About Me
First, I would like to say something about my name...Miavox became a moniker of sorts for me in the underground of NYC. This was unintentional on my part, but I didn't mind for it was...is...short and easy...unlike my family name, Tuttavilla. Being a name from Italy all the syllables are pronounced...Too-ta-vee-la...I know, funny / strange...yet it sort of rolls off the tongue if you try it...and it's mine and it's real and I'm stickin' to it ..or, it to me......THE STORY: I apprenticed early to a Kabuki master and Broadway gypsy in the suburbs of Boston. And as my parents filled the house with sounds of their favorites from the 40's and 50's (Bennett, Sinatra...of course!) it was not uncommon for them to be heard singing along or a cappella as the whim struck them. There were opera singers in the family, too, most notably my grandfather, who as a very young man sang at the La Strada Opera House in Italy. While my elder siblings filled my head with the music of the time—Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones (early), and Santana as well as Stevie Wonder, The Stylistics and Odyssey—my mentor, an uncle, (the above mentioned "master") made sure I studied ballet and listened to jazz. At home, Sunday gatherings were big...a house filled with people, music, and food...and a tone was set.What began with Uncle Tommy, finished at The American Musical and Dramatic Academy in Manhattan. Completing a comprehensive study of the fullrange of vocal and theartrical disciplines there, I began working in theatre off-off Broadway moving toward the classical and contemporary forms of legitimate theatre.There was an energy and vitality -- these rhythms of the streets -- offered in NYC that was very much a part of that time, especially living as I did in what used to be called Alphabet City.I had to return to music making...at about this time while recording and performing backup vocals for classically trained musician turned film composer, Craig Richey, I aquired an old upright grand, much like the one that existed in my house as a child. From there, I began a jazz quartet (or sextet depending on the venue or vibe I wanted) covering standards from the American Song Book in awe of the musicality of the greats--Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, and Billie Holiday et al. I introduced some favorites from those earlier influences, such as a bossa nova version of Led Zeppelin's No Quarter and played the small club/lounge circuit, regularly at the Bubble Lounge and the Fez.A strong desire to revisit my previous club dancing days that had begun on Lansdowne Street (Boston) to Red Zone, Vinyl, Sound Factory (NYC) ...lead me, some years later, to the now legendary gathering Body&SOUL. And so again, those beautiful Sundays...and what I heard there changed everything I've done since. I began to write and record for labels such as Wave and NRK, while at the same time a self-training process began at home in producing a cappellas and demos. While at Body&SOUL the exposure to so much Afro-Brasilian inflected music lead me to move to Rio de Janeiro, where I lived, worked, and studied for two years, learning the music, the language, and the culture of Brasil. There I recorded a track for Anderson Soares' Muito Soul CD (Trama) in Sao Paolo, and performed in various clubs and private parties in Rio with my band Cassino, a joint electronic driven project with partners Fabio Santanna, Ciro Cruz, and Felipe Pinaud... (sidemen for Elza Soares and Gabriel O Pensador, respectively) along with other live musicians. Homesick for my city and musical tribe, I returned to NYC and my love of Dance Music and how and why we gather here. My newest release Touched The Sky is with producer Dennis Ferrer on his much anticipated album The World As I See It (King Street / Defected) Out now!!! Oh, and did I mention? I STILL love to dance...
