As I fast forward to November 23rd, 2012, the day after Thanksgiving, my cousin Carl Stewart, who was visiting from LA, called me and said he wanted to hang out and hear some jazz. He had been in Evanston since the 19th of November to spend the Thanksgiving Holiday with his daughter Michelle and husband Brandon and his first grand-baby
Sophia who just made 8 months. To my surprise, I found Roberta Gambarini was performing at one of my favorite jazz clubs here in Chicago, the Jazz Showcase. The intimacy factor of this club is why it is one of my favorites. We arrived in time to catch the last set for the evening. We got the opportunity to personally meet and converse with Roberta before the start of the last set. I shared with her my 2004 experience at Ravinia and asked her if she would sing one of my favorite songs "Estate". She promised me she would perform my request. We were able to get seats dead center and right in front of the stage. Roberta is gifted with a magnificent, mellifluous sounding voice, a 3 to 4 octave range and perfect pitch. Roberta could easily have traveled down an operatic road. However, to the benefit of female jazz vocalist fans, she chose the jazz improvisational art, and mastered it. This evening, Roberta was backed by the amazing George Cables on piano, John Webber on bass, and George Fludas on drums who started the last set for this evening with an instrumental entitled "You Stepped Out Of a Drum". After the George Cables' intro, Roberta came onto the stage exuding her musical energy. She demonstrated her resplendent vocal control in an a cappella intro opener "Easy To Love". Roberta Gambarini is a complete aesthetic package. Aside from her physical beauty, her artisic repertoire includes her ability to perform songs in English, Italian, French and Spanish, creative scatting, the ability to profoundly convey insights of songs to the
audience before performing them which enhances the emotional connection of the vocal experience, and phrasing of a jazz instrumentalist with an addictive sense of swing ( this night she phrased a trumpet). This Jazz-Goddess's vocals of Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “Chega De Saudade", a thoroughly authentic Italian “Estate", and the hypnotic "Cinema
Paradiso" were inexorably mesmerizing. This night, Roberta was in complete control of her audience and the standing ovation and clamoring for one more song, as the last set for this evening came to a close, corroborated her authoritative influence and command. Great Music is what feelings sound like. Roberta Gambarini delivers jazz singing at its
finest state and the ethereal experience of hearing your emotions. I recommend you experience the intoxicating Roberta Gambarini at every opportunity.