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Born in Naples, Letizia Gambi is an Italian singer, songwriter and actress who has a wide-ranging education. She has studied dancing, acting, singing, painting and musical theater.
Letizia Gambi’s music is a combination of her Neapolitan-Italian roots with the heritage of Black American Jazz. Her Mediterranean passion sings through Jazz's language in a contemporary, crossover, personal style. She lives in New York, Los Angeles, and Milan.
Letizia began dancing lessons at age eleven, attended art school at thirteen and began showcasing her art and winning awards for her paintings when she was fourteen . At fifteen, she began traveling to London, in the summer, to study musical theater. Continuing to dance, she became a dance instructor and choreographer at a very young age, while continuing to sing and act. She studied acting for 2 years and worked as an actress. Finally, because of her great love and passion for music, she auditioned for the International Jazz Academy in Milan, out of 60 people who auditioned, she was one of only seven who was accepted into the program. She studied for four years and became an assistant to the vocal professor in her fifth, "Master Year.” Letizia graduated with a Masters Degree in Jazz Vocal Performance.
Letizia worked as a singer/songwriter, teaching Jazz and Pop singing at several music schools in Milan, Como and Switzerland. In Milan, she played Anita in West Side Story, she also acted in several TV shows. She sang with many well known Italian Jazz musicians and was the lead singer for a Jazz Big Band. Her versatility allowed her to sing many types of music, from Gospel (she was soloist in the choir of Civici Corsi di Jazz in Milan) to dance music, classical repertoire, pop and of course, Jazz.
In 2009, Letizia met the legendary drummer and producer Lenny White, and expressed to him her desire to fuse her roots and Neapolitan musical influences into a contemporary genre. In 2012 their collaboration resulted in her debut recording, "Introducing Letizia Gambi” which was recorded in New York and included such legendary musicians as Ron Carter, Chick Corea, Gato Barbieri, Wallace Roney, Patrice Rushen, Gil Goldstein, Antonio Faraò and her collaborator and producer, Lenny White.
In 2016 she released her second album "Blue Monday" that includes songs written by Letizia and Lenny White. It was recorded in New York and produced by Lenny White, the musicians who performed were Ron Cater, Gil Goldstein, Donald Vega, Dave Stryker, Helen Sung, John Benitez, Jisoo Ok,Hector Del Curto, and  Pete Levin, .
Letizia performed as a guest with Lenny White and his band during his last European Tour, her American debut was at the Jazz Standard as a guest with Lenny White & friends, featuring Ron Carter on bass and Patrice Rushen on piano.
Letizia has represented Italy in Japan at the Italian Cultural Institutes in Osaka and Tokyo. In 2017 she performed with a 100 piece orchestra and choir, under the auspices of the Italian Consul General, for the celebration of the Italian Republic's Anniversary in Rosario, Argentina. The following year, she performed under the auspices of the Italian Consul General for the Italian Republic's Anniversary in Capodistria, Slovenia.
She has performed across Europe and throughout Italy including the Blue Note in Milan, Auditorium Parco della Musica and Casa del Jazz in Rome.
Her original song Under the Moon was included in Musica Jazz Magazine’s cd tribute to Frank Sinatra for the centennial of his birth.
 The American jazz magazine JAZZIZ  included her Bac

As CEO of the DIY Media Group, the parent company of Disc Makers, Book Baby, and Merchly, Tony van Veen has spent over 30 years helping independent artists release, distribute, and promote their own music globally. As a global leader in self-publishing DIY Media Group works with Fortune 500 companies as well as first-time authors, and anyone in between. 
A former drummer in a punk rock band, Tony offers a truly unique perspective on the music industry from the vantage points of both artist and industry professional.
I sat down with Tony (and for the first time, my podcast producer Chris Beaudry) at the DIY Media Group factory in Pennsauken, New Jersey to talk all things indie!

Check out the DIY Media Group’s outstanding products and services for independent musicians:

DIY Media Group: www.diymediagroup.com
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Early in his career Billy Hart performed in Washington, D.C. with soul artists such as Otis Redding and Sam and Dave, and then later with Buck Hill and Shirley Horn, and was a sideman with the Montgomery Brothers (1961), Jimmy Smith (1964–1966), and Wes Montgomery (1966–1968). Hart moved to New York in 1968, where he recorded with McCoy Tyner, Wayne Shorter, and Joe Zawinul, and played with Eddie Harris, Pharoah Sanders, and Marian McPartland.
Hart was a member of Herbie Hancock’s sextet (1969–1973), and played with McCoy Tyner (1973–1974), Stan Getz (1974–1977), and Quest (1980s), in addition to extensive freelance playing (including recording with Miles Davis on 1972’s On the Corner).
At age 78, Billy Hart continues to work steadily and teaches widely. Since the early 1990s, Hart spends considerable time at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and is adjunct faculty at the New England Conservatory of Music and Western Michigan University. He also conducts private lessons through The New School and New York University. Hart often contributes to the Stokes Forest Music Camp and the Dworp Summer Jazz Clinic in Belgium.
Hart leads his band, the Billy Hart Quartet with Mark Turner, Ethan Iverson, and Ben Street, which has released two albums on ECM Records.

John Scofield’s guitar work has influenced jazz since the late 70’s  and is going strong today. Possessor of a very distinctive sound and stylistic diversity, Scofield is a masterful jazz improviser whose music generally falls somewhere between post-bop, funk edged jazz, and R & B.
Born in Ohio and raised in suburban Connecticut, Scofield took up the guitar at age 11, inspired by both rock and blues players. He attended Berklee College of Music in Boston. After a debut recording with Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker, Scofield was a member of the Billy Cobham-George Duke band for two years. In 1977 he recorded with Charles Mingus, and joined the Gary Burton quartet. He began his international career as a bandleader and recording artist in 1978. From 1982–1985, Scofield toured and recorded with Miles Davis. His Davis stint placed him firmly in the foreground of jazz consciousness as a player and composer.
Since that time he has prominently led his own groups in the international Jazz scene, recorded over 30 albums as a leader (many already classics) including collaborations with contemporary favorites like Pat Metheny, Charlie Haden, Eddie Harris, Medeski, Martin & Wood, Bill Frisell, Brad Mehldau, Mavis Staples, Government Mule, Jack DeJohnette, Joe Lovano and Phil Lesh. He’s played and recorded with Tony Williams, Jim Hall, Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, Joe Henderson, Dave Holland, Terumasa Hino among many jazz legends. Throughout his career Scofield has punctuated his traditional jazz offerings with funk-oriented electric music. All along, the guitarist has kept an open musical mind.
Touring the world approximately 200 days per year with his own groups, he is an Adjunct Professor of Music at New York University, a husband, and father of two.

Born and raised in Connecticut, Ken Kitchings was surrounded by music his whole life, thanks in part to his father, Chester. At age 10 he was given a sparkle red Slingerland drum set which sat in the family dining room where he learned standards as he accompanied his dad’s organ playing after dinner.  
During his teen years he played in rock bands and picked up the guitar. Adulthood brought adult responsibilities; translation, working for the family business. In 2007, the family business was sold, and Ken seized the opportunity to pursue his love of jazz music by producing shows at the Garde Arts Center in New London, CT.  
At the Garde he developed a small space for jazz concerts, showcasing the like of Cyrus Chestnut, Julian Lage, Jeremy Pelt, Helen Sung, Buster Williams and many more. In 2011, the Old Lyme Inn property became available and the vision of the SideDoor Jazz Club materialized. 
After extensive renovations, the doors opened in May 2013 with George Wein All Stars performing the inaugural concert. Five plus years and over 500 shows later Ken still has a passion for introducing world class jazz musicians to audiences of all ages. 
When not in the club on Friday and Saturday evening, Ken can be found playing the drums in the Old Lyme Inn lobby with the Steve Donovan Trio or heard on his weekly internet radio show, Jazz with Ken on iCRV radio. 

Patrick Gleeson began experimenting with electronic music in the mid-'60s at the San Francisco Tape Music Center using a Buchla synthesizer and other devices. In 1968, upon hearing Wendy Carlos' “Switched-On Bach”, he bought a Moog synthesizer and opened the Different Fur recording studio in San Francisco.
He worked with Herbie Hancock in the early 1970s, touring with Hancock – thus pioneering the use of synthesizers outside the studio – and appearing on the albums "Crossings" and "Sextant". 
Hancock's “Sextant” and “Headhunters” were both recorded in part at Different Fur studios. Gleeson has worked with many other Jazz musicians including Freddie Hubbard, Charles Earland, Eddie Henderson, Joe Henderson, and Lenny White.
Gleeson recorded a number of solo albums, starting with “Beyond the Sun” - An Electronic Portrait of Holst's "The Planets" in 1976. The album was nominated for a "Best Engineered Recording: Classical" Grammy in 1976. “Beyond the Sun” was followed in 1977 by a more commercial album, titled “Star Wars”.
Pat worked as an engineer on the 1978 Devo album “Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!”, part of which was recorded at Different Fur. 

Gleeson has been involved in the scoring of a number of film soundtracks, including “The Plague Dogs”, “Apocalypse Now”, and “Crossroads and The Bedroom Window”. He has scored nine television series, including “Knots Landing”.