Shaking The Blue

Women in jazz Media
Fiona Ross
The warmth of her sumptuous vocals, her technical virtuosity, the emotional intensity of her performances and the overall beauty of her artistry is something to behold. Born and raised in Rome but moving to the UK and embedding herself in the London Jazz scene, Marta has the air of a modern-day Roman Goddess. That undefinable magical quality and sparkle that makes you feel honoured just to hear her.
As a vocalist Marta has been overwhelming audiences with her diverse repertoire and has worked with an incredible range of musicians across the fields of pop, folk, Brazilian music and the jazz standard catalogue but has never actually released an album under her own name, until now.

Rating: ★★★★JAZZWISE
Author: Peter Quinn
View record and artist details What makes this album from the Rome-born, Londonbased vocalist and composer Marta Capponi really take flight is the remarkable rapport she has with her musicians. Capponi's rich, fulsome timbre is rightly centre stage, but there's also plenty of space for Caleb and Stanley to stretch out, while Capponi's husband, drummer Emiliano Caroselli, plus bassist Dario
Di Lecce provide the always buoyant pulse. The album is superbly recorded, too – there's a palpable sense of excitement and spontaneity that you don't usually associate with a studio recording. And hats off to Caleb for excellent work in the mixing department. There's ear-catching detail in every song, from the way in which Stanley's Hammond organ creeps in subliminally during Capponi's introduction to ‘East of the Sun and West of the Moon’ and the incredible dynamic control as band and singer crescendo together to the climactic point of a stunning take on ‘I'll Be
Seeing You, to the joyously swinging pocket of ‘September in the Rain’ and the extended outro of ‘Nature Boy’ in which the texture is stripped down to just voice and drums. If you want to hear an album of standards compellingly sung, backed by a quartet who give their all, then look no further.

Review by Kim Cypher
Instantly I was captivated by the stunning vocal solo introduction of the
opening track, East of the Sun and West of the Moon. Browsing through the
album notes and images, I could tell this album had been created with love
and with a raw emotion that would make it a very special album indeed.
Therefore, I was not surprised to read that the album was created together
with husband, drummer and co-producer, Emiliano Caroselli at a time when
Marta was eight months pregnant with son Leonardo, whom the album is
dedicated to. The joy, happiness and love in this collection of jazz standards closest to
Marta’s heart, really shines through every heartfelt lyric and through the
creatively presented album artwork, together with outstanding musicianship throughout.