Vanessa Racci: Jazzy Italian

Vanessa Racci describes herself a jazz / cabaret singer of Italian-American descent with a passion for retro jazz and music made famous by Italian Americans. She has a previous album, entitled Italiana Fresca (2017, self-produced), and currently performs several shows that celebrate American jazz composers, Italian American music and contributions to jazz and pop in the US. She is a competent and entertaining singer, lively, and, by the video evidence, vivacious. She may not exactly lead a listener to forget some of her Italian and Italian-American competition, living or deceased. But she is pleasant listening and not at all mawkishly cloying, or sentimental in the style of some of her Italian-American male predecessors. Moreover, her "Italian," whether she's fluent or not (one suspects she is) will not make anyone who has been around the language run screaming from the room in pain. Racci is the real thing and probably a welcome musical guest at any Sunday-afternoon festa italiana.

Racci's current recording is much less heavily slanted toward the raucous "C'é la luna mezzo mare" in her debut album. Even the Italian-language repertoire, such as "Volare," is updated to a montuno with an obligatory chorus in translation. Although the names Domenico Modugno and the San Remo song festival will mean absolutely nothing to an audience more than sixty years removed from the Modugno's surprise 1958 success in the United States market, "Nel blu, dipinto di blu" is surely aimed at a newer, contemporary audience. There are also nods to Henry Mancini, Jo Stafford (who was definitely not Italian, other than in her big-band association with Frank Sinatra) and even to John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey. There is really a lot of good listening here. If Racci's intent is to break out of the circle to which her previous work has been pitched, it should probably be successful. She deserves a broader following among a younger audience.

An added attraction is the very good band that accompanies Racci throughout. It swings hard and modern, make no mistake. It really does make the recording a pleasure to hear.

This is, by every musical standard, a successful outing.