Smooth Jazz Italian

2007 Release of the Seventh Album by the Italian Jazz-lounge Group featuring Bassist Marco Battistini, Francesco Montefiori on Keyboards, Drummer Luciano Vincenzi and Federico Montefiori Playing Sax, Flute and Voice. Their Smooth, Classic Sounds Are Just Right for Easy Lounging and Relaxing with Your Favorite Cocktail.

One of the prototypical Italian-American crooners, Vic Damone parlayed a smooth, mellow baritone into big-time pop stardom during the '40s and '50s. Early in his career, his inflection and phrasing were clearly indebted to Frank Sinatra, who once famously called him "the best set of pipes in the business." Overall, though, Damone's style was softer than Sinatra's and owed less to the elasticity of jazz, especially since he was a solo performer who never served an apprenticeship with a swing orchestra.

Carol Welsman sings an easy, airy, romantic set with hints of passion and sensuality immersed in a savory palate of impressive nuance on The Language of Love. With three Juno Award nominations as well as the 2002 Vocalist of the Year award, the internationally acclaimed vocalist and pianist is appreciated more than ever. Welsman immaculately captures the unique expressions of love with elongated phrasings, lite scats, and endearing vocal techniques delectably mirrored in her bluesy rendition of Gershwin's "The Man I Love" and through the gentle swing of the French version of "Chanson de Maxence."

This summer, dive with us into the often-overlooked sea of late ‘70s/early ’80s Italian Soul, AOR and Disco. Compiled by journalist, producer and digger extraordinaire David Nerattini (with a little help from our own Pierpaolo De Sanctis), PAISA’ GOT SOUL is the smooth and near-danceable soundtrack to a decade that is somehow still with us. A time of gentle grooves, summer loves and sweet escapism – one beautifully captured by Claude Nori in his photographs of Italian beaches and summer holidays. Welcome to the mood of an era.

Pink Martini follow the around-the-world-in-a-dozen-songs thrills of Hey Eugene! with Splendor in the Grass, a mellower, simpler set of small pleasures. These are relative terms, however; the group's music is still well-traveled, with China Forbes singing in five languages (English, Spanish, Neapolitan, French, and Italian) instead of the six or so on Eugene!. However, Pink Martini opt for a more unified sound here, one that draws on the more straightforward lounge-pop of their debut, Sympathique, and the mellowness of '60s and '70s pop.