Jack Savoretti: First Italian-speaking album at 40. Picture: Chris Floyd
AHEAD of his York Museum Gardens concert on July 18, Anglo-Italian singer Jack Savoretti will be reconnecting with his roots on his first Italian-speaking album Miss Italia.
Released on May 10, it is preceded by first singleSenza Una Donna (Without A Woman), Londoner Savoretti’s collaboration with Italian superstar singer-songwriter Zucchero. First released in 1991 as a five million-selling duet between Zucchero and Paul Young, the 2024 version is enriched by new arrangements and production.
Over a 30-year career, blues musician Zucchero has sold more than 60 million records, played world tours and collaborated with Luciano Pavarotti, Andrea Bocelli, Eric Clapton, Joe Cocker, Miles Davis, B.B. King and Sting.
In turn, singer-songwriter Savoretti has chalked up collaborations with Bob Dylan, Kylie Minogue, Shania Twain, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Nile Rodgers, among others. However, although bi-lingual from birth, writing in Italian was uncharted territory for Savoretti until now in a 16-year recording career that has delivered seven albums, his last two, 2019’s Singing To Strangers and 2021’s Europiana, both topping the official UK album charts.
The cover artwork for Jack Savoretti’s Miss Italia album
Over the years, his songwriting has been informed by his musical upbringing, with its combination of 1960s/1970s’ California singer-songwriters and European chansonniers such as Charles Aznavour and Lucio Battisti. For Miss Italia, Savoretti sought to hone his craft even further, in a different language to boot.
Sourcing a who’s who from the contemporary songwriting scene in Italy, he found a group of fellow craftsmen and women for collaborations. The resulting album came at an important moment in 40-year-old Savoretti’s life, following the death of his Italian father.
“My father was the anchor that tied me to Italy, the connection to my roots that I felt I was at risk of losing without him,” says Jack, whose full name is Giovanni Edgar Charles Galletto-Savoretti.
The poster for Jack Savoretti’s outdoor concert in York Museum Gardens, promoted by Futuresound
“So I went back to school. I didn’t want to imitate Italian music; I wanted to make it my own, combining everything I had learned over almost 20 years of experience from working in America, England, and Italy, merging Anglo-Saxon singer-songwriting with Italian to create something unique. I first had to learn to write in Italian before making MY album in Italian.”
He will be playing York in a month that will take him to Italy to perform at the Tener-A-Mente Festival, Gardone Riviera, on July 7 andTeatro La Versiliana, Marina Di Pietrasanta, on July 31, either side of his Museum Gardens show.
Will he sing any of Miss Italia’s songs in York? Find out on July 18. Tickets are on sale via www.jacksavoretti.com/events/2024-07-18-jack-savoretti-york-museum-gardens. His special guests that day will be Irish storytelling songwriter Foy Vance and York singer-songwriter Benjamin Francis Leftwich. Gates open at 5pm.
Keith Allen: Homing in on The Homecoming arriving at York Theatre Royal on Monday
AVOIDING the “devastation of stag and hen parties” (copyright Rachael Maskell, York Central MP), Charles Hutchinson finds reasons aplenty to venture out.
Play of the week: Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming, York Theatre Royal, Monday to Saturday, 7.30pm; Thursday, 2pm; Saturday, 2.30pm
GAVIN & Stacey star Mathew Horne and Keith Allen star in Jamie Glover’s new production of The Homecoming, Harold Pinter’s bleakly funny 1965 exploration of family and relationships.
University professor Teddy returns to his North London childhood home from America, accompanied by his wife Ruth, to find his father, uncle and brothers still living there. As life becomes a barely camouflaged battle for power and sexual supremacy, who will emerge victorious: poised and elegant Ruth or her husband’s dysfunctional family? Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Tom Figgins: Introducing new material tonight at Stillington Mill. Picture: Daniel Harris
Outdoor gig of the week: Tom Figgins, Music At The Mill, Stillington Mill, near York, tonight, 7.30pm
SINGER-SONGWRITER Tom Figgins returns to At The Mill’s garden stage after last summer’s sold-out performance, with the promise of new material.
Figgins’ vocal range, guitar playing and compelling lyrics caught the ear of presenter Chris Evans,who hosted him on his BBC Radio 2 show and invited him to play the main stage at CarFest North & South.
His instrumental works have been heard on Countryfile and Panorama and he is the composer for the Benlunar podcast, now on its fourth series. Box office: tickettailor.com/events/atthemill.
Martin Roscoe: Guest piano soloist for York Guildhall Orchestra
Classical concert of the week: York Guildhall Orchestra, York Barbican, tonight, 7.30pm
YORK Guildhall Orchestra’s final concert of their 2021-2022 season welcomes the long-awaited return of pianist Martin Roscoe, originally booked to perform in May 2020.
Retained from that Covid-cancelled programme are Shostakovich’s Jazz Suite, with its combination of cheeky jazz tunes and the Russian’s mastery of orchestration, and Dohnanyi’s mock-serious take on a children’s nursery rhyme. Leeds Festival Chorus join in for Elgar’s Music Makers. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Go West and Paul Young: Eighties’ revival at York Barbican
Eighties’ nostalgia of the week: Go West & Paul Young, York Barbican, Sunday, 7.30pm
PETER Cox and Richard Drummer’s slick duo, Go West, and Luton soul singer Paul Young go north this weekend for a double bill of Eighties’ pop.
Expect We Close Our Eyes, Call Me, Don’t Look Down and King Of Wishful Thinking, from the Pretty Woman soundtrack, in Go West’s set. The chart-topping Wherever I Lay My Hat, Love Of The Common People, Everytime You Go Away and Everything Must Change will be on Young’s To Do list. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Paul Merton’s Impro Chums: Wanting a word with you at the Grand Opera House
Fun and word games of the week: Paul Merton’s Impro Chums, Grand Opera House, York, Monday, 8pm
HAVE I Got News For You regular and Comedy Store Players co-founder Paul Merton teams up with fellow seasoned improvisers Richard Vranch, Suki Webster and Mike McShane and accompanist Kirsty Newton to flex their off-the-cuff comedy muscles on their first antics roadshow travels since August 2019.
“What audiences like about what we do is that we haven’t lost our sense of play, our sense of fun, the sort of thing that gets knocked out of you because you have to get married or get a mortgage or find a job,” says Merton. Let the fun and games sparked by audience suggestions begin. Box office: 0844 871 7615 or atgtickets.com/York.
Hayley Ria Christian: All aboard her Midnight Train To Georgia for a night of Gladys Knight hits
Homage, not tribute show, of the week: Hayley Ria Christian in Midnight Train To Georgia, A Celebration Of Gladys Knight, Grand Opera House, York, Friday, 7.30pm
HAYLEY Ria Christian’s show is “definitely not a tribute, but a faithful portrayal that truly pays homage to the voice of a generation, the one and only Empress of Soul, Ms Gladys Knight”.
In the late Sixties and Seventies, Gladys Knight & The Pips enjoyed such hits as Take Me In Your Arms And Love Me, Help Me Make It Through The Night, Try To Remember/The Way We Were, Baby, Don’t Change Your Mind and her signature song Midnight Train To Georgia. Box office: 0844 871 7615 or atgtickets.com/York.
Milton Jones: International spy turned comedian in Milton: Impossible
Comedy gig of the week: Milton Jones in Milton: Impossible, Harrogate Theatre, May 21, 7.30pm
ONE man. One Mission. Is it possible? “No, not really,” says Kew comedian Milton Jones, the shock-haired matador of the piercing one-liner, as he reveals the truth behind having once been an international spy, but then being given a somewhat disappointing new identity that forced him to appear on Mock The Week.
“But this is also a love story with a twist, or at least a really bad sprain,” says Jones. “Is it all just gloriously daft nonsense, or is there a deeper meaning?” Find out next weekend. Box office: 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk.
Grace Petrie: Carrying on the fight for a better tomorrow when every day you are told you have lost already
Protest gig of the week: Grace Petrie, The Crescent, York, May 23, 7.30pm
DIY protest singer Grace Petrie emerged from lockdown with Connectivity, her 2021 polemical folk album that reflects on what humanity means in a world struggling against division and destruction.
Petrie’s honest songs seek a way to carry on the fight for a better tomorrow when every day you are told you have lost already. Bad news: her York gig has sold out. Good news: she will be playing Social, Hull, too on May 18 at 8pm (box office, seetickets.com). On both nights, she will be accompanied by long-time collaborator, singer and multi-instrumentalist Ben Moss.
