After Hours featuring Roberta Gambarini, air date Oct. 12, 2020

Join me for the Oct. 12, 2020, edition of After Hours on KCAW Raven Radio as I’m joined in conversation with Italian-born jazz singer, now living in New York City, Roberta Gambarini.

Roberta moved to the U.S. in 1998 and won a scholarship to the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. A few weeks after her arrival in America, she entered the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocals Competition and came in third behind Teri Thornton and Jane Monheit.

She was invited to sing in New York City, where she met Benny Carter and James Moody. Moody became her teacher, mentor and friend.

Click this link to listen to the After Hours show featuring Roberta Gambarini, originally broadcast on Oct. 12, 2020. Click here to visit Roberta’s personal page on Facebook

After Hours featuring Caterina Zapponi, air date March 9, 2020

Join me for the March 9, 2020, edition of After Hours on KCAW Raven Radio as I’m joined in conversation with the fabulously gifted Italian-French multi-lingual jazz vocalist Caterina Zapponi, who also is an actress.

Caterina was born and raised in Rome, the daughter of celebrated Italian screenwriter Bernardino Zapponi, a collaborator and longtime friend of Federico Fellini. Her mother was a French-born chanteuse and instilled in Caterina her love of the French repertoire. Caterina is married to veteran jazz pianist Monty Alexander, who was interviewed for the After Hours show that aired on Jan. 13, 2020.

The film High Society helped introduce Caterina to jazz while fueling a desire to move to the United States, which she did upon receiving a scholarship from Berklee College of Music. She graduated in two years and won the Berklee Cleo Laine Award for vocal achievement and performance.

Caterina was a finalist in the Thelonious Monk International Vocal Jazz Competition and has since performed at prestigious venues including New York’s Birdland, and The Blue Note, and internationally at the Verbier and Saint Barthelemy festivals. She has also performed internationally with pianist Monty Alexander at numerous venues including London’s Ronnie Scott’s, Marseille Jazz Festival, Paris’New Morning and Theatre des Champs Elysees, Tokyo’s Blue Note and Cotton Club, Switzerland’s Cully and Bern Festivals, Russia’s Moscow International House of Music, and at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City.

Click this link to listen to the After Hours show featuring Caterina Zapponil, originally broadcast on March 9, 2020. Click here to visit Caterina’s personal website.