Donatella Montinaro

The singer Donatella Montinaro presents her first project as a leader: in February 2023, under the artistic direction of acclaimed American double bassist Joe Sanders, she records her debut album with an exceptional group of Italian artists.

All together they present an original repertoire composed of her own compositions and original arrangements, creating a hybrid “sound” infused with diverse influences.

This is a true “introduction” through the music that best describes her: after years of listening to and absorbing the music of others, Montinaro is ready to share her perspective, perhaps moving beyond the more classical definition of “jazz,” while remaining faithful to its fundamental principle of mostly acoustic sound, a music born from a specific moment, played and created together.

Uliveto

Behind the album title there’s a real and personal story that the singer wanted to share:

Uliveto in italian means “Olive Grove” which is the typical landscape I was surrounded by being an Apulian, raised mainly in the southern area of the region. In my case, my family owns an olive grove and one day, talking about it with my mother, she told me that it has belonged to her family for 200 years. It is an old apulian tradition to inherit a land among the women of a family. It belonged, therefore, to my great-great-grandma and after her to all the women on my maternal side.

With this specific image I reconnect with everything that defines me.

So we have sewn this word, we have sewn the bond and love I feel for these

women and for my home.

Bio

Donatella Montinaro is an Italian singer and songwriter. She was born and raised in Bari (Apulia region). She starts singing at an early age, inspired by pop and R&B singers of the time. In 2010 she begins to attend the pre-academic course of the Conservatory N. Piccinni of Bari, where she approaches for the first time and becomes passionate about jazz music. In 2015 she starts attending the private school in her hometown ‘Il Pentagramma’, studying with the best musicians in the area; at the same time she enrolls in the bachelor program of the Conservatory N. Piccinni in Bari to follow the jazz singing course. After obtaining the bachelor diploma, she enrolls in the prestigious “Siena Jazz” school to attend the “Master” and have, therefore, the opportunity to study with the biggest names in the current jazz scene and beyond (to name a few: Greg Hutchinson, Joe Sanders, Yonathan Avishai, Logan Richardson, Diana Torto, Dena DeRose, David Linx etc…). In February 2022 she wins the first prize in the singers category of the prestigious Italian Competition “Chicco Bettinardi”. She appears, also, in the “Top Jazz 2023”, a historic ranking stipulated by the magazine “Musica Jazz”, among the “New Talents – Italy