barbara raimondi

Barbara Raimondi started her professional career when she was very young, working in live and recording sessions as a vocalist for dance music, acid jazz and pop productions.

At the age of 24 she had her first touch with jazz music, attending the Civic Jazz Centre in Turin studying with Francesca Oliveri, a well-known Italian singer of gospel and jazz, and then with lyrical teachers getting her a deeper knowledge of vocal technique. Later on, she participate to several jazz seminaries, where she met international teachers as Mal Waldron and Rachel Gould ( Royal Jazz Conservatory, L’Aja, Holland).

Meanwhile, she remained in the pop music area, working with well-known Italian artists as Roberto Vecchioni and others.

In 2000 she recorded her first CD as a soloist, called “ VITA da ALTOPARLANTE ” ( PHILOLOGY cat. N° 160.2 W), including jazz standards and some of her own compositions, making use of the Italian language on a jazz musical form, and this record give her the very interesting partecipation to “ Roccella Ionica Jazz Festival “, taking part to an original project written and conducted by Enrico Pieranunzi, that’s probably the most famous Italian jazz piano player. In 2002 she started to attend to a classical contemporary repertoire, working with the vocal Ensemble “Il sogno di Polifilo” directed by the choir maestro Oto Perrino, and this ensemble proposed in several concerts Georgy Ligeti’s “Lux Aeterna” and others compositions of Italian contemporary musicians like Enrico Correggia.

In summer 2004 she has been one of the leading characters in the contemporary multi-media opera “Hoffmaniana”, written by the Austrian young composer Thomas Deszy and performed during the Bregenzer Festspiele, in Bregenz (AT). This opera will be performed in 2005 in Vienna too.

In 2005 she releases her second CD, called “TROPPO RUMORE” , where she continue to develop her composing talent ; the recording is mostly composed by original tune written by her and played by the the musician of her quartet, with giutar player Sandro Gibellini as a guest in several takes.

In 2008 she releases her 3rd CD, ACCOPPIAMENTI GIUDIZIOSI, recorded with many international contributions: the brazilian guitarist Marco Pereira, Enrico Pieranunzi, Furio Di Castri and the english string quartet Basquiat Strings. It's kind of a concept album, in which her main passions, literature and music, are linked together .

In 2010 is CONTIGO EN LA DISTANCIA, with her "everlasting" partners Roberto Taufic on guitar and Enzo Zirilli on percussions, a tribute to traditional latin american music; the cd is very well acclaimed from critics and public and they're still carrying on this project, that could have a second episode very soon.

In 2013 Raimondi releases her new cd, a tribute to Mr. Ornette Coleman's music, recorded with Mauro Negri (altosax and clarinet), Furio Di Castri (bass) and Enzo Zirilli (drums). SINGIN' ORNETTE!! takes part oto the Revoice!Festival in London, with the special partecipation of the alto saxofonist Tony Kofi, who recorded two cds with Mr. Coleman in "person"....

Her latest cd is a new Contigo en la distancia's recording, FLORICANTO, which is now touring around Italy featuring the London based italian trumpet player Fulvio Sigurta.

Her live activity is combined to a teaching work in Conservatories all around Italy: Trento, Brescia, Cuneo, Palermo Ferrara, Cagliari and, presently, in Genoa and she leads singing and vocal technique clinics.

Her mezzo - soprano voice and her versatility allow her to approach different music languages and styles, from Brazilian bossa nova and classical spanish songs from south american tradition, to classical jazz standards, as well as in her own compositions and her repertoire always carries her peculiar jazz imprint.

Jazz musicians I worked with :

Enrico Pieranunzi, Furio Di Castri, Saxea Saxophone Quartet, Andrea Pozza, Luigi Bonafede, Emanuele Cisi, Giampaolo Casati, Paolo Porta, Garrison Fewell, Giorgio LiCalzi, Luciano Milanese, Roberto Rossi, Andrea Beneventano, Peggy Stern, Rob Sudduth, Giorgio Serci, Antonio Forcione, Sandro Gibellini, Enrico Pinna, Claudio Chiara, Enzo Zirilli, Alessandro Maiorino, Riccardo Fioravanti, Roberto Taufic, Dado Moroni, Patti Wicks, Jonathan Gee., Claudio Chiara, Massimo Faraò.