PRESS
A note from ISDA National President Basil Russo: Each year, through the prestigious Donna Distinta Award, we honor women of Italian descent to spotlight their contributions, from culture and industry to philanthropy and activism. The first 2024 Donna Distinta Award goes to Ms. Vanessa Racci. Read Full Article Here:
Magda Katz - Times Square Chronicles Review of Forbidden Love. Read Article
Both Vanessa and Charlie are strong performers and instead of doing an imitation of Bobby and Connie they sang and cleverly weaved the story in their own style and drew the audience into the relationship between the two stars. This mini jukebox show would make a wonderful stage musical and Vanessa and Charlie could take it to great hights .
Stephen Mosher - Broadway World review of Forbidden Love Show. Read Article
On May 7th, 2023 at The Green Room 42, Charlie Romo was welcomed to the stage, singing a song made famous by Bobby Darin, after which Vanessa Racci was brought out to join the proceedings, representing Darin's onetime love, Connie Francis. Together, these two vocalists with a penchant for the vintage have created a program titled FORBIDDEN LOVE: THE LOVE STORY OF BOBBY DARIN & CONNIE FRANCIS that allows them to show off superb vocals and their love for the two star-crossed lovers of their idolatry. Backed by an industrious band, Vanessa and Charlie entertained a full house that was, from time to time, even encouraged to sing along. Broadway World Cabaret was on hand on Sunday night to capture the classy colleagues in the quest to bring Connie and Bobby back to the people - people who were, clearly, there for all four of the crooners on display.
Andrew Cotto - Italian America Magazine Read Article
Stephen Mosher - Broadway World
It's really good jazz music. Really. Really. Good.
With her liquid voice laced with sass and swing, Vanessa Racci layers in emotion, technique, and nuance on every number, but not in any kind of a pattern. An artist looking to tell stories, Racci brings exciting new colors to a refreshing treatment by Kontemeniotis of "Moon River," sandwiching the ballad between a (mostly) straightforward "Jazz Band Ball" and character-laden strip-vibed "Coquette" - both arranged by Feifke to allow Vanessa opportunities to act, to play, and to play-act within both the original compositions and Feifke's arrangements. It's a clever segment of the album that teases the listener with what's to come. There is jazz vocalizing, dance rhythms, tenderness, and, oh, such drama. Drama? From an Italian singer? It can't be... but it is. Read more
Matt Micucci - JAZZIZ
Jazzy Italian is a sizzling showcase of the unique style of singing that Racci has developed over the years and benefits from her background in Italian song, theater music and, of course, jazz. Her ability to truly inhabit a song is testified all throughout Jazzy Italian‘s program on tributes to such legends as Lennie Tristano, Morgana King, Chick Corea and more. Read more
Jazzy Italian Press Release - James Gavin
On this second album, and her ZOHO debut, Jazzy Italian, Vanessa revisits songs associated with many of the Italians and Italian-Americans who have left their mark on jazz. By her side are a pair of gifted and accomplished pianist/arrangers, Steven Feifke and Glafkos Kontemeniotis. Both men’s creative horn writing and harmonic and metric alterations bring even century-old songs into the present. Read more
Ron Weinstock for Jazz and Blues Report
Ms. Racci establishes herself as an outstanding singer with her pitch, diction, phrasing, and melodious voice, delivering the lyric along with her horn-like phrasing. “At Last” is a number that has likely been over-record- ed. Ms. Racci adds an original opening verse, while Feifke’s arrangement again takes a familiar number and makes it sound like a new song. With superb ensemble backing, the song closes an album of jazz standards that are given contemporary interpretations. The terrific arrangements, excellent backing ensemble, and Vanessa Racci’s superb vocals result in a stellar jazz vocal album. Read more
This vibrantly cultivated, wholly heartfelt, and genuinely delicious to the ears new album opens on the gently swinging inflections within Betcha I Getcha and the Latin-imbued hipsway of the quietly frenetic Volare and then brings us the vibrant At The Jazz Band Ball, the sultry, dulcet Moon River and then both the mid-tempo Coquette and the Latin-imbued shuffle Make Love To Me.
Next up on this exciting album (originally entitled Italiana Fresca) is the low slung I’m A Fool To Want You and the finger-snapping balladry of A Lifetime Or Two and they are in turn backed by the ornately cultured within A Sunday Kind of Love, the infectiously swaying rhythms within Come Back Home With Me, the effortlessly impassioned September In The Rain, the album coming to an all too soon close on the measured melodies within You’re Everything and a euphorically embracing At Last. Read more
Jazz2love
Jazz singer and lyricist Vanessa Racci displays a perkiness relatable to vocalist Allyson Briggs, an iridescent resonance reminiscent of Sarah Brightman, the soulful melodicism characteristic of R&B's Marilyn McCoo, and a vocal elasticity that vibrates with the fiery boldness of vintage pop star Brenda Lee. Racci's vocals are modelesque while being flexible, easily fitting in with jazz, pop, R&B/soul, and musical theater melodies. Along Jazzy Italian, Vanessa Racci performs songs, including her own original that have a connection to Italian singers and songwriters, who have left their mark on jazz from its inception to modern day. The recording is a collective effort, driven by Racci's vocals and supported by musicians who highlight the vitality in her resonance. From sensual and flirtatious to reflective and lamenting, Racci canvasses a wide range of moods, mesmerizing audiences and affecting them with an intimate touch. Read more
Leonid Auskern for Jazz Square
Racci herself masterfully conveyed the spirit of the time contained in these compositions, covering a huge period of jazz history and, at the same time, with the help of her arrangers, she was able to make this music quite modern. Swing and mainstream play well on this album. So, long live jazz! And, of course, Viva Italia! Read more
Travis Rogers, Jr. The Jazz Owl
The band is the perfect complement to Vanessa. Brilliant musicianship and marvelous vocals make for an album that will stick in your head. The songs range from the tunes we’ve hummed or whistled all our lives to songs that were once popular but have lost in the turmoil of the 20th century. Under the arrangements of Feifke and Kontemeniotis and the vocal warmth and charm of Vanessa Racci, however, they are alive again and better than ever. Vanessa has the rat-a-tat vocals of Barbra Streisand and a vocal range that is a treat to any listener (Volare).
The album concludes with Mack Gordon and Henry Warren’s At Last. You know this song. It was the signature song of Etta James that was sung by Christina Aguilera at James’ funeral. Beyoncé added her own rendition of it but neither seemed to stray far from the Etta James version. Vanessa, however, works her own magic on this tune and she gives us something fresh, memorable, and absolutely endearing. Call it heresy but this is my favorite version ever. EVER.
Jazzy Italian is Vanessa Racci’s remarkable and inspired tribute to the wondrous contributions of Italian Jazz artists for the last 100 years. Nothing sounds dated and everything is made new by Racci and the arrangers Feifke and Kontemeniotis. It makes you return to the originals but brings you quickly back. Read more
The Italian American Podcast
Michael Doherty, for Michael Doherty’s Music Log
The music on this disc is as delightful as the title. Vanessa Racci has a strong voice, with joy, warmth, attitude and an incredible amount of appeal. She makes each song her own, and seems to having a fantastic time doing so. - Michael Doherty
“Come Back Home With Me” is an original track written by Vanessa Racci, though it fits in perfectly with all these other compositions by celebrated songwriters. In fact, this for me is another of the disc’s highlights. Read more
Rob Lester for Talkin' Broadway
The jazzy settings are decidedly accessible, lush and/or lively, with a band featuring nine different instruments, including brass, flute, and congas. There's lots of festive energia and there's the coy approach to romance as well as amore taken more seriously.
These include an appealing treat called "Come Home with Me" which Vanessa Racci wrote herself
Jazzy Italian is often juicy and jubilant, sometimes extra bold or spicy, with a fine variety of ingredients, like a good Italian meal–with not much overcooked and without the calories. Read more
Steve Sloane for The Kingston Wire
We arrived at the bandstand in Gallo Park just in time to see Vanessa Racci checking the sound with her all-star band. Vanessa, we discovered, sings just as good as she looks, which is a great combination. She has a warm, embracing alto voice, a hypnotic vibrato and a star’s command of the stage. With great respect to her Italian musical heritage, she honored the contributions of Italians to our indigenous musical idiom, which most people call jazz. Read more
ABC 7 - Columbus Day Parade
Magda Katz for Time Square Chronicles
Beautiful Vanessa Ricci was not only co-producer of the evening, but also treated the audience to her pop-jazz singing style. Her first song was one of my favorites, the Italian hit “Al Di La”. Vanessa also introduced the evening’s special guest, Deana Martin, talented daughter of legendary Dean Martin. Deana told wonderful stories of growing up with her famous father and all the greats of show business. Read more
Italia Living - Celebrity Spotlight: Italian American Jazz Singer Vanessa Racci
Vanessa Racci is a beautiful and versatile Italian American jazz singer. Born of a working-class Italian family in Thornwood, New York, she began singing when she was four. “Music was very much alive in my family,” she says. Its source was her grandfather, Frank Prisciantelli, who lived in the basement apartment. Vanessa’s early musical schooling came largely from his record collection… Italiana Fresca, features reinvented Italian classics her grandfather taught her. Vanessa puts a modern, jazz spin on these Italian songs she heard as a child; several are updated with her own English lyrics. On the album, Vanessa is surrounded by a bevy of top jazz players; the piano playing and arrangements were supplied by Kontemeniotis and Yaron Gershovsky, longtime musical director for the Manhattan Transfer. Read more
Bart Greenburg for Cabaret Scenes Magazine, NYC
A gracious presence on the stage and beautifully dressed as for a 1950s cocktail party, Vanessa Racci traced the contributions of Italian-Americans to jazz, a much more extensive history than a casual observer might think. She brings along a lovely voice, a fine sense of rhythm, a gracefulness evidenced in her dancing across the stage and a genuine appreciation of the music and her musicians.
Dan Singer for In Tune International
Vanessa Racci updates the popular songs that she grew up with. These 13-songs are mostly familiar to Italians growing up in the 1950s favouring their hits by Italian vocalists. She has gone one step further in her masterful updating by writing some brand new English lyrics. How delightfully you become entertained song-after-song being reminded of those great times. "Se Tu M'ami" (Pergolesi) is cooed by Vanessa in a sly and bewitching take. Finally there is "Tik-A-Tee, Tik-A-Tay" (Andre/Feola), she really carries this one off to spectacular proportions. Vanessa's new CD is just sizzling.
Mark Holston, for JAZZIZ
Thanks to her grandfather's obsession with Italian popular music of the 1950s, vocalist Vanessa Racci grew up with a heartfelt appreciation for the parade of radio hits recorded by Dean Martin, Louie Prima, Connie Francis and other Italian-American singers of that era. Racci updates a dozen of those tracks on Italiana Fresca, which she dedicates to la mia famiglia - especially to her nonno, Frank, who died last year at the age of 102. Read more
George W. Harris, for Jazz Weekly
Vanessa Racci brings a rich and enthusiastic voice in both English and Italian as she serves a full plate of Neopolitan flavors mixing jazz with traditional sounds and spices. She teams up with Glafkos Kontemeniotis-Yaron Gershovsky/p-arr along with David Finck/b, Cliff Almond/dr and an occasional vibrant horn section or dreamy string team. She sounds easy to love as she relaxes on a buoyant “Al Di La” while getting into a New Orleans groove with John Fedchock’s trombone on the high stepping “Guaglione.” Read more
Alex Henderson, for NYC Jazz Record
At Italian-American festivals on the East Coast, alongside the pizza fritte and sausage and peppers, one often hears a combination of crooner-associated American standards of the ‘40s-60s and traditional songs from Southern Italy. New York City-based Vanessa Racci, herself an Italian-American, delves into that type of repertoire on Italiana Fresca, celebrating the folk traditions of Southern Italy and paying homage to Italian-American artists like Dean Martin (né Dino Paul Crocetti), Louis Prima and Connie Francis (née Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero). Racci takes chances with the material, embracing postbop arrangements and incorporating elements of AfroCuban or Brazilian jazz. Read more (Page 20)
Magda Katz, for Times Square Chronicles
There are many singers keeping the Great American Songbook alive, but few singers keep the Great Italian Songbook alive. There was a time when popular Italians songs could be heard on top ten radio stations sung by Dean Martin, Al Martino, Bobby Rydell Jerry Vale. Today’s generation have never heard these wonderful songs sung. Last Sunday night Vanessa Racci released her Italiana Fresca CD at Birdland and demonstrated that the Great Italian Songbook is in good hands. Read more
Lynn DiMenna, for Cabaret Scenes
On the cover of her CD, looking like she was plucked right out of a piazza in Naples or, at the very least, a scene from La Dolce Vita, Racci describes her first recorded effort as a “jazz-inspired twist on Italian-American classics.” For me, her colorful interpretations of this unique and impressive song list go down like the refreshing blend of a signore’s Negroni and a signora’s Aperol spritzer…part bitter, part sweet, smooth and fizzy, with an abundance of orange and lemon peels thrown in for added kicks. Read more
All About Jazz
Vanessa Racci, A Stunning New Pop-Jazz Voice Gives Italian-American Classics A Jazz Spin On Debut Recording "Italiana Fresca". Read more
Midwest Record
A modern gal from an old school New York Italian household heard her grandpa play his old records around the house all day long. In anti diva mode, she refashions these tunes easily into being at home on "Mob Hits" compilations for hipsters. Viola, she's made them fresh and fun for everyone in the process. Read more
ePR News
Praised for her “truly remarkable voice and style” (Mike Bennett, WHUD radio), Vanessa has used big-band, small-group, and Afro-Cuban jazz as well as lush strings to give that music an exciting new sound. Read more
Interview on The Paul Leslie Hour
Published on May 24, 2017
Jazz Singer & Recording artist Vanessa Racci joins Paul Leslie to talk about her debut album "Italiana Fresca" featuring her interpretations of songs from the Italian-American Songbook.
Gary Vercelli, for Capital Public Radio
Vanessa explores the Italian-American songbook, originally pioneered by Connie Francis, Dean Martin, Al Martino, and Louie Prima. The arrangements on this album offer a unique blend of American jazz and Mediterranean roots. Read more