Award-winning vocalist Chiara Izzi presents her new live recording project, Live in Bremen, marking her second album release on Dot Time Records. Due out March 11, 2022, Live in Bremen flaunts the New York-based, Italian singer-songwriter’s keen ear and dialectal brilliance as she tells stories in Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and English. By employing a piano-and-song format alongside the gifted pianist Andrea Rea, Izzi weaves together a variety of cultural subjects, creating an intimate and universal auditory experience for listeners all over the world.
With a foundation of American, Argentinian and Italian jazz music, Live in Bremen embodies a classical richness that is enhanced by Izzi’s stylistic method of blending her lyrics and languages. Borrowing approaches from her several different musical worlds, Izzi began this project by reimagining familiar standards and allowing each song’s original melodies and harmonies to dictate the language of her own arrangement and lyrics. This tactic is displayed on tracks like “Pavane For Peaceful Times,” where Izzi added English lyrics to the Gabriel Fauré composition.
“Through adding these new flavors to established works I hope to share a meaningful story, building on the authenticity already present in these pieces,” Izzi notes. “I am aiming to joyfully honor jazz and its iterations across borders and time while illustrating how artists continually learn, influence and borrow from one another. Music is a language we all know and share.”
Izzi takes inspiration from Esperanza Spalding’s arrangement of the Johnny Green original, “Cuerpo y Alma” (“Body and Soul”), presenting a slower reimagination of the tune, and offering room for Rea to improvise a playful, bouncing piano solo.
Paying homage to the Italian jazz repertory on her rendition of the D’Anzi-Bracchi classic “Tu, Musica Divina,” Izzi highlights the similarities between the well-known American songwriters and their unsung Italian counterparts.“Samba in Preludio” is a sonic artifact of the 1970s, resonating both Brazilian and Italian influences in a sulky ballad about a broken heart. “Miradas,” which translates to “look” or “gaze” in English, is a collaboration by Italian composer Nicola Corso and Yanina Lombardi. The longtime friendship between the pair is palpable in the inviting atmosphere of the opening composition.
Izzi’s final track travels close to her homeland. “Terra Nostra,” an Italian folk song from the vocalist’s home region, Molise, is sung in a local dialect. A depiction of Molise’s rich culture, lush landscapes and vibrant young community, “Terra Nostra” is a sentimental tune brimming with possibility.
By uniting a variety of dialects, Chiara Izzi showcases her command of several languages while simultaneously guiding her listeners through an advanced and enriching lesson in anthropology. Her carefully curated standards call upon a wide selection of artists, writers, places and ideas — all that have inspired her insightful, unique career. Live in Bremen offers more than the silken texture of a vocal-piano duo tape, but a rare example of a masterful communicator, a woman who is fluent in languages, art form and their multitudes.
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