The Italian phrase "Conciati Per Le Feste", which literally means in English Dressed For The Holidays, in Italian has got two meanings. One, which is the exact interpretation of what an English person would assume by looking at a dictionary (Dressed For The Holidays), while the second meaning, for a native Italian, would refer to someone that is going through a rough patch.
Whoever has known the Italian singer/songwriter and pianist Vinicio Capossela artistically for a while, an artist that loves to marry Jazz with Ethnic Folklore as his signature style, knows by know and very well that Capossela enjoys a lot playing with words, as a principle, in his bodies of work, either in an ironic form or in a more profound one.
Vinicio Capossela's current Tour, which the artist has taken not only around Italy but is taking also in several parts of Europe, is indeed called "Conciati Per Le Feste Tour" (hence the aforementioned initial explanation) and it is a Tour in support of Capossela's latest album, called Sciusten Feste N.1965.
Our website has managed to catch up with the Italian artist's Tour in London, at the glorious Union Chapel, where Capossela was part of the London Roots Festival 2024, a musical kermesse that is currently still on in several venues of the UK capital.
In a venue completely packed, for a good 95 percent, at the very least, by Italian supporters, Capossela is accompanied on stage by 5 elements, all dressed in two-pieces stage dresses all in different colours, plus a female vocalist on backing vocals, adding already to a very colourfully designed stage that added element of extravaganza so typical of Capossela's witty musical persona.
The show is designed in two separate sets, in which Capossela will change clothes different times on stage, wearing also hand-made glasses and strangely designed hats at random, something that pleased enormously both the artist and the devoted crowd present here tonight.
On a more and purely artistic side, Capossela is a performer like very few around, right now, thanks also to a unique vocal style that often emerges into a sort of parlato, a little like in Tom Waits' style. The London show's theme takes heavily the cue from Capossela's latest album, which contains, among other songs, also traditional Xmas hymns that the singer/songwriter has translated in Italian and performed on stage, such as Bianco Natale (White Christmas), Santo Nicola E' Arrivato In Citta' (Santa Claus Is Coming To Town), Conforto E Gioia (God Rest You Merry Gentlemen) and Campanelle (Jingle Bells).
Capossela is very clever in shuffling new songs with more classic ones of his vast repertoire (Notte Newyorkese, All'Una E Trentacinque Circa, Che Coss'e' L'Amor, among others), including an unexpected and rather splendid version of In Clandestinita', from his 2008 album called Da Solo.
Often, during the show and in-between Capossela's highly entertaining monologues in a mixed English/Italian/Southern Italy dialect, the Italian artist incites the crowd to raise the volume of the applause, which is something that the very excited crowd is more than happy to oblige at every given point of tonight’s performance.
The band accompanying Capossela on stage tonight is exceptional and, among each individual performance, the drummer Piero Perelli shines particularly for his brilliancy and metronomic precision in switching drumming styles, from Jazz to Tarantellas or even Funk, at the time, with exquisite and almost effortless class.
By the time the show reaches its end, through the notes of a classic of Capossela's repertoire called Al Veglione, the crowd, hypercharged with happiness and exhibiting improvised conga dances around the venue, during the performance, salutes the Italian artist with a last roar, showing all their appreciation for an artist like Capossela able to balance artistic lightness and intensity with enormous talent, showing once again why, not only in his country of origin but also in several parts of Europe, Capossela is so much respected and loved by his adoring fans. A highly entertaining night of music.
Photos by Gio Pilato
