Title - A Window Within
Artist - Olivia Foschi
For those unaware, Olivia Foschi is a jazz singer, composer and educator who weaves together the rich tapestries of her San Francisco roots and Italian upbringing with her profound passion for jazz, which ignited under the tutelage of Roy Zimmerman and further blossomed through her classical Nepali vocal studies with Aavaas in Kathmandu.
Her academic journey in English Literature and formal music education across Italy and Leeds University fortified her artistic foundation, leading to a first-place victory at the Jazz Women in Blues competition in 2009. Relocating to New York in 2010, Foschi’s exploration of jazz deepened, studying under Marc Mommaas, Fay Victor, and Jeremiah Abiah, and delving into the rhythmic complexities of Konnakol with Ganesh Kumar since 2014.
With albums like Perennial Dreamer and Fleeting Windows to her credit, and performances on New York City’s grand stages, Foschi has cemented her place in the jazz world, eagerly anticipating the release of her third record in June 2024.
Following this rich journey of musical exploration and personal growth, Foschi’s latest endeavor, A Window Within, emerges as a deeply personal narrative set against the backdrop of global upheaval and personal loss.
This album, a testament to Foschi’s resilience and creativity, was sparked by a challenge from drummer Mauricio Zottarelli to expand her repertoire of original compositions. Amid the reflective solitude of the Covid pandemic and the poignant loss of her grandmothers, Foschi embarked on a cathartic creative process that reaffirmed her identity as a composer and musician.
Musically, the album is a collaborative effort, with Foschi and Zottarelli crafting the heart of the arrangements, further refined by the adept pianist Matt King. The ensemble, completed by Marco Panascìa (bass) and Vinicius Gomes (guitar), brings to life Foschi’s compositions in a recording session that can only be described as magical.
1. CAUGHT ME BY SURPRISE
2. PIECES OF CENTRAL PARK
3. LIVE WITH IT
4. CUN LA PRÉMA STËLA
5. NONA
6. EAST WIND
7. SAVORING THE RAIN
8. SUBTLE FAREWELL
9. JOHN JOHN JOEL AND JOAN
A consummate jazz performer of various venues and clubs throughout the United States, Europe and Japan, the album opens on the emotional whirlwind captured within CAUGHT ME BY SURPRISE (which also details Olivia’s first encounter with her future husband, Joel Kretschman) and the reflective beauty sewn within PIECES OF CENTRAL PARK, and then we get the melodically rhythmic LIVE WITH IT and a traditional song from the 1920s by D. G. C. Martuzzi and A. Spallicci, the all-embracing CUN LA PRÉMA STËLA.
On an album that contains one beautiful piece after another, each evoking romantic feelings and places throughout their melodies, along next is a reflective piece, NONA (which is also a heartfelt tribute to Olivia’s grandmother, Joan H. Martin) and the veritably meditative EAST WIND, which are in turn backed by the harmonious odd meter bossa nova within SAVORING THE RAIN, the album rounding out on the introspective piece SUBTLE FAREWELL, closing on the whimsical JOHN JOHN JOEL AND JOAN (a track that merges konnakol with a story of serendipity and rediscovery).
Players: Instrument
Olivia Foschi (voice)
Mauricio Zottarelli (drums/percussion)
Matt King (piano/Rhodes/melodica)
Marco Panascìa (bass)
Vinicius Gomes (guitar)
www.oliviafoschi.com
Olivia Foschi @ Facebook