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It’s Easy to Love Roberta Gambarini—At the Dakota February 8th

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Friday, 19 March 2010

It’s Easy to Love Roberta Gambarini—At the Dakota February 8th

Written by Andrea Canter, Contributing Editor

Friday, 05 February 2010

"She has a versatile style and she has a voice that is almost limitless as far as range is concerned. She has wonderful clarity. You can understand every word she says, which is not possible with some singers... Her versatility reminds me of Ella Fitzgerald... Playing for her is one of the highlights of my life.” – Hank Jones
Roberta Gambarini © Andrea Canter

Since placing a surprising third in the 1998 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition (behind the late Teri Thornton and soon-to-be sensation Jane Monheit), Italian vocalist Roberta Gambarini has not only acclimated to life as a New York-based jazz artist, she has embraced each opportunity with increasing success, a trajectory of one of the most talented singers of her generation. Within three years, she released three highly regarded projects, including the Grammy-nominated Easy to Love (2006), 2008’s You Are There with the great Hank Jones, and 2009’s So in Love, doubling as arranger in the company of some of today’s leading instrumentalists, and garnering another Grammy nomination [click here for a Jazz Police review]. One of the hits of the 2008 fall season at the Dakota, Gambarini returns for just one night on February 8^th.

Roberta Gambarini © Andrea Canter

A native of Turin, Italy, Roberta grew up listening to music and her father’s saxophone. She was in fact named after the Jerome Kern song “Roberta.” Her parents took her to see visiting American jazz artists and she heard their records of Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and more. She began clarinet studies at age 12, making her debut as a vocalist at 17 in area jazz clubs. She gained further experience and acclaim after moving to Milan, then relocated to Boston to attend the New England Conservatory of Music in 1998. After finishing third in the Monk competition only a few weeks later, she began to get more attention, passed on further studies at NEC and relocated to New York where she became a protégé of Benny Carter and later James Moody. She went on to perform with such established artists as James Moody, David Fathead Newman, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Russell Malone, Michael Brecker, Christian McBride, Roy Hargrove and more. In 2004 she began a stint with the Dizzy Gillespie All Star Alumni Big Band Band, and within two more years was touring with her own trio. In 2007 she received accolades for her vocals on Dave Brubeck’s commissioned work, Cannery Row. Her success in reinterpreting the great solos of Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Stitt and Sonny Rollins on Easy to Love prompted Hank Jones (her pianist on the album) to proclaim her as the “best new jazz vocalist to come along in 50 years.”

A consummate musical storyteller, Roberta notes in an All About Jazz interview that the story is key to her song selection process as well as the melody. "To select a tune, what I look for is a story—something in the song I can connect to on a profound level. It's usually something in the lyric, but also the melody's very important. It's a combination of three factors. It's got to be something that makes it so I can connect with the tune on a personnel level. For arrangement, all I look for is a presentation that allows the song to be the center of attention and the message of the song to be delivered in the most direct and truthful way possible."

In addition to the highly praised So in Love, Roberta appeared on two big band releases in 2009, Roy Hargrove’s Emergence (Groovin' High/Emarcy) and I'm BeBoppin' Too (Half Note Records) with the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band. And what next? Roberta “would like to do more music from Latin America. By that I mean boleros, Cuban music, especially the romantic, melodic songs of those areas. I love also Argentinean music, mostly tango and Astor Piazzolla, so who knows." Indeed, her talent seems to have no bounds.

Roberta Gambarini performs two sets on February 8^th.

The Dakota is located at 1010 Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis. Reservations at 612-332-1010 or www.dakotacooks.com

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