A big thanks to Johan van Deeg from www.jazzineurope.com for publishing this interview.
Chiara Izzi | Interview
By: Johan van Deeg – Published 4 December 2013 on Jazz In Europe
Italy is one the the European Jazz hotspots hosting festivals such as the Umbria Jazz Festival, the Roma Jazz Festival and many more. In addition, over the years Italy has spawned many world class jazz musicians including Enrico Pieranunzi, Dado Moroni, Aldo Romano, Enrico Rava and Roberta Gambarini just to mention a few. Displaying artistic maturity well beyond her years, we can now add the young Italian vocalist Chiara Izzi to this list.
Chiara caught the attention of Quincy Jones at the Montreux Jazz Festival Vocal Competition in 2011 convincingly winning the 1st prize. Despite her young age, Chiara’s career has started to gather momentum worldwide since her success at Montreux. In June 2013 Chiara signed with the New York based label Dot Time Records. Her debut CD as a leader, “Motifs” was released worldwide in November. Chiara has already performed at many high profile European jazz festivals and played club dates in Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, France and the United States. Recently American alto saxophonist, composer, producer, and Jazz messenger alum Bobby Watson stated “Having travelled to and performed in Italy for the last 35 years, I have met many Italian rising stars and have seen them to go on to achieve international recognition. Chiara is one of those rising stars that I speak of. She has the talent, passion, devotion, musicianship, and professionalism that is required for success…”
I recently interviewed Chiara to catch up on the latest news and find out more about this rising star on the world jazz scene.