Tamela D'Amico

Take a recipe perfected by Frank Sinatra. Mix equal parts of Billie Holiday and Barbra Streisand, a teaspoon of Ella Fitzgerald and a dash of Peggy Lee and you’ve got…

Album art for Got A Little Story

About Tamela D'Amico

Take a recipe perfected by Frank Sinatra. Mix equal parts of Billie Holiday and Barbra Streisand, a teaspoon of Ella Fitzgerald and a dash of Peggy Lee and you’ve got a hot fresh talent named Tamela D’Amico. Her debut album brings a delicious and surprising twist to the world of jazz. Just one taste and you’ll be craving more. Her album Got A Little Story to be released by LML Music on April 14, 2009 is produced and engineered by the top-notch Jimmy Hoyson, arranged and conducted by the much sought after Chris Walden, along with a who’s who of L.A.’s first call musicians that lend their talents on ten unforgettable numbers ranging from Big Band, to Vocal, to Swing, to Easy Listening and Latin. It’s no surprise that television star, Peter Krause, a veteran of groundbreaking quality projects himself (Six Feet Under, Dirty Sexy Money), rushed onboard to executive produce after seeing Ms. D’Amico perform live at a club in Los Angeles. Tamela’s rich and emotional colorings are full of depth and longing. The album is a cinematic look at love told in song, bringing both beauty and a tinge of sorrow to such songs as the Beatles’ “And I Love Him,” Barry Manilow’s “When October Goes” and Sinatra’s “One For My Baby.” Each track was chosen to express a unique point of view; a sincere outpouring of this accomplished singer’s heart and soul; both as an artist and a woman. Tamela recently played at the Playboy Mansion’s Project Louisiana all-star gala to raise money to help rebuild New Orleans. Film and television buffs might be wondering if there’s more than one Tamela D’Amico, having seen an Italian-American beauty by the same name act in Independent films and is there a third Tamela D’Amico, an award-winning director whom Steven Spielberg handpicked to appear on his reality show, “On the Lot” in 2007? The same person whose short film, “Volare” starring Federico Castelluccio from “The Soprano’s” took film festivals by storm and led her to a first look deal at Dreamworks, SKG? In case you you’re thinking there can’t be enough hours in the day for someone so young to have accomplished so much, then it’s time to meet the one and only multi-talented, Tamela D’Amico. Born in New York, Tamela spent her childhood on Long Island before moving to the Gulf Coast of Florida. While contemporaries of an 80’s upbringing played My Little Ponies and watched Ninja Turtles on T.V., this precocious child, the youngest of five born to Mike and Marie D’Amico, discovered her parents’ old record collection and was singing and swinging with Sinatra, Louis Prima and Bobby Darin as well as watching vintage Judy Garland TV specials and Frank Capra films with her grandparents on New York’s Nostalgia Network. Soon she was performing for her large Italian family and writing stories about their colorful lives. Her love of nostalgic music and films instilled a sense of the past as well as great theatrical wonder, which she expressed through a blend of mediums. She was one of sixteen students accepted to the competitive and internationally renowned Film School at Florida State University, receiving a BFA in Film, with minors in Music and Theater. Desperate to make it to Hollywood and work with Dawn Steel, Tamela landed an internship with Steel’s Atlas Entertainment. D’Amico had fibbed about finishing school to stay at the internship. Tamela went back to school to finish her thesis and then returned to California. Graduating from Steel’s production company and having a need to know attitude about all sides of the industry, she began working at Framework Entertainment. She finished school and left Framework to pursue her creative endeavors as a Talent full time. While fronting an all-girl band called The Cosmopolitans, she performed across the street from Capitol records at the Feast of San Gennaro L.A helmed by talk show host Jimmy Kimmel. While the crowd of five thousand fell for Tamela’s lyrical phrasings and inimitable style, she glimpsed the famous landmark in between sets and imagined recording an album in the studio where Sinatra recorded his best-loved classics. Soon after, she won the Fabulous Finds vocal competition thrown by Clear Channel’s Fabulous 570 in Malibu and would discover that dreams sometimes do come true. Having just wrapped production on a short film entitled, “Volare,” which she wrote, produced, directed, Tamela recorded a sassy version of Duke Ellington’s “Sing, Sing, Sing!” at Capitol Records for the soundtrack which included an enticing score composed by Kyle Newmaster. Set in post-war Brooklyn, “Volare” captured the culture shock faced by immigrant Italians as they try to fit in without sacrificing their old-world values of family and love. The story, which Tamela started writing at the tender age of sixteen, was based on stories about her father's childhood coming to America from Italy and his relationship to his father. Shot on a shoestring budget by calling in favors from industry friends and family, the film swept top prizes, including, The Los Angeles Italian Film Festival’s Best Screenplay award, Best Director and Best Cinematography at several prestigious film festivals, and most notably opened and won at the legendary Graumann's Chinese Theater for the American Film Renaissance Film Festival. D’Amico instantly became someone to watch and “watched” she was by director, Steven Spielberg, who along with Mark Burnett chose her as one of the twenty-four semi-finalists filmmakers from around the world (from twelve thousand submissions) for their Fox series, “On the Lot.” Close to a million viewers watched the film on the Internet site for the Spielberg series, making it the “On the Lot” audience favorite. As a result of this success Tamela received a first look deal at DreamWorks and formed her company La Strega Entertainment. Tamela will soon be seen and heard singing in the film, “West of Brooklyn” with Joe Mantegna. She recently wrapped a starring role in the thriller, “On A Dark and Stormy Night.” This fall she will star in the feature, “The Arrangement” in between developing a musical and two feature films, most notably, “Chick Flick” which she will be producing and directing. Written by Tristan Carrasco, the comedy tells the hilarious tale of two Hollywood wannabes who accidentally cause their lives to turn into an action adventure movie. It’s described as “Pulp Fiction” with girls. Highly sought after winning countless awards for both producing and directing many shorts, Tamela produced a twenty-two-part Web series based on Susan Arnout Smith’s novel, “The Timer Game” and has just recently finished helming a television pilot called, “Sex Ed:The Series” starring Joanna Cassidy.

Got A Little Story

Album art for Got A Little StoryTake a recipe perfected by Sinatra seasoned with equal parts Billie Holiday and Streisand. Add a teaspoon of Ella, a dash of Peggy Lee and…