Lupa (vocals), Alfonso Deidda (piano, alto/soprano sax, flute), Simon King (piano, electric guitar), Bryan Corbett (trumpet, flugelhorn), Roger Inniss (fretless/electric/acoustic bass), Miles Levin (drums).
Influences
R E V I E W S :
"Very warm voice and spacy/spicy music, brilliant".
Jazz Radio Gaudeamus.fm - April 2nd, 2009
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"Antima Abbamonte is something of an exotic. Her chosen name Lupa, or she-wolf, has associations of pagan magic and ancient Rome, savagery and maternity. It takes a lot of living up to, yet Abbamonte inhibits it with flair. Musically, she fluctuates between melodic psychedelic-tinged originals and radical makeovers of jazz standards. Her life is as unique as her music. Born and raised in Milan, as a youngster Lupa was student of classical piano and a child fashion model for Vogue. She studied at the Birmingham School of Speech and Drama (now Birmingham School of Acting), and England’s second city became her adopted home, with forays to Los Angeles and Italy, where she worked with the anarchist farceur Dario Fo’. An encounter at an LA party attended by 'Prince' was crucial: henceforth her creative energies were exclusively focused on music. House Of Blue, her debut album, crosses language and genre. A woozy dreamscape, conjured by lush meshes of electronic sound, contrasts with Lupa’s pure voice and, indeed, with Graeme Hamilton and Bryan Corbett’s stark, beautiful trumpets. The glittering setting can’t altogether disguise the fact that Lupa’s desperate love songs – always treading the thin line between tenderness and torment – spring directly form the torch song tradition. She’s an accomplished actor and singer too, permanently on the brink yet never sacrificing control. Her breathy sensitivity and impressive scat singing proclaim a natural jazz singer".
Mike Butler, Metro – Metro Life / Jazz, July 17th, 2007
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"This Italian-born singer treads a path that takes its cue from Jazz and Asian underground, as well as left-field pop. This tour sees her introduce the pianist and saxophonist Alfonso Deidda. Joining them is British trumpeter Bryan Corbett".
Roger Trapp 'Jazz & Blues' THE FIVE BEST GIGS (n.4 Lupa)
The Independent Feb 2006
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"A return for the Italian Chanteuse who dazzled last time out. Great band, musicians include Bryan Corbett (trumpet/flugelhorn), Alfonso Deidda (piano, alto sax/flute), Roger Inniss (fretless/electric/acoustic bass), Miles Levin (drums). Lupa pushes the boundaries and provokes your thoughts".
The Cinnamon Club - Manchester Nov 2006
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"There are not many jazz performers who go "on tour" these days, but Birmingham-based singer Lupa is one of them. Aside from gigs further a field during February, she has fitted in a clutch of them in the Midlands and they are all within the next week. She fronts a very classy band which has Alfonso Deidda on piano and saxophone, Roger Inniss on bass, Bryan Corbett on trumpet and Miles Levin on drums".
Peter Bacon 'Peter Bacon's jazz diary' - Birmingham Post, Feb 2006
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"Lupa's original compositions were airy, spectral, sparse and also sonically intense…"
Simon Harper - Birmingham Post Feb 2006 (live review)
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"House of Blue" by Lupa sounds thoroughly modern. The Milanese-born Lupa has an incredible life-story. Self-expression is her watchword, and her voice blends sexiness and scariness to an unprecedented degree. The jazz influence is hidden behind refined modern beats but comes across in the imaginative arrangements".
Mike Butler 'The Jazzist ' - Manchester City Life , Oct 2005
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"Lupa, meaning she wolf, is the stage name of Birmingham-based, Italian-born Antima Abbamonte and reflects her desire to project a dangerous and slightly otherwordly image. That is certainly there in the music too, which is dreamy on one level but with an underlying urgency too. Bjork and Kate Bush sound like Lupa's chief vocal influences, though her cover of Goodbye Pork Pie Hat shows her jazz and Joni Mitchell leanings too. There are some inventive touches on this debut disc, especially in choosing to give Brucia La Terra (The Godfather Love Theme) a setting of electric sitar from TJ Rehmi and grumbling '70s synth sounds along with heavy beat and atmospheric trumpet from Graeme Hamilton...House Of Blue occupies a pretty original niche in between pop and jazz...".
Peter Bacon 'Great depth and manifold pleasures' (jazz cd reviews) - Birmingham Post, Aug 2005
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"After the impact of her appearance at this years Birmingham International Jazz Festival, Italian singer Lupa is increasingly busy on the city jazz scene..with influences from classical to Reggae via Latin songs and French chansons, Lupa takes a fresh approach to Jazz singing".
The Jazz Rag - Autumn 2003
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"...not surprisingly, her influences are many and varied, from classical to jazz via reggae, touching on most points in between. Lupa breathes life back into the Jazz golden age...".
The 19th HMV Birmingham International Jazz Festival – 2003
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"Charismatic Lupa is a sensational Italian singer with a new fresh and fascinating approach to Jazz singing that never loses sight of the roots. Warm, enticing, intimate, always rhythmic, she draws on surprising but always appropriate influences. Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, Lush Life, Twisted, Parker's Mood, Moody's Mood4Love, Invitation... are Lupa's staple diet, but French chanson, Reggae and Latin have their place as well. Lupa is delightful and charming. She is a prolific songwriter and producer and has an uncanny knack to rearranging jazz standards to make them sound totally new. Lupa has a unique and unusual talent".
Big Bear Music - winter 2003
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"An extraordinary life produces astonishing music. The Milan born Lupa (Antima Abbamonte) comes from a family of artists. From child model in Vogue to actress in the troupe of anarchic playwright Dario Fo', she seemed destined for unique distinction. Since 1996, Lupa has operated out of Birmingham, forging links with creative musicians, songwriters, producers and technicians within the city and the wider international scene. Her name Lupa (the she-wolf) is apt as sexiness and scariness co-exist in her breathy voice, which can variously beguile and bite. Her forthcoming album House Of Blue, arranges elements from jazz, pop, and the Asian underground in unlikely configurations. Where else could Brucia La Terra the love theme from the Godfather - come served with sitar, throbbing synth, plaintive, Miles Davis-like trumpet and hip-hop beats? One song, Goodbye Pork Pie Hat combines tributes to her favourites Joni Mitchell and Charles Mingus, and the unplugged version of Brucia La Terra benefits from the concentrated resources of Lupas septet. Jazz musicians and wolves have one thing in common: they come out at night and strike with ruthless efficiency. Pure lycanthropic pleasure".
Mike Butler, Metro News - Jazz/Life, August 2004
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"Remarkable jazz songbird Lupa, Italian by birth.her forthcoming debut album is an eclectic mix of classic and modern jazz styles with her haunting and passionate voice backed by leading national and International musicians. Lupa is a name to watch out for".
Alan Cross Birmingham Evening Mail, 2003
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History, mystery and much drama surround the persona of Lupa.
Pull up a comfy chair and take notes:___________________
"Born and bred in Milan, the rich capital of northern Italy, Antima Abbamonte has roots well imbedded in the arts. Her father was a talented painter and her mother a young stage actress. Antima started playing the piano at three and sang folk songs with her grandmother. Even her brother wrote songs. At the age of 19 her love for music drove her to England, mainly because of the rich history of pop music, but also because of the language.
She describes herself as a jazz fanatic, but her musical taste is eclectic.. Her ideal seems to be a mixture of the performer, artiste and songwriter. An all-rounder like Tori Amos we reckon. Although Lupa was always on the verge of breaking free, she took a long road across a lot of different spheres in the universe of the arts. She started modeling at young age and when she was older she moved on to the stage. Performing in front of a crowd energized her and got the creative juices flowing. Through translations from Italian into English for her theatre group, she started writing for herself. And why not, producing an original work of art gives a buzz like nothing else.
She had come to a key point in her journey, the moment where Lupa She-Wolf comes out of the undergrowth. As Antima says: Lupa is in me. Lupa is me. This extraordinary name comes from the English writer Dick Hebdige. He describes a beast both maternal and savage; a creator and nurturer of life, but also a destroyer of life. The she-wolf being the mother of Rome, the beast that nurtured Romulus and Remus the founders of the city; ushering in the glory days of Rome. The constant longing in Italy for the reliving of these days led to Italys downfall in World War II, when the ideal of Rome was destroyed once and for all. The state of affairs in the country after the War ultimately led Lupa away from her home country. All these contradictions are captured in the name and the music of Lupa She-Wolf. The end of one life and the beginning of a new one.
Vito, 'I Could Have Loved You More the sound track to her promo video is a talking biography. A weird combination of dreamy, dark pop, interwoven with bits of interviews. She has basically created the soundtrack for her own life-story. Over a background with melodic pop psychedelica, Lupa is heard in the form of a mist-like melody and as a clear storyteller. The vocals lure you away from reality, while the spoken words describe the present of an era goneby. Its a weird experience listening to an interview mixed into a song, you cant help listening to the story and being intrigued by Lupas off-kilter artistic vision".
Roland Zwikker - deo.com, July 2002 - 'Hypnotic Atmospheric pop songs' Top 5 chart of the month: (N.2) Lupa
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WWW.LUPAMUSIC.COM
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Lupa – singer-songwriter / producer / band leader:
"Antima Abbamonte" aka Lupa, Italian-born/raised now resident in the UK, begun her artistic career at the age of three with classical piano lessons and modeling for the House of 'Vogue Children' in Milan. She studied the Dramatic Arts in Italy (training with popular and controversial theatrical duo Franca Rame and winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature Dario Fo') and in England where she obtained LAMDA acting qualifications. Antima pursued the acting vocation on the British stages and screens. In 1994 she translated, adapted and performed the acclaimed Italian ‘One Woman Show’ at the Carsholton Studio Theatre in south London, an 80 mins-2 acts political farce written by Franca Rame and Dario Fo'.
Her musical calling came in 1996 when, during a trip to Los Angeles, at a party held at Drejss (West Hollywood) and attended by ‘Prince’, she met Italo-American musicians Jules Buccieri and Chris Mancini (son of the composer Henry Mancini), who were to become her friends and musical mentors, and British writer Dick Hebdige (former MD at the Californian Institute of Arts now Professor of Film Studies and Art Studio Director of the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center at UCSB Santa Barbara CA) who named her Lupa, like the savage and maternal legendary she-wolf which raised the two infants Romulus and Remus, founders of Rome.
Lupa has since been writing, arranging, producing and performing with a number of local and international talents including: Pavel Jakub Ryba (CZ), Bryan Corbett (UK), Sandro & Alfonso Deidda (Italy), Roger Inniss (UK) , The Birmingham Ronnie Scott’s House Trio (UK), TJ Rehmi (UK/India), DJ Pippi (Ibiza Spain), Jon Cotton (UK), Andrew Griffiths (Barbados), Tom Hill (USA), Paul Sawtell (UK), Edgar Macias Piquero (Venezuela), Alvin Davis (UK), Miles Levin (UK), Zoltan Dekany (USA) and Soweto Kinch (UK)…
DISCOGRAPHY
2005 Lupa releases her debut album 'HOUSE OF BLUE', (LUPAMUSIC) a collection of recordings of original compositions including the re-working of 'Goodbye Pork Pie Hat' (a tribute to her favourite artists Charlie Mingus and Joni Mitchell) and of 'Brucia La Terra' (the love theme from the Godfather). Lupa recorded 'Brucia La Terra' during the pre-production of Francis Ford Coppola "The Godfather 4" and then met F.F.Coppola in San Francisco to discuss the inclusion of the track in the film sound track. The film ultimately never entered production. 2005 Lupa also collaborates/features on Alvin Davies ‘COMMOTION’ (HORNBLOWER MUSIC) and Bryan Corbett ‘PRESSURE VALVE’ (WOODLANDS RECORDS). 2006 during her first UK Tour in February Lupa records her band live ‘LUPA live at SYMPHONY HALL’ in Birmingham (LUPAMUSIC). 2006 also saw the world wide release of her new track on Italian indie jazz label IRMA RECORDS as part of a 2 CD compilations “IBIZA GLOBAL RADIO MOODS vol 1”, and “DRIVE N1” (TRICORNMUSIC) followed by another double CD compilation " PESCADORES ISLAND" on Taiwanese label HINOTE RECORDS in Autumn 2007. In 2009 Lupa is featured once again on another double CD compilation entitled "BALI A HIP ISLAND vol 3", courtesy of High Note Records, available on sale world wide.
Lupa has toured the Czech Republic guesting on local jazz star (bassist) Pavel Jakub Ryba and has completed three of her own national tours of the UK with the band (2006/2007) which presented Maestro Alfonso Deidda (piano, alto sax, flute) to the British audiences.
Lupa has performed in various venues around the UK/Europe including the popular Birmingham Symphony Hall and the stylish London Jazz venue Pizza On The Park.
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