MARTA CAPPONI is one of the brightest lights currently shining on the jazz stage.
Although diminutive in stature, she packs an almighty vocal punch, as comfortable singing standards and tender ballads as she is delivering immersive Brazilian sounds that take the listener back to mother nature. She is an exciting mix of passion, verve, energy and intimacy. A bundle of unbridled joy.
Heavily pregnant, a radiant Capponi lit up the 606 Club’s stage on Monday May 13 as she sung some of her favourite music. There was something for everyone – with an underlying theme of positivity.
Her opening number was Peggy Lee’s September In The Rain – a song that reminds Capponi of her own experience with September rain when she got married in 2017 north of Rome (it pelted down after four months of continuous drought). A beautiful version of Hoagy Carmichael’s The Nearness Of You followed as did covers of Nancy Wilson’s Save Your Love For Me and Sinatra’s East Of The Sun And West Of The Moon.
After a short break, she cranked up the tenderness with Ella Fitzgerald’s Blue Skies, Nat King Cole’s The Very Thought Of You and a rousing Love For Sale. The evening was completed with Bye Bye Blackbird and Thelonious Monk’s Round Midnight.
Capponi was given great support by Andrew McCormack on piano, an outstanding Daisy George on double bass, and Emiliano Caroselli (Capponi’s husband) on drums. Before Capponi stepped on stage, the trio delivered a marvellous version of Thelonious Monk’s We See. In the second set Caroselli and Capponi gave the audience a foretaste of their current project NuCleUs that will result in an autumnal album produced by Gilad Atzmon – one of the world’s leading jazz saxophonists. The couple are currently raising funds for the album on website gofundme.com.
Although Capponi, understandably, will be taking a lower profile in the months ahead, she will be back before the year is out with a smile, her irresistible voice and hopefully the fruits of project NuCleUs.