artist bio
GABRIELLE CAVASSA
“I really respect songs and I really want to honor them in the best way,” says vocalist Gabrielle Cavassa.
With her riveting Blue Note debut Diavola, Cavassa makes her artistic arrival with an album that unveils her
range as a band leader, a songwriter, and a fearless song interpreter who treats each gesture with subtlety
and reverence. The California-born, New Orleans-based artist presents a collection of original songs and
luminous arrangements alongside collaborators Joshua Redman, Jeff Parker, Paul Cornish, Larry
Grenadier, and Brian Blade.
Co-produced by Redman and Don Was, Diavola subverts the self-portrait. The album explores coexistences
of the angel and the devil — a dynamic central to Cavassa’s artistry and personal identity — engaging a
dualism of possession and surrender, of urgency and repose. “I’m not willing to let go of either,” says
Cavassa, “or I haven’t been able to.”
At once intimate and anthemic, Diavola spotlights Cavassa’s pivotal association with Redman, who invited
her into the studio and on the road as a collaborator for his own Blue Note debut where are we, released in 2023. “It’s kind of a Cinderella Story,” says Cavassa, who began working with Redman after his manager
heard her perform at a wedding in New Orleans. “That was such a shocking life change,” she says. “It was
such a rare opportunity as a singer to be able to tour on that level as a sideman. And in jazz, it’s a rite of
passage.”
Was and Redman worked in concert with Cavassa from the album’s inception. While Redman focused on
production details, Was worked listener impact. Together, the artists set the pace for each section as
Cavassa’s interpretations developed their tones and colors. “Josh was with me every step of the way,” she
says. “He was the comfort and the trust through the whole process. And Don was bringing this wisdom of
absolutely one-in-a-million experience.”
Diavola opens on “Heaven Sighs,” a sunrising resonance from Parker that leads into a sublime rendition of
Burt Bacharach’s “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head.” Arpeggiating chords create space for Cavassa’s
intimate vocal, but the tempo’s relaxed bounce took time to perfect. When Was told them it needed to be
faster, Blade generated a groove as buoyant as it is mysterious and unhurried. “He’s a giant,” says Cavassa.
Admittedly a “huge” Billy Eckstine fan, Cavassa swings slow and steady on “Prisoner of Love.” Each lyric she
charms with deliberate long tones and thoughtful dynamics. “I make sure I’m forward-facing, and
modernity is important to me,” says Cavassa, “but the truth is I really am coming from a tradition. And I
really love singing those songs.”
Intent on transporting listeners to the late 1950s Amalfi Coast, “Bossy Nova” delivers a potent message
beneath its shimmering Brazilian syncopation. Featuring Cavassa on rhythm guitar and a dreamy solo from
Parker, the song tumbled out of her consciousness and onto her kitchen table in a matter of minutes. “It’s
one of those that just fell out,” she says. “I guess it’s a comment on sacrifice, and what I’m sacrificing for,
which is this beautiful dream.”
In recent years, Cavassa has nurtured an extraordinary ability to inhabit not just the lyric but the full storyof the song. That humanness animates Diavola. “To Say Goodbye” serves as a turning point on the record. Parker and Cavassa begin in deceptive rubato. And a doleful solo from Grenadier at once restrains and absorbs the anguish of the album’s first minor tune. Cavassa sought a pivot from the dreamy tunes to the tumultuous ones in the way she sequenced the album. “This one felt right for the record in its mood,” she says.
Luigi Tenco’s “Angelo” and Cavassa’s “Diavola” serve as inverses of each other — and the beating heart of the entire album. On the former, Grenadier’s lamenting arco empathizes with Cavassa’s despairing vocal, delivered in its original Italian; on the latter, his stalking bass line over an extended drone foreshadows a fall from grace. “Diavola” captures Cavassa’s own turmoil in her honest, lamenting vocal.
“In ‘Angelo,’ this character is coming from a really dark place and almost coming to the light,” she says. “Who knows — maybe it’s just a manipulator in the cycle of abuse. But I absolutely love its honesty.” At the other end, “‘Diavola’ is coming from an angelic place, being in a relationship and trying to appease the other person. It’s really feeling like too much and she breaks, and devolves into Diavola. ‘Angelo’ and ‘Diavola’ are a pair because they sort of turn into each other. There are cracks in each of them where a piece of the other can be seen.” Presenting the character Diavola as a flawed archetype as opposed to a true villain creates real tension on the record. “The whole album reflects Diavola,” says Cavassa. “She is a character but also an idea that holds these two opposing parts.”
Between them, “Be My Love” becomes the album’s pinnacle. Its gauzy drone lays bare Cavassa’s vulnerability and warmth. “It’s not a drama, it’s a meditation. It’s so patient. It’s really like a breath in or a breath out — maybe both.” Cornish sweeps up the listener in a lucid dream ballet on Barry Manilow’s “Could it Be Magic.” Cavassa reframes the sentimental love ballad with understatement, while Redman delivers a signature solo through an exultant modulation.
A kind of epilogue, the album closer “La notte dell’addio,” is an exhale, if not a resolution. Cavassa and Cornish transmit mutual tenderness. “It was the last thing we recorded,” says Cavassa, who insists light is not a remedy for dark and there is nothing to vanquish: “This is a gentle mourning. It’s a gentle kind of hope and acknowledgment of grief or what we’ve been through.”
Born in Escondido, California of Italian descent, Gabrielle Cavassa began “obsessively listening” to records
from a young age. Largely self-taught, she developed a unique approach to singing that would later
characterize her artistry. Cavassa received a Bachelor of Arts in Music from San Francisco State University,
but credits the Bay Area music scene for her “real education.” She moved to New Orleans in 2017, where
she continued her education in local clubs. In 2020, Cavassa independently released an eponymous debut
record produced by collaborator Jamison Ross. In 2021, she was crowned a winner of the prestigious
International Sarah Vaughan Jazz Vocal Competition. Cavassa’s feature appearance on Joshua Redman’s
2023 Blue Note album where are we prompted DownBeat to declare her “a star in the making.” Stereophile
wrote that “For many, the revelation of this album will be Cavassa. Her voice gets under your skin. It is
idiosyncratic, but it is trustworthy in its clarity and almost physical in its intimacy… her intuitive
interpretations and riveting voice make you sit very still in your chair.”
Gabrielle Cavassa • Diavola • Release Date: May 1, 2026
For more information contact Cem Kurosman at Blue Note Records
(p) 212.786.8634 (e) cem.kurosman@umusic.com