Join us live for an interview with singer Vanessa Racci as we talk about her recent heritage tour in Italy, her new holiday album to be released in November and much more! ARTIST NAME: Vanessa Racci ALBUM TITLE: Comfort & Joy LABEL NAME: VRE Records STREET DATE: Nov 6th, 2026 GENRE: Jazz Vocal Holiday Album ARTIST BIO:
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Vanessa Racci is a touring and recording jazz vocalist who is equally comfortable singing straight-ahead jazz as she is music that reflects her Italian heritage. Her heritage inspired her first two albums, the first, Italiana Fresca, in 2017, produced by David Finck and arranged by Yaron Gershovsky, Manhattan Transfer MD, and the second being, Jazzy Italian (Zoho Jazz Label, 2022), celebrating Italian Americans who made their mark on jazz from Louis Prima to Chick Corea. Produced and arranged by Grammy winner, Steven Feifke, Jazzy Italian made the top 10 Traditional jazz albums of 2022 on the RMR jazz chart and is programmed on Siriusly Sinatra and NPR in addition to 150+ radio stations. Her music has also been licensed on Network television and made the coveted Spotify playlist, “Italian Dinner Party.” On her next project and third album, Vanessa is showcasing her straight ahead abilities with a Jazz Vocal Holiday album, while completing her Masters in Jazz Voice at SUNY Purchase (Grad May, ’27).
The album, Comfort & Joy, revives seasonal jazz classics from Ella, Sinatra, Nat, Bing, and the like, with a modern jazz twist. Guiding Vanessa on this project is two-time Grammy winner, Nicole Zuraitis, as co-producer and arranger-pianist, Ron Drotos, whose career encompassed both jazz, Broadway conducting and the New York pops. The album also includes the top musicians in jazz today such as Dan Pugach on Drums, Marcus McLaurine on bass, Sean Harkness on guitar, Geoff Burke on Sax and Benny Benack III on trumpet and guest vocals.
Vanessa performs at over 50 venues and festivals across the country annually from New York to New Orleans to San Francisco with a combined social media following of 20K+. Notable appearances include ABC7NY, Birdland NYC, Blues Alley-DC, Gracie Mansion, The Paramount, Scranton Jazz Festival, White Plains Jazz Festival and the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center. When she isn’t performing, she teaches voice to budding young singers at her home studio. Vanessa also had robust training in Jazz voice at SUNY Purchase with Alexis Cole and privately with Jackie Presti. She is currently working with Professor, Kate Baker as part of her Masters program.
To learn more or subscribe to her mailing list, go to http://www.vanessaracci.com or follow on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok or Spotify @VanessaRacci. The tart, sassy sound and swinging rhythm of Vanessa Racci are a potent brew. A studied musician who, at this writing, is working toward a master’s degree in jazz, Vanessa sings with the confidence of a woman who knows her instrument. Led by a sense of adventure and fun, she sets sail effortlessly through a song and finds many surprises along the way. Vanessa extolled her family heritage in two prior collections, Italiana Fresca and Jazzy Italian, that made jazz and Italian songs seem meant for each other.
Now, in an album that represents a major step forward for her as a jazz singer, she has done the same with the music of the holidays. Yuletide tunes and jazz are often an uneasy fit; the songs are apt to turn into blowing sessions that strip them of their intended spirit. These three artists, along with a group of stalwart Manhattan jazzmen—notably her guest cohort, trumpeter-singer Benny Benack III—have made even the most familiar songs of the season sound fresh. Vanessa and Benny take “The Christmas Song” for a jazzy spin while keeping its childlike wonderment intact. The English carol “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” is revamped in the style of cool ‘50s modern jazz. Vanessa sprints through a medley of four chestnuts from Ella Fitzgerald’s 1960 album Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas; all of them receive a harmonic and metric overhaul but still swing hard in the Ella tradition. Not every tune is a standard. “I’d Like You for Christmas” was written in the ‘50s by Bobby Troup for his wife, Julie London, who sang it on an obscure single. From June Christy’s This Time of Year, a 1961 album of holiday songs penned for her by Connie Pearce and Arnold Miller, a West Coast couple, Vanessa chose “The Merriest,” a wreath of well-wishes for those who are struggling. James Gavin
