A FEW WEEKS AGO, I GOT IN THE MAIL A VINYL REISSUE OF ROBERTA GAMBARINI’S AMERICAN 2006 DEBUT, EASY TO LOVE. IT WAS SO IMPRESSIVE AT THE TIME, AND IT STILL IS, BECAUSE IT CAPTURES THE ESSENCE OF CLASSIC JAZZ VOCALS LIKE ELLA FITZGERALD, BUT WITH A TIMELESS MODERNITY. SHE SURROUNDED HERSELF WITH SOME OF THE BEST MUSICIANS OF THE DAY, INCLUDING GERALD AND JOHN CLAYTON, TAMIR HENDELMAN AND JAMES MOODY, AND THEN OUTDID HERSELF ON HER NEXT RELEASE, A SERIES OF DUETS WITH HANK JONES, YOU ARE THERE.
SINCE THEN, HER RELEASES HAVE BEEN FEW AND FAR BETWEEN, BUT SHE IS STILL ABLE TO FILL THE LOCAL JAZZ CLUBS, AS HER VOICE, LIKE THE BEST OF ITALIAN WINES, IMPROVES WITH AGE.
WE HAD AN OPPORTUNITY TO CHECK IN WITH ROBERTA, WHO IS JUST ABOUT TO GO ON TOUR AND REMIND AUDIENCES (AND RECORD LABELS) WHAT THEY’VE BEEN MISSING
THEY RECENTLY DID A VINYL REISSUE OF YOUR “DEBUT” ALBUM EASY TO LOVE, WHICH IS WHAT MADE ME WANT TO SEE YOU IN CONCERT BACK THEN
WHAT WERE THE CONDITONS OF YOUR MAKING THIS ALBUM, WITH ALL STARS LIKE JAME MOODY, GERALD AND JOHN CLAYTON, WILLIE JONES AND JOE LABARBERA AND TAMIR HNDELMAN?
I had moved to the US in 1998.
I already had records out in Italy and Europe, because I started when I was 17 to sing.
I recorded my first album in Italy before I was even 20, but when I moved to the US it was a brand new environment.
After I did the Monk Competition, but I started singing with Billy Higgins and other great players in New York. But it took me awhile to find my bearings in the business to be able to put out an album.\
I tried for several years, and the album finally came out in 2005, which was a long time from 1999
I tried to find a record company, but I couldn’t get a contract.
Ultimately I decided to record it and put it out independently. But by that time I had met James Moody, who became my mentor.
I went to Los Angeles and recorded this album, calling a lot of my friends and mentors; James Moody, Tamir Hendelman, Chuck Berghofer, Joe La Barbera, John Clayton and others. It was so fantastic that they came and played on my album. It was a labor of love. It came out of love, not out of business.
It was a big sacrifice, but it got a lot of attention.
I was unknown at the time.
We made the cover at my favorite beach, Pfeiffer Beach, in Big Sur. It was just a photo taken by my friend; I had no makeup on , and was just wearing this Gap T-shirt! (laughs)
Ultimately, it turned out great. It was a reflection of the things that I loved. The places I loved, the people I loved…I think that’s why it gathered attention, because people felt that it was authentic.
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“It was a labor of love. It came out of love, not out of business…I’m always thinking of music first, then the business”
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HOW WAS THE INITIAL RESPONSE TO IT?
The first time it got a major reward was in Japan.
It came out in Japan first, and it immediately gathered attention and won the Golden Seal in what is now called Jazz Journal.
It then got a Grammy nomination, which was really unexpected
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“I think that’s why it gathered attention, because people felt that it was authentic”
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WHAT DID YOU GLEAN FROM YOUR TIME WITH JAMES MOODY?
Half of the things were musical, and half were human. (laughs)
He was not just my mentor; he was like a father. He and his wife became my family, my American Family.
Musically, I learned the importance of integrity and the meaning of this musical language; where it came from and the work ethic of it.
Always try to play the next note better than the one you just played. The importance of the delivery of a song,
That is also something that Hank Jones insisted on a lot; the importance of delivering a song as it is and honoring the song. Trying to resist from doing virtuosic things that are unnecessary; try to resist showing off, just because you can do something doesn’t mean that is what the music requires.
It was a real education, because it is really hard to honor the song and the melody without overdoing it.
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“(James Moody) was not just my mentor; he was like a father. He and his wife became my family, my American Family”
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YOU ALSO HAD THIS MUSICAL RELATIONSHIP WITH ROY HARGROVE, SINGING IN SMALL GROUP AND BIG BAND FORMATS
I met Roy when I just arrived in New York in 1998.
I was playing in the club The Jazz Standard, which had just opened at the time. It’s closed now, unfortunately.
I was singing with an incredible band. That night we were honoring the music of (trumpeter) Kenny Dorham, who was one of Roy’s idols.
A lot of musicians were at that gig that night. (drummer) Ben Riley and (pianist) Ronnie Matthews and (trombonist) Curtis Fuller were there. It was a wonderful night, and Roy just showed up.
We talked about Kenny Dorham; I had written lyrics to some of Kenny’s songs. He came up and sat in on a song.
I met him again some time after, because his manager Larry Clothier, listened to a tape I had sent him and put me on a European tour with. He was also managing Roy, so I got to be on the road with Roy. I got to know him more deeply.
It was a long collaboration until his death. It was another example of when music becomes family. When you are on the road you spend much time together; he played on my albums many times. I miss him a lot; he was like a brother to me.
I never had any siblings, but Roy was the closest thing I had in a brother
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“Always try to play the next note better than the one you just played”
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I’VE SEEN YOU SING IN SMALL GROUPS AND BIG BANDS, AND YOU’VE ALSO DONE A DUET ALBUM WITH HANK JONES. HOW DO YOU CHANGE YOUR APPROACH IN THESE DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENTS?
I don’t think much about it; I think about what the music requires. According to the requirements of what I think the music itself needs to be delivered in a certain situation I try to do my best
IS IT MORE INTIMIDATING BEING IN A DUET SITUATION AS WITH HANK JONES?
That’s another situation where music and life intertwine.
I had met Hank years earlier in 2000 through Lionel Hampton. Talk about being intimidated! (laughs)
I met Lionel during the first gig that I did in New York City, at the old Jazz Gallery. I was with Ronnie Matthews, Walter Booker and Jimmy Cobb; it was an incredible band.
Lionel was in town, but I didn’t know that he was going to come. So while I’m singing, I see Lionel Hampton being wheeled in (he was in a wheelchair by then, although still playing) and almost died from emotion.
He told me that he wanted to come to his own Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival in Moscow, Idaho. I took part in that festival in 2000.
The house rhythm section for the festival was Hank Jones, John Clayton and Jeff Hamilton.
That’s how I met Hank. He befriended me and encouraged me from the get-go,
We got to do a bunch of concerts together. He honored me with his friendship.
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“it is really hard to honor the song and the melody without overdoing it”
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HOW DID THE FRIENDSHIP DEVELOP?
When we were coming back from a tour, he got sick.
At the tine in 2005 he was living all the way up state in New York, several hours isolated from the city.
He got sick with a bad headache flying from Europe to New York. He was supposed to take his car several hours up to his farm house in New York where he was living alone; his was in a home.
Being that he was unwell and had this terrible headache. I told him that since I’m living in an apartment in the Upper West Side rather than going back up alone, he should stay with me.
It turned out he had shingles, which is a long term disease, so he ended up staying with me for a long time.
I would cook for him and take care of him, so it became like a grandfather/granddaughter relationship. So, I spent a lot of time with him.
When he recovered, the first thing that he wanted to do was to play. I had a piano in the apartment, so I could hear him play every day.
He would call me over and say, “Hey, listen to this; why don’t you sing it” We became very close that way
The record You Are There really stemmed from that experience. At one point he just said, “Let’s go into the studio and play together like we did at home”
It was literally like that. We went into the studio. There were no partitions or divisions. We sat next to each other as if we were in home, playing and singing a bunch of songs. We did it all in a few hours and then went out to eat. It was so fun and spontaneous.
We didn’t decide anything like a road map, or “this is going to be the introduction. This is how we’re going to end the tune”. We just played tunes that we loved
Things were happening in real time that I didn’t know were going to happen, so it was a wild ride.
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“resist from doing virtuosic things that are unnecessary; try to resist showing off, just because you can do something doesn’t mean that is what the music requires”
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IN RETROSPECT, WHAT DID YOU GLEAN FROM HANK JONES AND THAT TIME TOGETHER?
Because it was so beautiful, the first thing that I remember was that, especially when playing ballads, he would say, “You’ve got to peel off the song, just like an onion or artichoke. You’ve got to peel off the external layers which are not necessary for the delivery of the song’s message”.
You’re going to inevitably find yourself things that are superfluous 2025 to the meaning of the song. So, you just peel them off, like you’d peel off an artichoke in order to discover the heart of the artichoke. The heart is the sweetest part and is what the artichoke really is.
Hank gave me suggestions on how to do this, because it is a process. It was very profound
He was, along with a couple of others, one of the greatest of all time; there was nothing that he technically could not do. He was a virtuoso of the instrument.
But his virtuosity was that he was at the service of the song; his virtuosity was a means for him to attain freedom. It was not for showing off, because to him the end was always the song itself.
He knew all of the lyrics to all of the songs, so his main goal was to deliver the meaning, story and message, of the song.
This virtuosity that he had was not a means to show off, but a way to become free so that he could deliver the song in any given moment, because at any given moment the emotions could change, because that’s how life is. Hank had the freedom to do that
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“I never had any siblings, but Roy (Hargrove) was the closest thing I had in a brother”
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IT REMINDS ME OF MY LEARNING TO COOK IN ITALY. MY TEACH USED VERY LITTLE INGREDIETS AND USED TO ALWAYS SAY, “YOU HAVE TO TRUST THE SIMPLE INGREDIENTS TO DO THEIR WORK”
That is a great comparison
For example, garlic is a staple of Italian cuisine. But, if you put too much of it, it’s going to overpower the rest of the ingredients, and you then don’t have a certain dish; you have something else.
In the same way, Hank taught me to trust the song. All of the greats were like that.
That’s the same message with Jimmy Heath, James Moody, Clark Terry; all of my mentors lived by this.
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We did it all in a few hours and then went out to eat. It was so fun and spontaneous…Things were happening in real time that I didn’t know were going to happen, so it was a wild ride”
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YOU STILL TOUR A LOT, BUT YOU HAVEN’T HAD A RECORD OUT IN A WHILE. IS IT THAT HARD TO GET A LABEL AT THIS STAGE OF MUSICAL ECONOMICS?
It’s very hard.
We had the distribution for the Hank Jones album You Are There with Universal, and then we switched to the label Groovin’ High, which was “my” label.
Now, with the pandemic, everything kind of fell apart (laughs), and now I’m again free and roaming.
I’m now more focused on the music, because when the pandemic came, it was at a time that was already difficult.
I had just lost my father in 2018, and right after that we lost Roy Hargrove. It was a rough time and loss, both musically and personally.
Then when the pandemic hit, there was this big hiatus where we couldn’t work anymore. Then, my mother got real sick; we almost lost her, but fortunately she’s better now.
It’s only now that I can really breathe and get my bearings again.
I’m now focusing on recording and putting some finishing touches on recordings I had started before the pandemic. I actually have about four projects in the cooker right now., to keep the food metaphor!
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“This virtuosity that (Hank Jones) had was not a means to show off, but a way to become free so that he could deliver the song in any given moment, because at any given moment the emotions could change, because that’s how life is. Hank had the freedom to do that.”
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CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THEM?
One is a recording with a great Argentinian pianist Pablo Ziegler. He was Astor Piazzola’s piano player for many years, so this album is a meeting of jazz and tango. It’s an album I’m very proud of..
I have three more that will be out in 2024
One is a duo with pianist Cyrus Chestnut, another great piano player.
Another is a project we did in Italy, with a wonderful conductor and arranger Bruto Bertini. He’s Tuscan and it’s a very Tuscan project, with the Tuscan Symphony Orchestra. I’m very fond of it.
The other one is in the States, a new project with my own band, The Roberta Gambarini Quartet, with some special guests. People who are part of my musical family.
I’m always thinking of music first, then the business
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“(Hank Jones) knew all of the lyrics to all of the songs, so his main goal was to deliver the meaning, story and message, of the song”
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WHAT MUSICIAN LIVING OR DEAD WOULD YOU PAY $1000 TO SEE PERFORM?
Art Tatum and Billie Holiday
Art Tatum was one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Just hearing him is amazing
There are not many videos of him playing, and his being my absolute idol, I would love to see him play, just sitting a few centimeters from him. (laughs) Just to witness this wonder.
I would love to be in the audience with Billie Holiday and experience this wave of emotion that she would transmit.
There are some things that you can only experience live in concert which you cannot get on a recording.
It’s like opera; you can here a lot of operas, but you can only really experience it in the theater.
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“Art Tatum was one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Just hearing him is amazing”
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WHAT PERSON IN HISTORY WOULD YOU LOVE TO SIT DOWN WITH FOR AN EVENING AND PICK HIS OR HER BRAIN?
One name above all names, Dizzy Gillespie.
He was always my idol since I was very little. My father took me to see him in Turino when I was very little.
I was always fascinated by his personality, and the fact that he was such a natural. He seemed to also have the ability to teach in a natural way.
There was a TV show in Italy; I would watch its reruns. They used to keep broadcasting it in the following decades. I t was called Una Sera a Casa Celli. It was hosted by Franco Celli, one of the great guitar players in Italy. He would invite the great jazz players into his studio (which was made to look like a home).
These musicians would come and chat, and then play some songs.
There was one show with Dizzy Gillespie. He was in Milano and he came into the studio.
I remember watching this on the Italian TV, and thinking “This guy is from another planet”. Not only because of his playing, but because of his attitude. Everything he would do, it was like watching a great philosopher teach. He would transmit things that were valuable to you as a human being, not only as a musician.
So, I always wanted to meet him, but when I finally came to the US he had unfortunately already died. I don’t know if it was serendipity or destiny, but most of the musicians that I have met that were really important in my life were all closely connected to Dizzy Gillespie.
Benny Carter, James Moody, Slide Hampton and Jimmy Heath, all of these musicians had a profound connection with Dizzy.
I also got to study with Mike Longo, who was Dizzy’s collaborator. He had the ability to organize a lot of the knowledge that Dizzy had given him and transmit it.
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“There are some things that you can only experience live in concert which you cannot get on a recording”
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WHAT BOOKS HAVE YOU READ THAT YOU WISH OTHER PEOPLE WOULD READ?
I’ve read a lot of books; I’m a book enthusiast! There are a lot of books that have shaped my life.
When I was very young, I fell in love with the novels of Balzac. Books like Lost Illusions talk about what it means to be in the world, and the discrepancy between one’s own ideals and your attempt to live your life according to these ideals while dealing with the mechanics of the world. The Human Comedy, it’s fascinating to me.
Also Chekov, because of his depth of exploration of sentiments and the human soul, which is the subject of music and songs.
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“I remember watching (Dizzy Gillespie) on the Italian TV, and thinking “This guy is from another planet”. Not only because of his playing, but because of his attitude. Everything he would do, it was like watching a great philosopher teach. He would transmit things that were valuable to you as a human being, not only as a musician”
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IS THERE ANY RELIGION, PHILOSOPHY OR TEACHING THAT INSPIRES YOU?
Two things…
Zen has inspired me a lot, more as a philosophy than a religion. It has inspired me a lot for several reasons, for the arts.
Also the Bahai faith, which was the faith of Dizzy Gillespie. It was very dear to me because one of the ***main pillars of this faith was the fact that the human family is a family. Everybody has traits that make us a family, beyond boundaries of culture, ethnicity and nationality. It’s a faith that transcends these boundaries; it’s great message.
That was the message of Dizzy, too; music is a universal language that unifies humanity across boundaries. It’s a message that’s really needed now. It’s hard to live this message, but Dizzy did it. Jazz was what he used to spread this language of love. Dizzy was a universal musician.
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“Music is a universal language that unifies humanity across boundaries. It’s a message that’s really needed now. It’s hard to live this message, but Dizzy did it. Jazz was what he used to spread this language of love. Dizzy was a universal musician”
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WHAT GIVES YOU THE MOST JOY?
Singing with other people. Singing by myself is not the same.
WHEN ARE YOU COMING BACK TO LA?
I don’t know exactly, but we are working on dates. Catalina’s is my favorite place, and Catalina is a grand lady.
HOW ARE AMERICAN AUDIENCES DIFFERENT FROM ITALIAN AND JAPANESE?
Every audience has its individuality and character; they are all beautiful in that way.
I love Japanese audiences because they are not only very attentive, but they are very sensitive. They have a very delicate sensibility, so they get the emotional nuance. They are a very refined feeling audience.
Italian audiences are great in their own way; they can be very warm. So are American audiences
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“when (Dizzy Gillespie) arrived at a show in Italy with Italian musicians, he showed up with just an African drum
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I FELT THAT ITALIAN AUDIENCES APPRECIATED THE HISTORY OF JAZZ MORE THAN AMERICANS
It’s difficult; in order to have a real sense of what American jazz history is, there needs to be an awareness that can really only come from its origins, from America.
There can be an instinctive appreciation, since it is a universal art. Through the universal expression other cultures can connect to it.
The history of it needs to be articulated, and Dizzy was a great teacher of that as well. He did it artistically, the best possible way.
To give an example, when he arrived at a show in Italy with Italian musicians, he showed up with just an African drum. That’s a great way of teaching about this culture; it needs to come from its source.
I hope that America will acknowledge the history, so other nations can appreciate this music.
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“You’ve got to peel off the song, just like an onion or artichoke. You’ve got to peel off the external layers which are not necessary for the delivery of the song’s message”.
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IT IS THIS LOVE FOR THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE OF MUSIC THAT HAS ENABLED ROBERTA GAMBARINI TO HAVE AN IMPRESSIVE JAZZ CAREER EVEN WITHOUT THE SUPPORT OF A RECORD LABEL. FORTUNATELY, WE’LL BE SEEING AND HEARING MORE OF HER, AS HER UPCOMING PROJECTS ARE SURE TO PROVE THAT MS. GAMBARINI’S MUSIC, AND HEART, IS STILL EASY TO LOVE>