Singer covers all the bases

"I just like language. I have a good feel for it."

Gabriele Tranchina has such a feel that she sings six languages on her newest album, "A Song of Love's Color." That album is the subject of a release party Friday at Coquito in Warwick.

The languages she sings are German (born there), English (lives in America), French (educated), Spanish (observation), Portuguese (learning now) and Hindu (a prayer she sings on the album). She tackles these languages with ease, wrapping her voice around both tight melodies of bossa nova and samba, and softer, freer jazz. She sings, she raps, she scats, all the while putting on a vocal clinic.

And it's more than jazz. Tranchina — backed by husband and pianist Joe Vincent Tranchina, bassist Santi Debriano, drummer Bobby Sanabria and percussionist Renato Thoms — has assembled an album that unites global styles and cultures.

"At the moment my intentions were really to have much more of a world music approach than a jazz approach," Gabriele Tranchina said. "I find myself more in the music."

And it's the music that really unites, both Tranchinas agreed.

"It's important to me because I think one of the ways for everybody to recognize and honor each other's humanity is to get conformed to each other's customs," Joe Vincent Tranchina said. "We need to open up more and respect and love each other."

View article at the Times Herald Record here.