One of the most significant singers and composers in the world of jazz in Italy, Ada Montellanico comes to Bansko Jazz Festival after her success for many years in some of the most prestigious jazz forums in Italy and Europe. Her warm, full voice, combined with an innovative approach and unusual repertoire, charm critics and audiences alike. Ada Montellanico knows how to adapt jazz and “translate” it into Italian, finding the perfect intersection with the art of improvisation, which she masters beautifully.
She has worked with Jimmy Cobb, Lee Konitz, Phil McCandless, Enrico Pieranunzi. One of the turning points in Ada’s career was in 1996, when she met the great Italian trumpeter Enrico Rava, with whom she recorded “L’altro Tenco”. Thus begins her “journey” into the world of Luigi Tenco’s texts, and the in-depth and nuanced interpretation of his less frequently performed ones brings her valuable success and shows Ada’s ability to build new musical worlds and casually share them with the audience. She managed to translate the traditional texts of Luigi Tenco and infuse them into the African-American expressiveness of jazz. Ada Montellanico made a thorough study of his work, recorded two albums – “Ma l’amore no” and “Danza di una nimfa” and even published a book with the biography of the poet.
In 2008, her album “Il Sole di un attimo” was released, in which she impresses not only as a singer, but also as a composer. The same year, Ada Montellanico was included in the special selection “Jazz Italian 2008” with her Tribute to Billie Holliday. 2012 is the year in which “Suono di Donna” appears – a project dedicated to women composers, and in 2017 – an album dedicated to the legendary singer Abbey Lincoln, in which Ada recreates her songs, imbued with messages for equal civil rights.
With ease, Ada Montelanico also interprets plays and songs by Miles Davis, Gil Evans, but also Joni Mitchell and even Björk.
He teaches jazz singing at the L. Perosi Conservatory in Campobasso. For four years he was the President of the National Association of Jazz Musicians in Italy, and now she is their official representative in the National Federation of Jazzmen.