Artists in New York, Part II, Greta Panettieri

Greta Panettieri, CD "Brazilian Nights"

Greta Panettieri (Greta's Bakery) was one of my favorite singers in New York City for years.

She has now returned to her home, Italy.

One of the most talented and versatile singers I have ever heard in the Greenwich Village club circuit, has left us, but not only are her friends and followers sad, Greta has a constant Big Apple mania tugging at her from New York as well.

Here is my last review of Greta.http://streetcredmusic.blogspot.com/2011/02/greta-is-back-with-brand-new-sound.html


I spoke with Greta last week, I wanted to see how she was doing;

Q; How much do you miss New York?
Greta;  I miss New York City a lot, I feel like I'm more of a New Yorker than an Italian...sometimes I'm so New York sick that I can't think about it!

Q;  I know the way of life there must seem to be in slow motion, how do you stay busy?
Greta; Well yes it's slower but it's got its good sides, Italy is going through some hard times, you must work really hard to get gigs and  "break the wall" and stuff, but as you know art is more inspired during dark times, so there is a lot to do, and it's nice to find out that there is a lot of people that are trying to change things here, so it's not too bad...

Q;  What do you think of your Prime Minister's problems? (I know that answer already)
Greta;  You can post "Astroprincipe" and you'll have an elegant answer...But I'll try to give you some more without getting too nasty ( he can get the worst out of me)...I think the situation got to a very dramatic point, it's clear to everybody that this man is involved not only in corruption scandals, tax evasion (we're talking about millions of euros) sex scandals etc...he's destroying this country, all his ministers are not capable and not even legally eligible to do their job, they are seriously damaging the financial, schools, sanitary work even the postal system...Italy has always had a corrupt political scene but at least the public system worked, they were stealing money but at least they were covering it up. Berlusconi has no shame he can do whatever he wants  under the sun, and still it's really difficult to stop him. I mean it's a complicated matter we could talk about this for hours, they will write history books about this case. Anyway I can't wait for him to go...

Q;  Do you have a circle of friends there like you had here in New York?
Greta;  I am one of those very lucky people that has really good friends spread around the world, and it has been really good to find out that with almost all of my old friends, nothing has changed. It almost feels like we've been in touch all along, even though some have kids, changed career, moved away and came back, you know 11 years have passed...

Q;  How do you find the audiences in Italy?
Greta;  Well there is not one kind of audience anywhere, NYC can be great and can be really rough, and it's the same here, but generally speaking NYC is of course better trained to listen to new sounds, it can be straight ahead jazz or experimental punk, and you will always find someone ready to enjoy it, here you have to work your way to the listener but once you get through of course you feel really special...

Q; So all in all, you are working hard, and bringing your beautiful voice to everyone?
Greta;  This summer is gonna be good since we're playing some great shows, we have 3 days at the Matera Jazz Festival (July 28th thru 30th), we're very exited about this because the person who hired us is a great Italian jazz singer, who is curating some of the best music events in Italy, his name is Gege' Telesforo, check him out, we feel like it's the beginning of a very prolific collaboration, both artistic and business wise.We also have a RAI event (national public television) in August, and that is also gonna be a very exiting event for the band, since we will be the house band for the entire event. I will send you the link to a formal program once it's ready . Oh! I don't know if I told you but we have put together a new EU Greta's Bakery, of course Andrea Sammartino is playing the keys, with the addition of a vintage "synth" that has a killing sound, one of the above old friends on Bass, his name is Daniele Mencarelli and I must say he used to be a talent when he was a teen, and now he's one of the best musicians you can came across ...on drums we found a young Florentinian, Stefano Tamborrino that has one of the most unique drumming personalities I've heard in a long time, and man I played with some good drummers as you know. So at least the band is making the distance from New York more bearable.

I feel good knowing Great and Andrea are working and doing well, but we all here in New York, miss them sooo much!

Here is Greta's "Astroprincipe"  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwd-VIDnA7g
Here is Greta "live" in Perugia, Italy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjK0Mc8Pvqk
Here is Greta's page...http://www.gretapanettieri.com/
by Pete Cataldo...follow Pete  www.twitter.com/petecarma