malina

Malina is the name of art of Italian singer - nowadays one of the most appreciates jazz ladies - Michela Lombardi. She joined her first rock'n'roll band in 1988, in Tuscany, where she lives, and through the nineties she's been singing almost every kind of music, soul (she still sings with the Soul Italian Community house band, check her blog on www.myspace.com/michelalombardijazzvocal), hard-rock, blues, funky (she recorded the hip-hop jingle for the tv-adv of a famous brand of ice tea... the one with the dancer at the audition) crossover-hardcore (she sang with the band Senza Freni, also on myspace.com, at Arezzo Wave 1995, with Petra Magoni), world music (she collaborated with Tribù Vocale Patchworld), and she can sing fluently in English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, German. She still writes pop songs for other singers (among the, r'n'b rising star Karima Ammar) and - who knows? - for a forthcoming Malina album 2... In 2001, after years of studying jazz vocals, she totally committed to jazz, and now she's Italian Jazz Awards 2008 nominee as Best Jazz Singer and had the legendary Phil Woods saying "Michela is a terrific young talent. She sounsd like a hip angel!".This album - GENTLY HARD, 1999 - is a pop rock gem, hidden on the shelves for many years. It can be found on www.cdbaby.com/malina. Exceptional singer and songwriter Malina, equally talented in performing pop and jazz, co-writes these great songs with musician-producer-composer Filippo Gaetani (Tessa Drummond, Adrina Thorpe) during 1997 and 1999. With the collaboration of talented musicians as Marco Baracchino, Fabio Marchiori (Lynton Kwesi Johnson), drummers Fabrizio Morganti (Dennis Bovell, Modena City Ramblers, Piero Pelù), Andrea Pellegrini and Walter Paoli (Stefano Bollani, Kenny Wheeler, Tony Scott), the album was recorded at Le Bozze studios in Tuscany, Italy, by Filippo Gaetani assisted by Sandro Ferrini. It was then beautifully mastered by Julian Lowe at Metropolis Mastering, London. The album also features guest star pianist Stefano Bollani playing accordion on “Lemon cake”, singer Petra Magoni (backing vocals on "Daylight") and Stefano Cocco Cantini playing a sax solo on “Back to myself”. “I’m glidin’” and “Gently hard” received strong airplay in 2000. The remix of the song “By your side”, released on famed Tommy Boy label, topped US billboards in year 2000 at 12, having success especially in the Bay area. “By your side” was also featured in the TV series “Queer as folk”. The song “Reach out” was also remixed and played worldwide. The song “Teardrops” is featured in the short movie “Under the leaves” (Sotto le foglie), directed by Stefano Chiodini, starring Valerio Mastrandrea and Cecilia Dazzi. The movie is receiving several international awards (Italian Golden Globe 2006 and many others).