Sally Zito, the daughter of Joseph Zito, famed composer, conductor and musical arranger for Nat King Cole, continues the family tradition of deep, meaningful writing, placed in a sophisticated jazz-inflected pop style for her debut CD, Cheap and Alive.
Asked about what inspired her work, Sally says, "This CD is drawn from the people and life stories I've noticed along the way. The title track chronicles a teen growing up in Las Vegas and trying to be accepted, but looking to all the wrong role models. I think that speaks to a lot of the girls growing up today, anywhere in the world.
"The girls are thinking that who they are is not enough and they compare themselves to characters in music videos and TV. They feel, in order to be truly alive, they need to look and act cheap, rather than just learning to love who they are."
Being brought up in a musical family, Zito started learning classical piano at age 4, moved into jazz improvisation and performing with several professional bands, even landing as the drummer for a heavy metal cover band in her early teens before going on to earn a Bachelor's Degree in Music, Film Scoring, at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. Her appreciation for writing was furthered in her early 20s by working for Grammy-winning and Oscar-nominated film composer, the late Michael Kamen, whose credits include Lethal Weapon, Mr. Holland's Opus and X-Men, and later with multi-platinum songwriter/recording artist Harriet Schock, ("That Ain't No Way to Treat a Lady," "Ferris Wheel") who encouraged Sally perform her work in her own voice. Soon after, The Sally Zito Project was formed and met with great success.
It was also during this period in Sally's career that she met her manager, Peter Bennett, (formerly the promotion manager for the Beatles and the Rolling Stones) who introduced her as "the female Billy " because of her aggressive, yet sophisticated piano playing style.
"I'm excited for people to hear my music because I feel it brings a very new and different sound to popular American music, yet draws most strongly from America's primary contribution to music: American standards, improvisational jazz, and rock and roll," Sally says.
Filled with the sophisticated musicality of jazz harmonies, the melody and storyline of the standards, and the power rhythms of rock, dynamically performed by Sally on her piano; it is this fusion that make Sally's music so ground-breaking and exciting.
In recent months, Sally has appeared as the opening act at the Paramount Theater in Hollywood during a Benefit For the Animals, hosted by Paula Abdul and for such notable artists as Chuck Negron of Three Dog Night, Lester Chambers of The Chambers Brothers, Tony Maiden of Rufus and Chaka Kahn, Howard Scott of War, Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Robbie Dupree ("Steal Away"). Additionally she has worked with Grammy and Oscar-nominated recording artist Stephen Bishop ("Separate Lives", "It Might Be You"), and opened for the legendary Eddie Money in San Francisco for the charity bash benefiting Strikeouts for Troops and the San Francisco Giants' Community Fund, working alongside her brother Barry, the starting pitcher for the San Francisco Giants.
Barry plays guitar on all tracks of Cheap and Alive. Sally and her band have been featured on the national television shows Extra and Living Large, and have received press coverage in numerous newspapers across the country, including USA Today, the New York Times, the Boston Herald, and the San Francisco Chronicle. In addition, Sally has received radio airplay across the nation and in Canada.
To download Cheap and Alive visit iTunes at www.apple/itunes.com or www.sallyzito.com
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