Vito Tartamella

Maria Pia De Vito is an Italian jazz singer, composer, and arranger. A native of Naples, Italy, she studied classical music, opera, and Italian folk music. In 1976 she performed folk songs as a singer, guitarist, and pianist. In 1980 she sang with jazz musicians such as Art Ensemble of Chicago, Michael Brecker, Uri Caine, Peter Erskine, Paolo Fresu, Billy Hart, Maria Joao, Nguyên Lê, Dave Liebman, Bruno Tommaso, Gianluigi Trovesi, Steve Turre, Miroslav Vitous, and Joe Zawinul. In the 1980s she worked with Toots Thielemans and Mike Stern. She collaborated with Rita Marcotulli in the 1990s on the albums Nauplia and Fore Paese. She has often worked with the British composer Colin Towns and with pianist John Taylor.

An opera about a company who are staging an opera? Donizetti is at the height of his comic powers and provides an abrasively disenchanted take on a world he knew all too well, with it tantrum-throwing primadonnas and narcissistic tenors, its spite and envy, its mean and noble sides… a world which is still very much with us.

Italian jazz, world and classical singer Maria Pia De Vito has a penchant for British pianists. Before hooking up with Huw Warren, in the late 1990s/early 2000s she made three albums with John Taylor, including her breakthrough set Phone (1998).
Dialektos is a richly fruitful collaboration between the two musicians, playing as it does to their mutual love of folk roots, energetic rhythms and strong melodies. Its cultural fulcrum is the southern Italian city of Naples, whose popular songs the virtuosic but earthy De Vito has celebrated on previous recordings…

Grammy-nominated guitarist and performer Rick Vito announces his eleventh solo album, ‘Cadillac Man,’ a collection of eleven original tracks and an instrumental version of Sam Cooke’s “Just Another Day.” The album title reflects Vito’s lifelong passion for classic Cadillac cars. “Mr Lucky,” his 1969 Sedan De Ville, is pictured on the cover. Fans of slide and blues guitar will find songs on the album to suit every mood, from rhythmic to rocking, swinging to swampy, and all points in between. One standout is Vito’s original rocking arrangement of “It’s Two A.M.,” previously recorded by Shemekia Copeland and winner of the 2001 W.C. Handy Blues Award for “Song of the Year.”