Chiara Civello (born 15 June 1975) is an Italian singer, songwriter, pianist, and guitarist.

Career

When Civello was seventeen, she sang in a band with Mario Raja, then Roberto Gatto. On a scholarship, she moved to Boston in 1994 to attend the

Berklee College of Music Berklee College of Music () is a Private university, private music college in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern Music of the United ...

. After graduating, she moved to New York City and met

Russ Titelman Russ Titelman (born August 16, 1944, Los Angeles, California, United States) is an American record producer and songwriter. He has to date won three Grammy Awards. He earned his first producing the Steve Winwood song " Higher Love", and his se ...

, who produced her first album. The album was influenced by

Brazilian music The music of Brazil encompasses various regional musical styles influenced by European, American, African and Amerindian forms. Brazilian music developed some unique and original styles such as forró, repente, coco de roda, axé, sertanejo ...

, with vocals by Daniel Jobim, the grandson of

Antonio Carlos Jobim Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language–speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular ...

, and cover versions of "Outono" by

Rosa Passos Rosa Passos (; born April 13, 1952) is a Brazilian singer and guitarist. Passos began playing piano at age thirteen, but after listening to Dorival Caymmi and João Gilberto she abandoned the instrument to become a singer. In the late 1960s, she ...

and "

Caramel Caramel ( or ) is a range of food ingredients made by heating sugars to high temperatures. It is used as a flavoring in puddings and desserts, as a filling in bonbons or candy bars, as a topping for ice cream and custard, and as a colorant ...

" by

Suzanne Vega Suzanne Nadine Vega ( Peck; born July 11, 1959) is an American singer-songwriter of Folk music, folk-inspired music. Vega's music career spans 40 years. In the mid-1980s and 1990s she released four singles that entered the Top 40 charts in the ...

. Civello wrote one song, "Trouble", with

Burt Bacharach Burt Freeman Bacharach ( ; May 12, 1928 – February 8, 2023) was an American composer, songwriter, record producer, and pianist who is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential figures of 20th-century popular music. Start ...

. She was accompanied by

Steve Gadd Stephen Kendall Gadd (born April 9, 1945) is an American jazz fusion drummer, percussionist, and session musician. Gadd is one of the best-known and most highly regarded session and studio drummers in the industry, recognized by his induction i ...

Larry Goldings Lawrence Sam Goldings (born August 28, 1968) is an American jazz keyboardist and composer. His music has explored elements of funk, blues, and jazz fusion, fusion. Goldings has a comedic alter ego known as Hans Groiner. Life and career Golding ...

Jamey Haddad Jamey George Haddad (born July 2, 1952 in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American percussionist who works primarily in the fields of jazz and world music and specializes in hand drums. Biography Haddad is of Lebanese ancestry. From the age of four, he ...

Mike Mainieri Michael T. Mainieri Jr. (born July 4, 1938) is an American vibraphonist, known for his work with the jazz fusion group Steps Ahead. He is married to the singer-songwriter and harpist Dee Carstensen. Biography Mainieri was born in The Bronx, N ...

Rob Mounsey Rob Mounsey (born December 2, 1952) is an American musician, composer, and arranger. Music career Mounsey was born in Berea, Ohio, and grew up in Seattle, Washington, spending a few years each in Findlay and Granville, Ohio. At the age of 17, ...

, Adam Rogers, and

Ben Street Ben Street is an American jazz double bassist. Street has performed and recorded with many renowned artists, including John Scofield, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Mark Turner, Ben Monder, Michael Eckroth, Sam Rivers, Billy Hart, Danilo Perez, Aaron P ...

. The second album, ''The Space Between'' (Universal Jazz and Classics, 2007) was produced by Steve Addabbo and Pete Rende. It contained original songs and songs written with guitarist

Jim Campilongo Jim Campilongo (born July 8, 1958) is a New York roots rock guitarist, known for recording a series of mostly instrumental albums. He is also known for being a member of The Little Willies with Norah Jones. Campilongo primarily plays Fender Tel ...

. The title of her third album, ''7752'' (Universal Jazz and Classics, 2010), produced by

Andres Levin Andrés Levín is a Venezuelan-born American record producer, bandleader, filmmaker, recording engineer and philanthropist. After several nominations, Levin won a Grammy Award in 2009 for his production of the ''In the Heights'' cast recording. Hi ...

, refers to the distance in kilometers between New York and Rio de Janeiro. After a short visit to Daniel Jobim in Rio in 2008, collaborations with other artists encouraged her to explore Brazilian music. Brazilian singer

Ana Carolina Ana Carolina Sousa (, born September 9, 1974) is a Brazilian pop rock singer, songwriter and musician. Career Carolina has a contralto vocal range. Her musical influence comes from the crib, her grandmother used to sing on the radio, and her gre ...

was the main collaborator on this album. Their first composition together, "Resta", was on the soundtrack for the soap opera ''Passione'', produced by GLOBO TV. The album included

Jaques Morelenbaum Jaques Morelenbaum (() born 18 May 1954) is a Brazilian instrumentalist, arranger, conductor, composer and music producer. Morelenbaum was born in Rio de Janeiro, the son of conductor Henrique Morelenbaum and piano teacher Sarah Morelenbaum. Hi ...

Tom Jobim Tom or TOM may refer to: * Tom (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name. Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Tom'' (1973 film), or ''The Bad Bunch'', a blaxploitation film * ''Tom'' (2002 film) ...

Caetano Veloso Caetano Emanuel Viana Teles Veloso (; born 7 August 1942) is a Brazilian composer, singer, guitarist, writer, and political activist. Veloso first became known for his participation in the Brazilian musical movement Tropicália, which encompas ...

Gilberto Gil Gilberto Passos Gil Moreira (; born 26 June 1942), is a Brazilian singer-songwriter and politician, known for both his musical innovation and political activism. From 2003 to 2008, he served as Brazil's Ministry of Culture (Brazil), Minister of ...

Ryuichi Sakamoto was a Music of Japan, Japanese musician, composer, keyboardist, record producer, singer and actor. He pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the Synthesizer, synth-based band Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With his ...

Marc Ribot Marc Ribot (; born May 21, 1954) is an American guitarist and composer. His work has touched on many styles, including no wave, free jazz, Rock music, rock, and Cuban music. Ribot is also known for collaborating with other musicians, most notab ...

Mauro Refosco Mauro Refosco (born 16 October 1966), is a Brazilian percussionist. He is best known for his work with singer David Byrne and the American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers. He was a member of the experimental supergroup Atoms for Peace – featur ...

, and

Anat Cohen Anat Cohen (; ; born 1975) is a New York City-based jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, and bandleader from Tel Aviv, Israel. Biography Cohen was born into a musical family and began playing the clarinet at age 12 with Jaffa Conservatory’s Dixiel ...

. In 2012 Civello took part in the

Sanremo Festival The Sanremo Music Festival ( ), officially the Italian Song Festival (), is the most popular Italian song contest and awards ceremony, held annually in the city of Sanremo, Liguria, organized and broadcast by (RAI). It is the longest-running ...

with a song written with Diana Tejera which gave the title to her fourth album, ''Al Posto Del Mondo''. The song "Problemi/Problemas" interpreted by

, on the soundtrack of the soap opera ''

Fina Estampa ''Fina Estampa'' (''Looks & Essence'') is a Brazilian telenovela that first aired on TV Globo TV Globo (stylized as tvglobo; , ), formerly known as Rede Globo de Televisão (; shortened to Rede Globo) or simply known as Globo, is a Brazili ...

'', won the Premio Multishow prize for best song of 2012 in Brazil. On '' Canzoni'' (Sony, 2014) Civello became a torch singer and immersed herself in the Italian repertoire: an album of love songs carefully picked from the 60s to the present, blending influences of bossa nova,

blue-eyed soul Blue-eyed soul (also called white soul) is rhythm and blues (R&B) and soul music performed by white artists. The term was coined in the mid-1960s, to describe white artists whose sound was similar to that of the predominantly black Motown and St ...

, jazz, and pop.

Chico Buarque Francisco Buarque de Hollanda (born 19 June 1944), popularly known simply as Chico Buarque (), is a Brazilian singer-songwriter, guitarist, composer, playwright, writer, and poet. He is best known for his music, which often includes social, econom ...

Esperanza Spalding Esperanza Emily Spalding (born October 18, 1984), sometimes professionally known with the stylized name of esperanza spalding, is an American bassist, singer, songwriter, and composer. Her accolades include five Grammy Awards, a Boston Music Aw ...

sang duets on "Io che non vivo senza te" (Gil) "Io che amo solo te" (Chico Biarque) "E penso a te" (Ana Carolina) and an Italian version of "The Windmills of Your Mind" (Esperanza Spalding). The orchestral arrangements were conceived by

Eumir Deodato Eumir Deodato de Almeida (; born 22 June 1943) is a Brazilian pianist, composer, arranger and record producer, primarily in jazz but who has been known for his eclectic melding of genres, such as Pop music, pop, Rock music, rock, disco, rhythm a ...

Nicola Conte Nicola Conte (born 1962, Bari, Italy) is an Italian DJ, producer, guitarist, arranger and bandleader, known initially for introducing an innovative style of acid jazz that incorporates bossa nova themes, melodies drawn from Italian film scores o ...

provided a blend of contemporary sensibility and old school analog sound. On ''Eclipse'' Civello's music acquired a new flavor thanks to the production of

Marc Collin Marc Collin is a French musician, film music composer and record producer. He is best known as the founder, with Olivier Libaux, of the project Nouvelle Vague, a cover band that covers new wave songs in a bossa nova style. Collin also released ...

(aka

Nouvelle Vague The New Wave (, ), also called the French New Wave, is a French art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentation and a spirit of i ...

) who found a balance between classic and modern sound by blending Brazilian music, excerpts from Italian cinema, and subliminal electronics. Civello has written and sung in five languages: Italian, English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese. She sang duets with

James Taylor James Vernon Taylor (born March 12, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A six-time Grammy Award winner, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. Taylor achieved his breakthrough in 1970 with the single "Fi ...

(on the album '' October Road''),

Juan Luis Guerra Juan Luis Guerra Seijas (born 7 June 1957) is a People of the Dominican Republic, Dominican musician, singer, composer, and record producer. Throughout his career, he has won numerous awards including 28 Latin Grammy Awards, three Grammy Awards, ...

(on the album '' La llave de mi corazon''),

Pino Daniele Giuseppe "Pino" Daniele (19 March 1955 – 4 January 2015) was an Italian singer-songwriter and musician. His influences covered a wide number of genres, including pop, blues, jazz, and Italian and Middle Eastern music. Biography Daniele wa ...

(on the album ''Ricomincio da 30'').

Discography

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Civello, Chiara Living people Singers from Rome 1975 births Berklee College of Music alumni Italian jazz singers Italian women jazz singers Italian jazz guitarists Italian women guitarists Women jazz guitarists Italian jazz pianists Italian women jazz pianists English-language singers from Italy Spanish-language singers of Italy French-language singers of Italy Portuguese-language singers of Italy 20th-century Italian women singers 21st-century Italian women singers Italian bossa nova musicians