. In September, the Tuscan artist, who has sold over five million albums in his native Italy, takes up residence in New York. In October, he will tour this country, performing in sizable venues nationwide. Please see below for an itinerary including the fall tour and shows this month in San Francisco (at Outside Lands Music Festival), Vancouver, Seattle and Portland, OR.

Italia 1988-2012 is the artist’s first physical album of studio recordings to be released in the U.S. In fact, very little of the material has been released here in any format. The album has garnered pre-release acclaim from The New York Times, NPR, The New York Daily News and others.

Rather than a greatest hits collection, album producer Ian Brennan compiled and remixed what he considers Jovanotti’s most compelling material—the songs that exemplify the latter’s reputation as a Springsteen-style rock poet and a distinctive singer. (Jovanotti laughingly reacted to some of Brennan’s choices with, “Are you sure I recorded that song?”) The album also includes four altogether-new tracks: the new songs “New York for Life” and “Con La Luce Negli Occhi,” and radical reworkings of Jovanotti’s songs “La Porta É Aperta” (from the Ora album) and“Mezzogiorno” (from the Safari album).

Brennan is a longtime Jovanotti fan who won a Grammy earlier this year for Tinariwen’s Tassili (Anti-); produced the debut of Rain Machine, the solo project of Kyp Malone (TV on the Radio); has helmed Grammy-nominated albums by Peter Case and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott; and has worked with Flea, Lucinda Williams, Nels Cline (Wilco), Fugazi, Green Day, Merle Haggard, Corin Tucker (Sleater-Kinney), Bill Frisell, Jonathan Richman and others.

Jovanotti has already achieved rock star status in much of the rest of the world. In Italy, most recent studio album, 2011’s Ora (Now), debuted at #1 there, went on to become the best-selling album of the year, and resulted in sell-outs over 50 arena and stadium dates. In the last few years, he has graced the cover of the Italian editions of Rolling Stone, GQ, Vanity Fair and L’Uomo Vogue, among other magazines.

Outside Europe, Jovanotti has long been a favorite of Latin American listeners and artists, including Oscar winner Jorge Drexler and Juanes, with whom Jovanotti has collaborated live and on recent recordings. Although Jovanotti is still in his early 40s, a whole generation of younger Latin alternative artists grew up admiring him; he has in turn invited Los Amigos Invisibles, Ana Tijoux, Bomba Estereo and others to open for him on recent tours.

Jovanotti’s U.S. concerts have been highly successful, too. In the summer of 2009, he and a mostly US-based band performed 16 sold-out shows at downtown New York clubs. He has returned for brief stints in other parts of this country, including a performance at Central Park SummerStage in 2010, Bonnaroo in 2011, and earlier this year, with TV on the Radio, in The Music of The Rolling Stones Hot Rocks 1964-1971 at Carnegie Hall.

Jovanotti Upcoming U.S. Dates

August 12
San Francisco, CA
Golden Gate Park
Outside Lands Music Festival

August 16
Vancouver, BC
Commodore Ballroom

August 18
Seattle, WA
Neptune Theatre

August 19
Portland, OR
Aladdin Theater

October 1
Washington, DC
9:30 Club

October 2
Philadelphia, PA
Trocadero

October 5
Boston, MA
Royale

October 6
New York, NY
Terminal 5

October 8
Atlanta, GA
Variety Playhouse

October 9
Orlando, FL
House of Blues

October 10
Miami, FL
The Fillmore Miami Beach

October 12
Austin, TX
ACL Music Festival

October 14
Denver, CO
Bluebird Theater

October 15
Minneapolis, MN
First Avenue

October 17
Chicago, IL
The Vic Theatre

October 18
Detroit, MI
Saint Andrew’s Hall