Allison Tartalia
Long Island City, New York, United States
Music
Press
"...a singer with a sultry voice..."... - Marc Santora
"...smack-dab in the Laura Nyro/Ricki Lee Jones/Sophie B. Hawkins lineage, complete with sax solos warm enough for Baker Street and titles that namecheck Ab Fab and Dorothy... Tell Auntie Em and Toto, too; Oz never did give nothin' to the tin man that he didn't already have." - Chuck Eddy
"Tartalia rolled through the alternating set with ...
"Tartalia rolled through the alternating set with a number of gorgeous and delicately-executed piano ballads from her new CD, Ready." - Brian Baker (March 2006) - South X Midwest: Greater Cincinnati's South By Southwest 'Class of 2006' shines bright deep in the h
Renowned voice comes to Cleveland area
Life as a struggling New York city musician can be tough. For jazz and folk vocalist Allison Tartalia, New York City life meant hours travelling on the city’s public transportation system, a tough ride for the pedestrian with a digital piano in tow.
“Lugging a digital piano around on public transportation is impractical at best,” the now newly-licensed Tartalia said. For the next couple of weeks, Tartalia takes to the wheel and a host of southern highways as she embarks on her “Student Driver: Ready for the Road Tour.”
On August 28, she will perform at The Flip Side located at 105 South Lombard Street in Clayton. Proceeds from the show will benefit the American Cancer Society.
An award winning artist, Tartalia—who incidentally got her driver’s license in July—joins with Vicki Blankenship, Patti Witten and Danielle Miraglia of the “Music for Life” concert series, recently releasing a compilation CD Music for Life: Volume I.
Julia Abrams, media coordinator with Make Haste! Records, says that her guitar and piano performances scheduled in four southeastern states will be intimate acoustic performances that will showcase her unique musical blend.
The New York native has received ample acclaim from both national and New York local critics. Described in the New York Times as a “singer with a sultry voice,” Jason Serinus of the San Diego Update wrote that Tartalia possesses a “striking, bright voice that sings out with edgy, quirky intensity.”
Tickets for the Clayton show are $12 in advance and $15 at the door. The show begins at 8 p.m.
Tartalia has already played in Alabama before playing - Jessica Bennett
"Tartalia is to pop music what granola is to cereal. That is to say, she is complex, loaded with surprises and textures, and more than filling. I could go on, but I think you get the point....And if her band were any tighter, they wouldn't be able to breathe.... No matter how you slice it, a sparkling debut." - Bill Ribas
"Passionate, dramatic, and articulate, Allison Tartalia's songwriting drawns in threads from all over to create an intense, intelligent whole." - Sophia Gurley
Discography
Sweet and Vicious EP - TBA, 2010
1918: A House Divided Original Cast Recording, 2008
5,000 Miles From Home (film score), 2008
Advent of You single - Make Haste! Records, 2005
Ready - Make Haste! Records, 2002
Credit as pianist on:
Meg Braun - Tomboy Princess
Sharon Goldman - Shake the Stars
Kirsten Williams - Yesterday's Waves
pale beneath the blue - She Dangled It (melodica)
Freddy Freeman - Here Is
Photos
Bio
Allison Tartalia's powerful and expressive performances have a way of charming audiences. The secret weapons: fearless honesty, a wry sense of humor and a flair for writing songs that are at once unpredictable and unforgettable. Audiences have taken notice at clubs, colleges and festivals around the country.
A classically trained pianist and self-taught guitar player with a theatrical flair, Allison draws upon diverse influences to create her eclectic brand of acoustic chamber pop. Her debut CD, "Ready," was enthusiastically greeted by critics, and tracks from the album receive airplay on college and independent radio stations from coast to coast. Recently, Allison's "Spinning Song" won second place in the Indiegrrl Song Writing Contest, and other tunes have been recognized by the Billboard and John Lennon Songwriting Contests.
2007 saw Allison's first foray into musical theatre as composer and arranger. 1918: A House Divided, (book and lyrics by award-winning playwright Barbara Kahn) was produced by the Pulitzer Prize-winning community cultural center, Theater for the New City, in April 2007. An original cast recording was released in September, 2008. Allison frequently accompanies other artists as a pianist and vocalist both on stage and in the studio, and recently wrote music for the documentary 5,000 Miles From Home.
Allison performs as a singer with Petra Haden and the Sellouts and can be heard playing piano on recordings by Kirsten Williams, Meg Braun, Sharon Goldman, and others.
Tartalia is about to release Sweet and Vicious, produced with Grammy Award winner Michael Leonhart (Steely Dan, Lenny Kravitz).
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