The news has been circulating in the jazz world over the past week. Italian singer Laura Littardi passed away on the evening of Sunday, August 11 in a hospital near Paris, her family announced via the artist’s Facebook page. For several years, she had been battling necrotizing myositis, an orphan, autoimmune disease. The news of her passing, which came in the middle of summer, deeply saddened the world of vocal jazz, both professional and amateur, but also the jazz scene as a whole, on both sides of the Alps.
Laura Littardi was a solar, exceptional performer, a great improviser, equally at ease in the jazz, Brazilian, soul, funk, pop registers, and an authentic queen of groove. She also enchanted as a teacher. She practiced these two activities with passion, generosity and a kindness recognized by all, the artists who worked with her as well as her students.
Born in San Remo, in the northwest of Italy, on January 2, 1960, Laura Littardi studied foreign languages, then went to live abroad in the early 1980s: two years in London, ten months in Munich before a brief return to Italy. A self-taught musician, she alternated between work contracts and artistic experiences. With a pop group, she sang one summer in Israel, then, later, five months across Europe. At the end of 1984, she settled in Paris. For a time as an executive secretary, then manager of a clothing store in Les Halles, she finally threw herself headlong into music. She sang for a while in a progressive rock group.
In the late 1980s, Laura Littardi spent a year at the Parisian jazz school CIM (Centre d’informations musicales). She, who could not read a score, wanted to put all the chances on her side. She reinforced her training with private lessons. At the CIM, she met the singer Thierry Peala, the pianist Bruno Angelini and other artists from the French scene. She sang in restaurants and bars. In 1995, she put her splendid alto timbre to the service of the vocal ensemble Six 1/2, with Thierry Peala. The two friends recorded an album with this group and then set off on their adventures again. Again with Peala, Littardi joined the group of saxophonist Sylvain Beuf, Octovoice, where she sang for five years.
In 2002, Laura Littardi recorded her first solo album, Without Paura with his trio of the time, formed with Pierrick Hardy on guitar and Nicolas Krassik on violin.
“Laura had a real passion for music, Pierrick Hardy confides to Franceinfo Culture. For the improvisation, the voice, the groove, the overwhelming melodies, the harmonic richness. She loved a form of grace in this art and in the musicians who make it. She was enthusiastic. She had a very powerful swing. I have kept her swing in mind since we met about thirty years ago. It has never left me.”
Ten years later, in 2012, she released the album Inner Dance, beautiful tribute to the pop and soul music that rocked her adolescence, with which she wanted to “creating a bridge to jazz”, she explained to Franceinfo Culture in December 2012.
In March 2017, she revisited Serge Gainsbourg in a very personal way in a mischievously titled album Gainsbourg etc… Featuring Laura L. A final recording experience, from which she retained above all the memory of the magic of the connection with the musicians during the recording sessions.
“She was very happy with this album, remembers Thierry Peala. Laura and the musicians took their time, for pleasure and instinct. They entered the studio, they didn’t say anything to each other, they didn’t even see each other because of the configuration of the place, they listened to each other. And it gave something very beautiful.”
If records set milestones on her career, it is on stage that Laura Littardi shines. As soon as she sings, she enchants, through her collaborations with many artists such as drummers André Ceccarelli and Fabrice Moreau, pianists Alain Jean-Marie and Carine Bonnefoy, saxophonists Francesco Bearzatti and Renato D’Aiello, guitarist Serge Merlaud, double bassists Mauro Gargano and Giovanni Licata…. She performs at festivals, in various clubs and jazz venues in Paris and its region, such as the Sunset/Sunside, the Studio de l’Ermitage or the Baiser Salé.
As a teacher, from the mid-1990s, she also worked wonders, notably at Ariam (Regional Association of Information and Musical Actions, agency closed in 2017) in Île-de-France where she met Thierry Peala again and rubbed shoulders with, among others, singers Laurence Saltiel, Isabelle Carpentier, as well as guitarist Pierrick Hardy with whom she would begin a long collaboration.
Later, she was one of the pillars of Crest Jazz Vocal, an effervescent summer event that combines a festival and a singing academy, in the Drôme. In Paris, still with her friends and accomplices Thierry Peala and Laurence Saltiel, she co-founded Edyvoice, a structure that brings together musical workshops, choirs, jam sessions, master classes with prestigious guests such as Norma Winstone, a great voice of British jazz. This collective will offer countless beautiful evenings to vocal jazz lovers.
As an artist, teacher and vocal coach, Laura Littardi commands unconditional support, esteem and respect, both from her students and from the musicians who accompany her in her musical and educational projects. “She is one of the greatest singers I have ever known,” confides drummer Niko Sarran. “A musicality that stands the test of time, a demonic swing. We collaborated on several albums together. The music was in her. She is forever part of my story.”
Bassist Christian Duperray, another long-time collaborator of Laura Littardi, also paid her a vibrant tribute: “What I admired most was her whole person. Her music came from deep within herself. She cultivated sincerity, harmony with herself, to then address it, offer it to the musicians and her audience. We can talk about feeling. With Laura, it went very far and her audience was always very touched. In her teaching, it’s the same thing, she inspired and offered kindness first.”
Another, lesser-known talent of Laura Littardi is that of composer, very gifted both in terms of melodies and arrangements. “Very early on, she began to develop her own compositions, remembers vocalist Thierry Peala. Barely out of the CIM, She was playing on slightly bigger stages than me, and she was already trying out her compositions, which I found extraordinary.”
The singer would very much like to find his works and recordings from the 1990s which did not result in records… The album Inner Dance by Laura Littardi opened with a personal composition, Sunny Days.
Pianist Benoît de Mesmay, one of his faithful accompanists, adds: “She had a very refined sense of reharmonizing themes that she loved, from the jazz repertoire or from songs in general. We had a project together in progress on this theme, because we shared this common passion for ‘redress’ haute couture style – that was his expression – the pieces that inspired us…”
“Laura went very far in harmony while having groove and soul,” Thierry Peala emphasizes for his part. The singer finally insists on “sincerity” And “curiosity” without limits which animated his friend in all her artistic projects. “She was amazed by everything. And she had a generosity, a sense of humor… All her students say it, she had great kindness and she always tried to help people move forward, without ever hurting their feelings.”
A funeral ceremony will take place on Thursday, August 22, at 1:30 p.m., at the Grande Coupole of the Père-Lachaise cemetery. A collection will be organized on this occasion to help his family.