The ANNOTICO Report

Beautiful, born in Rome, Chiara Civello, both a talented Singer and
Songwriter, often compared to Norah Jones, Diana Krall and Lizz Wright, and
will be appearing at the renowned Umbria Jazz Festival where she will share
billing with Elton John and Diana Ross.

Multi-lingual jazz singer explains the accessible language of melody.

Pop Matters
by Nikki Tranter
PopMatters Books Editor
July 19, 2005
 

Jazz is the most incredible diving machine when it comes to going really
deep into music. But I knew I couldn't be the new Ella Fitzgerald; I
couldn't be the new Shirley Horn. I learned all different kinds of music
and then I said to myself, 'I need to find my own voice. Time to unlearn
now, time to be free.' It's like a hot air balloon: To be able to fly you
have to throw off the sandbags. I want to be as light as I can.
— Chiara Civello, Verve Music Group biography

With self-imposed expectations like these, and a clear understanding of
their importance in creating sustainable, exceptional jazz, it's no great
shock that Chiara Civello's debut CD, Last Quarter Moon, sounds like work
of a pro. Whether she accepts them or not, comparisons to Ella and Shirley
are valid. The same fluidity of expression exists on her record, the same
intuitiveness, and ability to surprise in most simple and predictable
melodies. These days, Civello's more likely to find herself compared to
Norah Jones and Diana Krall and Lizz Wright, but that's okay -- those
women, too, evoke images of Ella, and they've all had to start somewhere.

Chiara Civello was born in Rome and moved to Boston in 1994 on scholarship
to the Berklee College of Music where she studied under Harold Crook, Ed
Tomassi and Jerry Bergonzi. On her own, she studied Mediterranean music,
delving so deeply into the sounds of the region that she ended up learning
Spanish and Portuguese as a result. It wasn't until members of her live
band began collaborating with Paul Simon and, in turn, Simon's producer
Russ Titelman, that she was able to put her study into practice. Titelman
so adored her song "Parole Incerte" that he instructed Civello: "You are a
songwriter ... You have to write." Soon, Civello was writing and
co-producing Last Quarter Moon, recording backing vocals for James Taylor's
October Road and dueting with Tony Bennett along the way.

A superior start is the best way to describe Civello's record, as,
according to the artist herself, jazz is simply the kick-off point for what
she hopes to be a career spanning genres. "I don't really consider myself a
jazz performer; jazz marks my entrance in music," she recently told
PopMatters, listing among her influences Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell. Last
Quarter Moon, though considered a jazz release, is flavored with as much
folk as jazz, and even manages to slip in some Brazilian beats and a gritty
mood or two no doubt inspired by her years on the Boston club scene.

The album's gloomiest spots are its best, notably "Trouble", a ballad of
broken love co-written with Burt Bacharach, with a killer melody and lyrics
to match:

"I can feel you everywhere
You're like venom in the air
Impossible
I know the way out of you
Trouble".
Civello's own writing seems less patterned after the best of Bacharach,
rather James Taylor, or even Billy Joel. She has a knack for inserting in
her songs strong images to support the more standard love-song lingo. The
album's closer, "I Won't Run Away", for instance, has a line about "my
tears flow[ing] to you", but it also describes romantic weakness as such:
"All I know is that soon it will snow / When summer is covered / The cold
will take over / And freeze the land and anything that grows".

Same goes for the exquisite "The Wrong Goodbye", with Civello's
conversational approach seeming to deliberately battle the backing piano,
refusing to follow the instrument's lead. The song is full of images ("If
you only knew / How you made my day last night / I walked in surprised /
You looked like a movie star / Spilling all your beauty in people's
glasses"), with no distinct melody through its verses. Here Civello's
lilts, the breaking notes completing her couplets, work like rhymes tying
the complex verses to a simple chorus ("All I have is one request tonight /
Please don't send me home with the wrong goodbye").

Civello's ear for melody is her best asset on the album's non-English
tracks, including "Ora", "Samboroma", and the standout, "In Questi Giorni".
There's a meditative quality to the songs, which is as much about getting
lost in the sounds rather than stumbling over lyrical meaning as it is
testament to Civello's skills at song construction. As affecting as these
songs are even if you don't know what they're all about, Civello's
phrase-turns in her English songs make translation of these a prospect too
exciting to overlook -- though, trust me, a better source might be needed
than Babelfish. For now, I'm content with the mystery.

In July, Civello returns home to Italy for a selected number of shows,
including several at the renowned Umbria Jazz Festival where she will share
billing with Elton John and Diana Ross. "You have to be prepared to feel
lonely," she says of touring, but with upbeat optimism, she can't help but
find harmony in even the darkest corners: "But loneliness is a great place
to start a song." Civello spoke briefly to PopMatters on her way to Japan
to promote and perform songs from Last Quarter Moon.

PopMatters: What's your favorite song?

Chiara Civello: Well ... "Moon River". First of all I love Breakfast at
Tiffany's. The scene where Audrey sings by the window? Wow -- what a melody
Mancini wrote. Not to mention "Huckleberry Friend" -- the lyrical genius of
Johnny Mercer.

PM: My favorite song on your record is "In Questi Giorni". Not speaking
Italian, I have no idea what it's about -- why do you think songs like this
work regardless of language and a listener's understanding? Is it important
to understand a song's lyrics, or is reacting to the music enough enjoyable
or powerful?

CC: I think that if just the melody can move you, it's great. It will make
it easier for the lyrics to come. I grew up listening to music without
knowing what the lyrics meant, so I guess this translated into my writing,
by letting me always start with composing the music first. All power to
melody. Melody can move mountains.

PM: Can you put into words what it was about jazz that made you want to be
a jazz performer?

CC: I don't really consider myself a jazz performer. I can say that jazz
marks my entrance in music. I studied jazz at Berklee [College of Music]
for a while and loved it obsessively until I felt the urge to explore
different styles of music, music from different parts of the world, more
representative of the times and place I live in, like New York, the city
where you find 20 different ethnical roots in one subway car.

PM: Why is jazz important?

CC: Jazz is important because it's a manifestation of freedom, and this is
the element I decided to keep in my music ... freedom.

PM: Your bio notes you studied the writing styles of Bob Dylan and James
Taylor. Was this a deliberate study? What did this do, in the end, for your
songwriting?

CC: Everything in music comes from an intuition, from a strong feeling
taking over you. Just like when I wanted to learn jazz, I transcribed the
jazz masters' solos until I got the vocabulary and developed my own sense,
when I realized I was inevitably being drawn to writing songs, the best
thing I did was hearing how the masters developed their craft through their
records -- a long research until I found my own voice.

PM: Do you have a language preference? Do you prefer to compose in your
native language? What different challenges do writing in different
languages present?

CC: I don't have a preference. When I write a song I always start from the
music. Once the music is complete or almost complete it dictates what
language the lyrics will be in. Italian is more suitable to certain
melodies and English to others. The same for Spanish and Portuguese.

PM: What was behind your decision to include Italian and English songs on
your album?

CC: Well, I am Italian, and I have lived in the US for 10 years now. So
these are my languages … this is how I express myself.

PM: How are you feeling following the album's release?

CC: I have many different feelings about the release of Last Quarter Moon.
It's my first album and it represents an official step into a deeper
creative ground where my experience is turned to song. That comes with lots
of joy for being able to go for it -- and a lot responsibility for knowing
that this is just the beginning.

PM: Explain a little bit about processes involved in putting this record
together. How you chose certain songs, etc.

CC: I started writing songs for the album in 2002 and entered the studio in
2003. [Producer] Russ Titelman was the person that really encouraged my
songwriting and helped me prepare the repertoire and give it the right
shape with my friends who played on it. As far as the cover songs go, I
wasn't interested in covering anything that had been covered a million
times before. I was very fascinated by "Caramel" when I first heard Suzanne
Vega singing it at a live show and decided to sing it.

PM: How exciting was working with Burt Bacharach?

CC: Meeting Burt Bacharach was like meeting The Song in person. He is one
of the most elegant and simple human beings I've ever met. He is a true
craftsman, an artisan of sound. Working with him gave me a lot of strength
and encouragement.

PM: What do you think of contemporary popular music? Considering the
success of Michael Buble and Norah Jones, for example, do you think younger
people are opening themselves up to music previously considered "adult"?

CC: Yes, I do. I see it happening all around me and I think it is a great
opportunity for audiences and artists to establish modern sounds that
rescue the quality and freshness from getting lost in the "bubblegum"
world.

PM: Do you find different reactions worldwide to your music? Do Italians
react differently that Americans, for example?

CC: Yes, reactions are different and this is the beauty of doing what I do.
Promoting a record is also conducting an anthropological research. In
Japan, for example, people love [the record]. I have been there three times
already and the audience is amazing. Very different, very quiet and
sentimental.

PM: What do you think draws a listener to a particular style of music?

CC: The honesty, the truth of a performer. At least that's how I'd love it
to be.

PM: What are your long-term career hopes? What's important to you to
achieve as a singer/songwriter?

CC: A singer/songwriter is a storyteller. Storytellers are observers and
interpreters of feelings, through sound and silence, through words and
pauses. My journey as a storyteller has just started and I want to be the
best I can be. As of now I'm busy taking gleams of Last Quarter Moon in
every home and preparing new stories to tell.

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