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.