Ludovica Manzo
Appears on:Italian vocalist and composer, she is active in a wide range of music. Her work includes songwriting, modern jazz and free improvisation and her singing is influenced by many sources, including the ethnic and the contemporary vocal expressions.
Together with pianist Alessandra Bossa she founded the band O-Janà, a vocals, live sampling, prepared piano and electronics duo.The main characteristic of the duo is to expand boundaries in exploring and experimenting in the field of song composition and free improvisation. Their first album o-Janà was released in may 2012. In 2018 they release their album “Inland Images” together with percussionist Michele Rabbia and also the norwegian guitarist Eivind Aarset who appears in two tracks. They have been selected for the Italian program Nuova Generazione Jazz 2019.
She leaded the modern jazz quintet Scraps, for which she composes original music and lyrics. Their first album was released in May 2015 (Redshoes/ JazzEngine Records).
Over the years she collaborated with several contemporary jazz musicians, including the cello player Paolo Damiani (Head of the Jazz Department of Rome’s Conservatorio di Musica «Santa Cecilia»). Together with Damiani she recorded the album “Pane e Tempesta” (Egea, 2010) and “Classiche Musiche Leggere” (2016) for the serie Jazz Italiano Live– L’Espresso, together with Danilo Rea, Rosario Giuliani, Fabio Zepetella etc.
Together with saxophone quartet “I virtuosi di piazza Vittorio” she sings and recites in the music/theatre project Bocca Baciata Non Perde Ventura, a neapolitan adaptation of a Boccaccio’s Decameron novel with original music by Eugenio Colombo and text translation in neapolitan by Maria Pia De Vito. Ludovica has been a member of the sectet Slivovitz from 2007 to 2009, during which time they releasedthe album “Hubris” (Moonjune, 2009).
She perfomed in many festivals in Italy, Canada, Germany, France, Sweden, Denmark, Quatar, Portugal, etc.
She played among the others with: Michele Rabbia, Paolo Damiani, Eugenio Colombo, Elio Marusciello, Eivind Aarset, Gianni Trovalusci, Enrico Zanisi, Danilo Rea, Rosario Giuliani, Luz, Slivovitz, Acre, Francesco Diodati, Marcello Allulli, Francesco Bearzatti, Ulrich Gumpert, Marco Colonna, Deflorian/Tagliarini, etc.etc. She graduated with honours in Jazz Music at Conservatorio di Musica «Santa Cecilia» of Rome with Maria Pia De Vito and also in Music and Arts at Università «Tor Vergata» of Rome.