Espresso Manifesto Marketing Copy

The lights are low. The wine, uncorked. Beat-generation Italian jazz fills the room. Smart. Seductive. Mischievous. It grabs at you urgently makes you want to drive around dangerous curves at top speeds.take a new loverstart smoking. But the music isnt from La Dolce Vita. Its new music. Daniela Nardis Espresso Manifesto. If the musics captivated you, and you want more, then Nardis experiment, Espresso Manifesto has worked. Launched in 2009, Espresso Manifesto is an exploratory creative project conceived by Nardi, an award-winning Italian-Canadian singer/songwriter/producer to discover, showcase and reinterpret the scintillating spirit of Italian music and culture. Italian music, art and culture are well known and loved all over the world, Nardi explains. Most global citizens can hum O Sole Mio, recall a Fellini film or describe the Mona Lisa, but there is so much more going on in Italian culture. I created Espresso Manifesto to shine a light on new and different Italian traditions, and to create some new ones, she adds.

All Roads Lead to the Espresso Manifesto Artistic curiosity and musical versatility are nothing new for Nardi, shes been making music all her life. At age five, she began studying piano at the Royal Conservatory of Music. British pop music of the 80s led Nardi to take up the bass guitar and embrace songwriting. She went on to earn a degree in Music at Torontos York University. Meanwhile she honed her live performance skills playing everything from pop to punk, from Latin to country. In the years since, Nardis career has encompassed a remarkable range of activities ; recording artist, DJ, film composer, radio show host, and actor. Her pop-jazz solo album One True Thing (2005-Minerva Road) gained considerable airplay, charted, and earned her a Best Group nomination at the Canadian Smooth Jazz Awards. The 2008 release The Rose Tattoo (Minerva Road), inspired by her mother Roses four year battle with cancer, marked a watershed for Nardi. This ambitious album received wide international acclaim, and led to Nardi winning the Canadian Smooth Jazz Award for Female Vocalist of the Year, and the Readers Pick Award for Best Female Vocalist in the prestigious Now Magazine Best of Toronto campaign.

This is my manifesto, my Espresso Manifesto: to create works that proudly display the wonders of those earthy, complex, elegant, primal people, my people - the Italian people. ~ Daniela Nardi

Espresso Manifesto Marketing Copy

Going Where No Woman Has Gone Before Espresso Manifestos most recent offering is The Music of Paolo Conte (Acronym/Universal Music). In it, Nardi pays tribute to the renowned Italian singer-songwriter. Known for his gravelly, whisky-and-smoke tinged voice, Conte is often compared to Tom Waits or Leonard Cohen. The album is a worldly, sympathetic, passionate, yet wry take on human feelings and foibles. Nardi is the first woman to reinterpret Contes music, and shes turned his originals on their head, and made them her own. They sparkle in the new light. A key to the records appeal is the presence of prestigious musicians drawn from Italy's vibrant jazz community, including Fabrizio Bosso, Fausto Mesolella, Luciano Biondini and Gabriele Mirabassi. The album was recorded at Elettra Studios in Italy's lush, celebrated Umbria region. Nardi produced it along with her husband, renowned jazz pianist Ron Davis, and with additional artistic direction by legendary producer/engineer Pasquale Minieri (Vinicio Capossela, Gianmaria Testa, Elisa). The combination of Conte's remarkable songwriting and Nardi's sensitive interpretations gives Espresso Manifesto The Songs of Paolo Conte a universal appeal that transcends cultural and language barriers. Daniela Nardis Espresso Manifesto has also become a must-see, live musical experience. It has played to sold-out houses in Toronto, Montreal and New York. Upcoming dates include an appearance at Torontos international star venue Koerner Hall (with guitar legend John Pizzarelli), two nights at the great Montreal Jazz Festival, and a 2014 tour of Russia. The album has been a critical and commercial success, Le Journal de Montreal called it a tour de force and so many critics and reviewers sung its praises that Espresso Manifesto became a top pick with jazz lovers. The project has been featured on Public Radio Internationals The World, received a love it from Tom Schnabels KCRW Caf L.A. show, charted #1 and #2 on Jazz and World Music charts throughout Canada and the US, and received rave reviews from JazzTimes and JazzWeekly.

Veni, Vidi, ViciCross Continent Collaborations and new album Canto in the works

This is my manifesto, my Espresso Manifesto: to create works that proudly display the wonders of those earthy, complex, elegant, primal people, my people - the Italian people. ~ Daniela Nardi

Espresso Manifesto Marketing Copy

Theres such a brilliance and vastness to the Italian songbook. I want to do my part to bring it back into the publics attention and show how comparable it is to other world music, such as Brazilian, French Chansons or Portuguese Fado, Nardi says. Nardi will be continuing Espresso Manifestos cross-continental artistic dialogue with Roman composer Marco Testoni. The two musicians are collaborating on concerts in Rome and Toronto. A chance meeting led the two artists to discover their common desire to showcase and celebrate Italian music. Audiences will be able to enjoy the fruits of their collaboration in spring 2014. Along with a concert series, Nardi is in pre-production for a follow-up album to her 2012 release. The new recording, Canto, will explore the Italian song from its Neapolitan roots to its contemporary forms, including tunes penned by Nardi. Staying true to her signature earthymodern-jazz-pop-world-cool sounds, Nardi will again explore the richness of Italian jazz while incorporating some surprising musical elements slightly retro in flavor. Sometimes I feel like I was born in the wrong era. I am often drawn to the sounds of pre-war swing but then a little post-war mambo puts a bounce in my step, too, she adds. From opera to Jovanotti to the famed Sanremo Music Festivalthe song has long been an essential part of Italian music. The song is immediate, intimate, and personal. You dont need to be a musician to get an Italian song. If the song touches you, if it mo ves you, its done its job, Nardi explains. Romantic. Hip. Groovy. Muted. Earthy. Intense. Playful. Electric. Passionate. Authentic. Soulful. Watching Daniela Nardis Espresso Manifesto unfold promises to be a thrilling experience.

This is my manifesto, my Espresso Manifesto: to create works that proudly display the wonders of those earthy, complex, elegant, primal people, my people - the Italian people. ~ Daniela Nardi

Espresso Manifesto Marketing Copy

Reviews for Daniela Nardis Espresso Manifesto: The Music of Paolo Conte

...Stellar...wonderfully atmosphericinfectious...fiery.shimmeringthe sensuousness of Sophia Loren blended with the earthiness of Anna Magnani ~ JazzTimes

Earthy and al dente, clever and fun....Brava ragazza! ~ Jazz Weekly

Daniela Nardis Espresso Manifesto turns out to be a brilliant homage to legendary singer/songwriter Paolo Conte. With beautiful arrangements very respectful of the original songs, Nardi majestically takes on this brilliant, jazz-inflected repertoire. ~ Stanley Pan of Quand le jazz est l, CBC/Radio-Canada's Espace Musique.

Her passionate re-workings of such stirring vintage numbers as the plaintive, haunting, tangoinspired Gioco D'Azzardo, the beautifully bittersweet Nina, the punchy, playful Via Con Me and the breezy, swinging Gelato al Limon, offer powerful testimony to both Conte's enduring genius and Nardi's singular interpretive skills. The result is a transcendent cultural experience. ~ Italian Cultural Institute in New York

Powerful yet intimate, outstanding, an arresting voice." ~ eJazznews.com

This is my manifesto, my Espresso Manifesto: to create works that proudly display the wonders of those earthy, complex, elegant, primal people, my people - the Italian people. ~ Daniela Nardi