Lo Galluccio Puts “A Spell on You”

at House of Blues this Saturday

By Susie Davidson

CORRESPONDENT

This Saturday at 1 PM, vocalist and lyricist Lo Galluccio will perform her new CD, “Spell on You,” with her ensemble which includes guitarist Mike Melee and bassist Joe McMann.

Galluccio, who carries a venerable Cambridge name and a lofty educational and musical pedigree as well, lives and sings from the true depths of her soul.

The new CD, which she called “a beautiful and quirky collection of original blues, spirituals, and jazz standards," was produced in Boston. Her preceding effort, 1997’s avant-garde pop record “Being Visited” (available at HMV), was released on the Knitting Factory label. New York DJ Vin Scelsa called it "by turns mysterious, seductive, surreal and spacy.” “L'intensita di Patti Smith e la eleganza di Joni Mitchell" pronounced Musica Tutto, Italy's largest pop magazine.

Her brother Anthony was Cambridge’s Mayor from 2001-2002 and is currently a City Councillor, running for State Senator. Her father Anthony Sr., who died in 1979, was a School Committee member and Labor Counsel for the state, who once took the Cambridge Election Commission to court over a ballot controversy. He won his attempt to list incumbents in Anthony Galluccio vs. Election Commissioners of Cambridge, 339 Mass. 587 (1959).

“I’m a fascinating artistic counterpoint to my brother's political stature and traditional style,” she readily acknowledged. “And he would agree it's time for me to get some local airplay,” she added.

Like her late father, Lo, a Rindge and Latin School graduate, attended Harvard College on a full scholarship. During her senior year, she performed in the jazz cabaret Mood Indigo, winning an award for excellence in the performing arts. “I studied modern poets like Plath, Lowell, Sexton and Berryman,” she recalled, “while blasting bands like the Velvet Underground and Romeo Void in my room.” Following graduation with a B.A. in Social Studies, she moved to Chicago to study acting.

There, she developed an appreciation for performance artist Laurie Anderson’s spoken/sung vocal style. She interned at Houston’s Alley Theatre and toured Greece with a LaMama production. “Using an ex-boyfriend's Tascam 4-track machine and an acoustic guitar,” she said, “I began to write songs.”

She also spent time in the Lower East Side’s avant-garde scene, participating in a track for John Zorn's compilation CD of Marc Bolan tunes as well as a dance track, “Rocket of Love,” with Al Gorgoni, and on the Windham Hill/High Street album "In Love” with saxophonist Roy Nathanson of the Jazz Passengers. With then-lover/mentor Dave Tronzo,” she said, “I played many downtown clubs, creating an ethereal mix of my vocals/words and his eerie and electric slide guitar playing.”

During post-breakup sanctuary at the Jivamukti Yoga Center, she said, “I became enchanted by the shrine of Ganesha, the elephant-headed deity and overcomer of obstacles.” Her first CD, she said, was influenced by its messages.

She also appeared with avant-rock band Soultronix, Columbia Recording Artists Sex Mob and the Cambridge R&B band Little Joe Cook and the Thrillers. Her poetry and prose have been published in Night, Lungfull and I AM LOWER EAST SIDE.

But when Sept. 11 hit, she decided to head home, where a chance meeting with jazz/gospel pianist Geoffrey Dana Hicks at an American Repertory Theatre fundraiser spurred her “to make a record which would combine my dark blues/rock sensibility and his elegant playing style.”

"We were slaves to love, we were gorgeous braves,” she writes in “Let em think my wings iz Broke,” from Spell on You. “We were slaves to love, we were gorgeous braves.”

The name? “My first boyfriend at Harvard,” she said, “compared me to Lolita in the Kubrick film. Like Lo, I feel like a teenager who's been spoiled and taken advantage of. But the heart-shaped sunglasses and notoreity are worth the name. I am also Lo for my Latin side and for what supernatural forces have taught me.”

She dedicates “Spell on You” to her mother Nancy and love, Freddie de Filippis, of Lynn.

An Amazon.com reviewer noted: "she's respectful enough to understand the heart but disrespectful enough to deconstruct and transcend."

Her current lineup is locally based. Melee, a veteran guitarist of many genres, also plays with blues singer Michelle Wilson and the Ken Clark trio. McMann can be seen around town with rock band Senor Happy. Admission is free on Saturday; brunch is optional.