Jack Savoretti Biography [1983-2022] A troubadour with a raspy voice that captivates

Giovanni Edgar Charles Charles Galletto Savoretti, known as Jack Savoretti, was born in Westminster (London) on October 10, 1983.

• His mother was half Polish, half German and his father Italian. All Europe in his veins.

He grew up in London until he moved to Lugano (Switzerland) at the age of 7 🍫

Jack Savoretti’s history with airplanes has always been eventful. He has suffered 4 emergency landings and once even a lightning struck the plane he was traveling in. Fortunately, nothing has ever happened to him.

One day Jack was getting a haircut with his regular hairdresser, he told Savoretti that Anne Barrett, owner of the De Angelis label, which carried other artists such as Natalie Imbruglia, had recently stopped by. Of course, Jack asked her to introduce them.

• Before long he was auditioning for her and signing his first contract at 18 🖊️
• One of his first moves was to travel to the United States to make a name for himself there. He performed on a show and had a little promotion, but little else.

At that time the label came up with the idea of Jack doing a mini-tour playing in cafes to promote the album. They reached an agreement with the Caffé Nero chain ☕ being the first artist to do something similar.

• This documentary summarizes the interesting experience that led to the re-release of the album.

He caught the attention of singer Corinne Bailey Rae who invited him to be an opening act on her European tour. Later Gavin De Graw would do the same.

In 2009, after several delays, Jack Savoretti releases ‘Harder than Easy‘, and does so with a song that he offered to his fans for free, ‘Him and Her’.

• He also wrote One Day for a film called Post Grad.

That he was an exceptional singer was never in dispute – those gorgeous, gritty, soul-soaked vocals that caused such a fuss when he first emerged and saw his DIY debut, 2007’s Between The Minds, championed by Radio 2 – but by his own admission, his early work was him finding his feet.

Although the album was really good and he was an exceptionl singer, he was still finding his feet.

• The label started pushing him to change his style to something more commercial, dropping his folk-acoustic, dreamy, soulful style. They even suggested he change his last name because it sounded too much like “world music 🌍”.

He was not ready for all that change and did not want it at all. It was an awful time, which also coincided with his wife’s first pregnancy, so he could not be of much support to her.

In 2010 Jack Savoretti was done with the label and quit making music:

• He had had enough precariousness in his life as an independent artist.
• He was tired of commercial failures and being considered a future star.
• He’d spent two years (and all of his savings) in legal dispute with a former manager.

The bad times gave him the opportunity to bring out everything he had inside and put it down on paper in the form of a song. Which in 2012 would result in his 3rd album, Before the Storm. Jack recalls:

As soon as I said, ‘screw this’, I couldn’t stop writing.

I wrote out of anger, although the songs were more of a cry for help. It was the best, most personal music I’d ever made.

I realised I had really learnt how to write, how to express exactly what was in my head

In 2016 Jack released his fifth album ‘Sleep no more‘, with kept him on the road for three to four years, including a John Legend European support tour.

• At this time, he performed his first concert in Portofino, which is a little hidden away port about a 30-minute drive from Genoa, Italy, where Jack’s family is from. He grew up going there every summer ⚓
• In 2018 he featured on Kylie Minogue’s ‘Music’s Too Sad Without You‘.

Jack Savoretti’s paternal grandparents hid in the mountains near Genoa during World War II. His grandfather was part of the Italian Resistance that liberated the city. A street in Genoa was named in his memory 🛣️

Europiana is an excellent album, with a certain retro touch and a fresh air that takes us back to summer nights on the Mediterranean coast 🌊

• There are clear reminiscences to classic European singers of the 50s, 60s and 70s, such as Salvatore Adamo, Raphael or Julio Iglesias.
• One of the best songs, and I’m telling you there are many, is the one he recorded with Nile Rodgers, ‘Who’s hurting who’.
• By the way, if you look closely, you will discover his wife and children doing backing vocals on another marvelous song that closes the album, ‘War of Words‘.