Out now "Fly me to Sinatra" Greta Panettieri's new album in which she gives new atmospheres to the songs of the Voice.
"Fly me to Sinatra" will be released on 6 December 2024, the new and ninth album by the great international singer, songwriter and performer Greta Panettieri
The 9th album by Greta Panettieri, dedicated to another icon who has marked the history of music between jazz and pop: Frank Sinatra, will be released on December 6th, on all digital platforms and as a supplement to Musica Jazz magazine. Composer and multi-instrumentalist as well as singer, Greta Panettieri has become famous and loved by audiences and critics for her vocal virtuosity, exceptional range and her innate interpretative and improvisational ability. Part of his success is certainly the result of his tendency to rework great hits, on which he works steadily together with producer Andrea Sammartino. The songs that she chooses to reinterpret are transformed into new "singer-songwriter" adventures, in which different atmospheres and sensations are often found, and in which Greta Panettieri tells her personal, biographical and musicological universe. Exactly 10 years after the album Non gioco più, Greta Panettieri has returned to try her hand at a new and important reworking. In this album, also available with the online purchase of the magazine at the link https://www.musicajazz.it/abbonamenti/, Greta Panettieri reinterprets in an introspective and at the same time luminous way pearls such as Strangers in the Night, Fly Me to the Moon and My Way, but also more "dark" and extremely fascinating songs, such as the masterpiece by Tom Jobim and Chico Buarque The Song of the Sabiá - where a dense vocal arrangement in Bachian style serves as the basis for a Pindaric free solo, the iconic In The Wee Small Hours of the Morning by David Mann and Bob Hilliard and the fascinating One for My Baby by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer.
Greta Panettieri: "Frank Sinatra was a master of style in relationships, business and artistic challenges. For this new album of mine I drew inspiration more from his approach to the world of music than from his way of singing, which in my opinion remains inimitable. He was a true artist, a great innovator, the most soulful of his time. He was able to follow his instinct in music, in cinema and beyond, without being influenced by fashion or genres. An attitude that I wanted to pursue myself in this new recording project of mine, which is also unique."
The genesis of the album
Fly me to Sinatra was born after Greta Panettieri's participation as a speaker at the international conferences International Symposium "The Mid-century Musical: Stage, Screen and Television" and "Frank Sinatra. A Twentieth Century Icon", both directed and conceived by Luca Cerchiari and William Everett at the IULM University of Milan, a university where since 2021 Greta Panettieri has been a professor of the Master of Advanced Training in Publishing and Music Production directed by Cerchiari himself. The album is also the result of the long research and analysis work carried out for her second book "La voce nel Pop e nel Jazz - Guida discografica a 100 canzoni imperdibili" (https://www.mimesisedizioni.it/catalogo/autore/9884/greta-panettieri) published by Mimesis in 2022: a manual of over 500 pages already acquired by some singing teachers and in the courses at the University of Milan-Bicocca and at IULM, where Greta Panettieri carries out a meticulous musicological analysis on the history, editions, arrangements and solos of the famous recordings of 100 standards of the Great American Songbook, including some hits and interpretations by Sinatra.
Greta Panettieri: "The greatest teaching that I have learned from Sinatra is the one aimed at the work of an artist: "give value to what you do". If you don't believe in yourself, in your music, why should anyone else? Like him , I have always tried to maintain my vocal and stylistic uniqueness, doing research and improving my performances without ever sacrificing my authenticity.
I firmly believe that diversity is the greatest opportunity in music, perhaps a position that goes against the grain of the times we live in in the Italian music market, but I proudly continue to think so. The public perceives the truth in the songs I write or in the reworkings I propose, they are moved and enter my world before making references to the original song. Transmitting one's truth in art is everything. And that's also what I teach my students with passion."
Reworking of the songs
A characteristic of the new arrangements proposed by Greta Panettieri and Andrea Sammartino is the search for contemporaneity within an album with more classic colors and sounds, with a personal interpretation. Unlike Sinatra, Greta indulges in complex improvisations, sometimes playful, as in the opening piece Young at Heart in duo with the double bass player Giuseppe Bassi, other times more complex and sophisticated, as in the free solo piece by Jobim which turns his gaze to Bach. However, like Sinatra, Greta enters deeply into the textual narration, identifying with the subject. More linked to the sounds of traditional jazz, are the songs Fly Me to the Moon, re-proposed in the original version in 3/4 very fresh and swinging, embellished by solo moments of voice, piano and double bass; Cole Porter's masterpiece Night and Day with an unreleased and revitalized 5/4 rhythm proposed by Giuseppe Bassi, a poignant Strangers in the Night that thanks to an unexpected inversion of tonality from major to minor, and the presence of the accordion and violin, dresses up in a sumptuous and dramatic dress. A classic project, but bold and innovative, with a pinch of lightness in perfect Sinatra spirit. Always multifaceted, Greta Panettieri does not hesitate once again to range between genres, with a crackling, almost funky version of My Way and two emblematic songs such as One for My Baby and In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning, where Greta enriches the sound palette with a light classical guitar accompaniment while Andrea Sammartino provides more intimate and meditative arrangements, the first dark and bluesy, the other lighter and dreamlike.
The ensemble
Around Greta Panettieri, for this album, there is therefore an ensemble that enhances her work in reinterpreting Sinatra's songs: Andrea Sammartino, artistic and life partner, who once again took care of the production and the sparkling arrangements from A to Z and refined, the flair of accordionist Vince Abbracciante who gave depth and an intense emotional shock to songs such as It Was a Very Good Year and Strangers in the Night, the enchanting exotic touch of the Japanese violinist Nanaco Tarui, special guest on Strangers in the Night, the solid creativity of the double bass player Giuseppe Bassi who also contributed with arrangement ideas, from the multifaceted drummer Mimmo Campanale, who with Bassi forms one of the sections most requested rhythms in Italy and abroad (for a few months, the two have been engaged in a world tour with Ute Lemper).
