Photo: Giovanni Stefano Ghidini

by John Oseid

So, you're finally taking that trip to Italy this summer. It's time to join the cognoscenti who adore the brilliant singer/songwriter Jovanotti, whose cracker of a year back home included his smash album Safari and sold-out 2008 tour. The socially and politically engaged pop star puts on a nonstop, madcap stage performance.

Jovanotti's U.S. debut was the social event of the year for NYC's natty ex-patriot Italian community. Poisson Rouge on Bleecker Street (the old Village Gate jazz club space) was jam-packed, the crowd jumped up and down and sang along to every song like they'd been fiending for a fix of his eclectic elements of ska and reggae, funk and muscular rock riffs, rap . . . and bits of tango.

The Roman-born Tuscan is hardly a newcomer; in 20 years he's gone from DJ to rapper to world music sampler. His latest album Safari is a mature, mostly mellow and pensive work. That's the musical polymath Ben Harper you hear playing a Weissenborn lap steel guitar on the hit single "Fango" (Mud). The video for the song was shot on film at Iguazú Falls; fans of directors Herzog and Malick will recognize the homage.

You could use Jovanotti's flowing lyrics to teach your Italian class. In English, the refrain to Fango might be prosaic: "I know I'm not alone even when I am alone." But it's phonetically wicked in Italian and just lovely:

Io lo so che non sono solo
Anche quando sono solo

Once you become a Jovanotti acolyte like me, you'll proselytize your friends and forget you'd never heard of him before . . . till now.

Jovanotti performing at New York's Highline Ballroom the night before I caught him at Poisson Rouge.
Photo: Anthony Salamone

More music:
* Jovanotti's videos are pure theater. He plays jester on "Mezzogiornio" and does a slow dance with earth movers in "Come Musica". Here's version 2 of his hit "Fango"
* If you read Italian, you'll enjoy Jovanotti's chronicles of his recent artistic adventure in New York on his Web site.
* Check out "Mani Liberi" with American hip-hop fusion Michael Franti
* Boom Box: An unabashed gusto for music of the world