Originally hailing from Rome and currently residing in New York City, the Italian singer and songwriter Chiara Civello draws on a wide spectrum of pop, jazz, cabaret, and Latin elements in her music. While she has explored straight-ahead jazz on earlier occasions, she operates far outside the boundaries of a dedicated jazz vocalist or strict bebop devotee; the recordings she has issued through Verve lean more toward the stylistic territory of Sade, Basia, Norah Jones, Nellie McKay—absent that performer’s eccentricity and biting wit—and Rickie Lee Jones than toward uncompromising jazz voices such as Abbey Lincoln, Sheila Jordan, or Kitty Margolis. Jazz elements nonetheless surface consistently throughout her pop-oriented work, and since relocating to the United States she has collaborated with prominent figures including alto saxophonist Phil Woods and guitarist Mike Stern. Her range of inspirations spans numerous artists, among them Joni Mitchell, Sade, Sting, Ella Fitzgerald, Julie London, and Billie Holiday, while Brazilian jazz and pop traditions exert a particularly strong pull, evident in her familiarity with Astrud Gilberto, Gal Costa, Ivan Lins, and Antonio Carlos Jobim. Although Italian served as the primary language during her upbringing, Civello has composed and performed extensively in English, along with Portuguese and Spanish, delivering English material with only a subtle Italian inflection that lends distinctive character to her interpretations.
While still based in Italy, she was engaged at age seventeen as featured vocalist with the Mario Raja Big Bang, distinct from the Mario Raja Big Band. She later joined the ensemble of Italian jazz drummer Roberto Gatto, known locally for leading the Noisemakers. In 1993 Civello relocated to Boston upon receiving a scholarship to Berklee College of Music, and upon completing her studies there in 1998 she had earned both a Boston Jazz Society Award and a Cleo Laine Award. Two years afterward she moved to New York City, where she encountered producer Russ Titelman, whose credits encompass work with Paul Simon, Rickie Lee Jones, Randy Newman, Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Gordon Lightfoot, James Taylor, and Brazilian artist Milton Nascimento. Titelman produced a demo for Civello and facilitated an introduction to Ron Goldstein, president and CEO of the Verve Music Group, resulting in a recording contract. He also connected her with Burt Bacharach, leading to their co-written song “Trouble.” Her debut Verve release, Late Quarter Moon, appeared in the United States in February 2005.
