Tonight the Twilight Dance Series at the Santa Monica Pier will feature Jovanotti, Jace Everett and Ana Tijoux. As always, the shows are free and start at 7 pm.
Jovanotti (aka Lorenzo Cherubini) fills stadiums in his native Italy and throughout Latin America. He sets out this summer to bring his synthesis of rap and rock to festivals across America. Jovanotti’s music has transformed from its early roots in hip-hop and rap to a broader hybrid, incorporating pointed lyrics which address philosophical, religious, social, and political issues, more typical of a singer-songwriter, Italian cantautore tradition.
Jovanotti has recorded eleven studio albums, the four most recent releases reaching #1 in Italy. Over the past twenty years Jovanotti has collaborated with Brazil’s Daniela Mercury, Sergio Mendes and Carlinhos Brown, and recorded alongside Ben Harper, Michael Franti (Spearhead) and Bono (U2).
Jovanotti appears on several international compilations, most notably Red Hot + Rhapsody, a 1998 tribute to George Gershwin, on which he performs “I Got Rhythm.” His song “Piove” is featured on the CD Peppers & Eggs from the soundtrack of the TV series The Sopranos.
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Indiana-born, Texas-raised, singer/songwriter Jace Everett became enamored by both gospel music and the works of Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings in his teenage years. Jace’s upbringing in the evangelical church and his far-flung travels are apparent in his songs: “The church is where I learned about music, played bass and did my first real public singing…where the girls thought I was really cool. I’ve always been attracted to emotionally and spiritually mature themes, both philosophically and musically.”
Jace’s song ‘Bad Things’ is the “theme” song, heard over the opening title montage of True Blood, HBO”s most successful series since The Sopranos. As the third season begins, Jace Everett releases his own new album “Red Revelations” and hits the road playing these songs. Everett’s music evokes the complex, vividly emotional terrain of his diverse influences; Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ray Charles, Jim Morrison, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Marvin Gaye; and springs from the same sources of inspiration, contradiction and risk.
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Chilean hip-hop artist Ana Tijoux was born in France to a French mother and a Chilean father while they were living in exile during the Pinochet dictatorship. After the country’s return to democracy, the family moved back to Chile. While studying literature in school, Anita began immersing herself in Santiago’s hip-hop underground. Rhyming first in French, then later in Spanish, Tijoux found “…a platform to talk about all kinds of things” in a way that was cathartic.
Ana Tijoux is one of those rare rappers who actually can carry a tune as gracefully as she can craft a lyric. Her singing abilities have caused her to be recruited to perform on tracks with the Argentine electronic-tango-alternative group Bajofondo, and to pair up with Mexican rocker Julieta Venegas on her hit song “Eres Para Mi.”
She has developed a growing following with her jazz-inflected, ‘90s trip-hop, unusually melodic rapping and witty, politically savvy lyrics. Her U.S. debut, 1977, is name after the year of her birth and has just been released by Nacional Records. Anita describes her chosen art form thus: “Hip-hop was born as an art of daring, celebrating, struggling.”
