Primary Instrument: Vocal
Born in Naples, south Italy, Letizia grew up in an artistic family. Opera singers, musicians, actors, writers. Her mother started also as singer, her uncle is an Opera's Tenore and her father, an artist and a Jazz lover. Also her brother Gianpaolo has become an appreciated and talented actor and anchorman. As every big old style Italian family, they spent together all the occasions and holidays performing and singing together, the traditional Neapolitan-Italian repertoire, playing music, dancing, acting and changing what usually would be a normal family gathering into some extraordinary theatre shows with a lot of fun and a professional mood... This is where Letizia's passion for arts and talents started to materialize...and soon, everybody realized she was not a regular kid. Even when she was 4, she never played with a rag doll, she spent time painting and creating things with her hands. Early on, her family moved from Naples to Como in the north of Italy and her life started to change. They carried their traditions and all their musical wealth with them... But she learned the meaning of NOSTALGIA. She was forced to exchange the large brightness of the sea for the dark shadows of the lake. The warm and passionate people of the south with a cold, distant, unfriendly new world. This was one of the reasons she bonded more and more with her culture (going whenever she could back to Naples) and why she needed to put her culture into everything she did.
Letizia started as dancer, and went to study also musical theatre in London. She graduated art school as a designer, won some painting awards, showcasing her art when she was just 14. She started working very young as dancer, dance teacher, choreographer while continuing to study singing and acting. She needed to follow her heart and express herself in different ways, searching for the right path. She attended the acting school “Quelli di Grock”in Milano, worked as an actress, and finally, because of her great love of music, she decided to audition for the International Jazz Academy in Milano. Of the 60 people who auditioned, she was one of the 7they accepted. She got four years and became an assistant to the singing professor in a “Master Year”. So she started working as professional singer and writing her lyrics.
Before meeting her producer Lenny White she experienced theatre and musicals roles, like in “West side story” where she was Anita, dancing, acting in TV shows and singing with many great Italian Jazz musicians. Working as lead in a Jazz Big Band, in a Gospel Choir, teaching singing and working for different projects. She used to listen to any kind of music, from Opera to soundtracks, from Jazz to Neapolitans songs, Broadway shows, rock, classical, folk, fusion, soul and whatever is interesting and moves her heart.
The legendary drummer and producer Lenny White recognized her talents, invested on her and the project is done. Letizia Moved to New York where she studied, wrote and recorded the album with the incredible “all star band” who was very happy to support her and the project. She already performed at the BlueNote in Milan with Lenny White and his band during his last European Tour. They also played concerts in Rome at “Casa del Jazz” and “Centrale Montemartini Bluenote Festival” introducing the project having always sold out. Letizia opened the TV “Premio Biagio Agnes” Media Awards 2011 singing “a cappella” an old Neapolitan song on the first Channel Raiuno.
Whatever will happen with this record Letizia's life changed totally and she had priceless experiences and the honour to have some of the greatest musicians in the world playing on her first album. She's happy and grateful to her life and to her maestro Lenny White.
“Lenny White and Letizia Gambi have created the hippest musical address in Naples; at the intersection of Neapolitan music and jazz.” --Gil Goldstein
“I’m always looking for new artists who have knowledge and respect of tradition but free spirited enough not to look at me crazy when I ask them to change it...Letizia is an old soul in a new body...It wasn't a situation where it was just her singing, she's a great singer...excellent lyricist...She's really a dynamo and the best student I ever had.” --Lenny White
“Is one of those dramatic arrivals that challenges categories and assumptions.” --Ashley Khan
