Saturday, July 15, 2023 – h. 21.30
IRENE GRANDI. Me in Blues
Guitar Max Frignani
Bass Piero Spitilli
Drums Fabrizio Morganti
Special Guest Hammond Pippo Guarnera
On Saturday July 15, the Arena stage will host Irene Grandi in Me in Blues, a concert paying homage to the blues: a journey consisting of songs spanning from the 1960s to the 1990s, songs that are blues in soul and inspiration, interspersed with some of Irene’s own songs, rearranged in a rock-blues key.
“ME in Blues” is the act of love from Irene Grandi, one of Italy’s most important singers to some of the most charismatic international and Italian artists who have made, directly or indirectly, immortal a genre that is the basis of all the modern music we know; we find it in soul and rap, in jazz and rock, in funk, everywhere. Blues is a mother that everyone welcomes and loves, indistinctly.
“ME in Blues” is also a passionate tribute to Irene’s roots, her musical training and early stage experiences, in which she gained an imprint that she later developed into a personal and recognisable style.
Thus a concert, a journey, made up of songs stretching from the 1960s to the 1990s, songs that are blues in their soul and inspiration: Etta James, Otis Redding, Willie Dixon, Tracy Chapman, Sade, but also Pino Daniele, Lucio Battisti, Mina, and some of Irene’s songs, rearranged in a rock-blues key.
Irene Grandi is an artist who has always tried to change her skin, to challenge herself, to experiment. This is demonstrated by her most diverse collaborations. which have ranged from the great Italian and international standards reinterpreted in a jazz key with Stefano Bollani to the video art of Pastis, from the pop of her splendid solo career to the rock opera as the protagonist of The Witches Seed, composed by Stewart Copeland.
Tickets on sale online on www.comofestival.org and at the theatre box office from Saturday April 22 at 10 am.
IRENE GRANDI
Irene Grandi’s discographic career has always been accompanied by intense live activity and many collaborations, which, in addition to some of the most influential Italian songwriters and singers Vasco Rossi, Jovanotti, Pino Daniele, Francesco Bianconi, Telonio, Saverio Lanza and others, has led her to share the stage or recording studio with some of the top stars of the International scene such as Youssou N’Dour, Patti Smith, Hector Zazou and James Reid. She has been the protagonist of important television appearances, major events and theatre tours, in which she has engaged large audiences thanks to her natural charisma and powerful, recognisable voice.
Irene Grandi discovered and cultivated her talent during a long period of musical growth in the Florentine and Tuscan environment. She made her debut at the age of twenty-four at Sanremo 1994 in the ‘New Proposals’ category with the song ‘Fuori’, written in collaboration with the author and musician Telonio. The same year her first album, ‘Irene Grandi’, was released.
The year 2000 is the year of Pavarotti & Friends, in which he participates by duetting with Luciano Pavarotti himself on a classical-swing rendition of ‘Guarda che luna’.
In 2012, the desire to shuffle the cards came to fruition again with ‘Irene Grandi & Stefano Bollani’, an album born out of a 20-year collaboration and friendship with the famous pianist. The project, featuring voice and piano, is a reinterpretation of famous songs and standards from different worlds, from the Brazil of Chico Barque de Hollanda and Vinicius De Moraes to the rock of Radiohead to Italian songs by Pino Daniele, Niccolò Fabi, Cristina Donà up to “W la pappa col pomodoro” originally written by Lina Wertmuller to music by Nino Rota.
In 2019 she celebrates twenty-five years of her career with ‘Grandissimo’, an album that represents the two souls of Irene Grandi, popular rocker and refined interpreter.
In these twenty-five years of music, she has passed through the meshes of rock, jazz, bossa nova, songwriting and soul, always being herself and consistent with her choices. She has made an evolution that has never stopped, that of a never tamed artist who has chosen freedom above all else: of expression, of choice, of experimenting, of being independent.
It was with this spirit that she took part in the 2020 Sanremo Festival with ‘Finalmente io’, the song written for her by Vasco Rossi (together with Roberto Casini, Gaetano Curreri and Andrea Righi) and arranged by Celso Valli.
November 2020 saw the release of a limited edition double live vinyl of the concert at the Verdi Theatre in Florence in which the artist celebrated 25 years of her career in her city.
In 2021, she returns to perform live after a year’s break due to the pandemic restrictions, with an entirely new project, ‘IO in Blues’, in which Irene alternates blues classics with songs by blues-related Italian artists such as Pino Daniele and Lucio Battisti and some of her own hits in a new arrangement in a blues key. It is a return to her origins, to her musical and vocal training, which enthuses her and meets with the favour of the public and critics. Irene is awarded by Radio Rai Live and by Mei and closes the renowned review (meeting of independent labels) in Faenza.
In this new project she is joined by her trio (Saverio Lanza, Fabrizio Morganti, Piero Spitilli) and special guest Pippo Guarnera, an experienced hammond player.
I e II AREA: 22€ + 3€ prev.
View seating plan
In case of rain or unfavorable weather, Arena performances will be held on the same evening at Teatro Sociale di Como, without sets. If the performance is interrupted after the beginning of the show, because of bad weather conditions, tickets are non-refundable.
Each seating area of the Arena has a corresponding seating sector in the Theatre. Check below how to find your sector in the Theatre:
- I AREA corresponds to the stalls and boxes;
- II AREA correspond to the galleries.
