Italian singer-songwriter Vinicio Capossela is returning to the States in January after his succssful American debut in May. On January 11^th, Capossella performs at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and two days later he’s in New York at

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Webster Hall as part of the fifth annual “GlobalFest,” the one-night showcase of “world music.”

Capossela has been recording since 1990 and has nine records to his credit. His most obvious musical influences are Tom Waits and Paolo Conte. He’s performed and recorded with the likes of American jazz singer Jimmy Scott, guitar virtuoso Marc Ribot, klezmer trumpeter Frank London, and folk singer Matteo Salvatore (you might remember him from the Big Night soundtrack).

In the publicity generated for his American debut, I was struck by another stated influence: Italian Americans. On his official web site and elsewhere, Capossela specifically cites Italian-American culture as an important influence, including musicians Louis Prima and Italo-Argentine-American Astor Piazzolla, the films of Martin Scorsese, and author John Fante. His first three albums, in particular, referenced what Capossela termed “exportable Italianess,” global cultural expressions by Italian singersRenato Carosone and Adriano Celentano popular with Italians throughout the diaspora.

In Laura Caparrotti’s interview for Oggi 7 (May 20, 2007), Capossela hoped his new American public would see him simply as “Vic Damone's Italian cousin.”   Capossela shares nothing vocally with the venerable crooner but resides in the same musical world of a modern pop italianità.

The Italian artist’s appreaciation for Italian-American culture should come as no surprise seeing that Capossela was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1965 to immigrants parents from Calitri(Avellino Province), in Campania, and returned there as a child. His back ground is one deeply touched by a diasporic sensibility. This understanding has become increasingly common in Italy as scholars, artists, and the general public confront their emigrant past as they face their immigrant present.