Patti Scialfa

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Patti Scialfa
File:Patti Scialfa 11022008.JPG
Patti Scialfa in 2008
Background information
Birth name Vivienne Patricia Scialfa
Born (1953-07-29) July 29, 1953 (age 71)
Origin Deal, New Jersey, United States
Genres Rock
Occupation(s) Singer-songwriter, musician
Instruments Guitar, piano, vocals, percussion, bass, fiddle/violin
Years active Late 1970s–present
Labels Columbia
Associated acts E Street Band, Bruce Springsteen
Website pattiscialfa.net

File:PattiScialfa2004.jpg
Scialfa and Soozie Tyrell at Asbury Park Convention Hall, 2004

Vivienne Patricia "Patti" Scialfa (/ˈskælfə/, SKAL-fah;[1] Italian pronunciation: [ˈʃalfa], SHAHL-fah; born July 29, 1953) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. Scialfa has been a member of the E Street Band since 1984 and has been married to Bruce Springsteen since 1991. In 2014, Scialfa was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the E Street Band.

Early life

Scialfa grew up in the Jersey Shore community of Deal, New Jersey.[1] She was the middle child of Joseph Scialfa and Patricia (née Morris) Scialfa.[2] Her father was of Sicilian ancestry and her mother is from Belfast, Northern Ireland.[3] She also has half-siblings from her father's second marriage. Her father was a successful local entrepreneur, who started with a single television store and became a real estate developer.[4]

Scialfa graduated from Asbury Park High School in 1971.[5]

Scialfa was writing songs from an early age and first worked professionally as a back-up singer for New Jersey bar bands after she completed high school. In 1994, she stated in a Lear's Magazine interview that she had little talent for anything but music and that she attended college as a way to further her ambitions as a performer while also satisfying parental expectations. She has a music degree from New York University, earned after she transferred from the University of Miami's jazz conservatory at the Frost School of Music.[4]

Music career

While in college, Scialfa was submitting original material to other artists in the hope that it would be recorded. However, none of her songs were recorded and after graduating, Scialfa worked as a busker and waitress in Greenwich Village. Together with Soozie Tyrell and Lisa Lowell, she formed a street group known as Trickster. For many years, she struggled to make her way in the songwriting and recording industry in New York and New Jersey before playing at Folk City and Kenny's Castaways in Greenwich Village, as well as Asbury Park's The Stone Pony. Scialfa had a brief role in The Stone Pony's house band Cats on a Smooth Surface.[4] These gigs won her notice and, eventually, recording work with Southside Johnny[4] and David Johansen.[6]

In 1984, Scialfa joined the E Street Band, three or four days before the opening show of the Born in the U.S.A. Tour. In 1986, she appeared on the Rolling Stones' Dirty Work album, leaving her unique vocal mark on "One Hit (To the Body)" as well as other tracks. She worked with Keith Richards on his first solo disc Talk is Cheap. Steve Jordan, who co-produced the Richards record, was a friend of Scialfa's from her Greenwich Village days.[7]

Scialfa maintains her music industry friendships over many years. Her friendship with Soozie Tyrell and Lisa Lowell pre-date their mutual work as background vocalists and musicians on the Buster Poindexter 'aka' David Johansen album (featuring a Soca song by Arrow, "Hot Hot Hot!") in 1987; Lowell and Tyrell have since worked on various Springsteen-Scialfa recording projects and Tyrell, violinist, has recorded and toured with Springsteen and the E Street Band.[8]

Scialfa has recorded three solo albums, 1993's Rumble Doll, 2004's 23rd Street Lullaby and 2007's Play It as It Lays. Her first two albums received four-star reviews from Rolling Stone, while the third got three and a half. Her records are a mix of confessional songwriting, impressive vocal range, and traditional country, folk and rock music. Springsteen and fellow E Street bandmates like Lofgren and Roy Bittan contributed backing work. Following the release of her second album, Scialfa played a series of club dates along the East Coast and she was also the opening act of the post-final night of the Vote for Change tour.[9]

When asked during the press conference for the NFL Super Bowl in 2009 whether she was working on a new album, she confirmed that she was.[10] She confirmed again, during an interview on the radio show "Bruce Brunch" on 105.7 Hawk radio, on April 10, 2011 that she had written most of the songs for her 4th album and just needed to find time to record it.[11]

Personal life

Scialfa first met Springsteen at the Stone Pony, a New Jersey bar, in the early 1980s.[12]

Although initially reluctant, Scialfa joined the 1988 Tunnel of Love Tour postponing the recording of a solo record.[13] In the spring of 1987, Springsteen separated from his then wife, Julianne Phillips, and Scialfa and Springsteen started living together shortly afterwards.[14] Springsteen and Phillips's divorce was finalized in 1989.[14]

Scialfa and Springsteen first lived in New Jersey and later in New York for a short time, before moving to Los Angeles where they started a family.[15] On July 25, 1990 Scialfa gave birth to the couple's first child, Evan James Springsteen.[14][15] The couple married on June 8, 1991 at their Los Angeles home in a ceremony only attended by family and close friends.[14][15] Their second child, Jessica Rae Springsteen, was born on December 30, 1991;[14][15] and a third child, Samuel Ryan Springsteen, was born on January 5, 1994.[14][16] The family returned to New Jersey in the early 1990s and now lives in Colts Neck, New Jersey.[17] They also own homes in Rumson, New Jersey, Wellington, Florida, near West Palm Beach, and Los Angeles.[18]

Discography

  • Rumble Doll (1993)
    • 1. Rumble Doll
    • 2. Come Tomorrow
    • 3. In My Imagination
    • 4. Valerie
    • 5. As Long as I (Can Be with You)
    • 6. Big Black Heaven
    • 7. Loves Glory
    • 8. Lucky Girl
    • 9. Charm Light
    • 10. Baby Don't
    • 11. Talk to Me Like the Rain
    • 12. Spanish Dancer
  • 23rd Street Lullaby (2004) – (#152, US Billboard 200)
    • 1. 23rd Street Lullaby
    • 2. You Can't Go Back
    • 3. Rose
    • 4. City Boys
    • 5. Love (Stand up)
    • 6. Yesterday's Child
    • 7. Stumbling to Bethlehem
    • 8. Each Other's Medicine
    • 9. Romeo
    • 10. State of Grace
    • 11. Chelsea Avenue
    • 12. Young in the City
File:PattiScialfaFirstTime.jpg
For the first time, Scialfa sings one of her songs, "Town Called Heartbreak", in its entirety at a Springsteen and the E Street Band concert. Hartford Civic Center, October 2, 2007.
  • Play It As It Lays (2007) – (#90, US Billboard 200)
    • 1. Looking for Elvis
    • 2. Like Any Woman Would
    • 3. Town Called Heartbreak
    • 4. Play Around
    • 5. Rainy Day Man
    • 6. The Word
    • 7. Bad for You
    • 8. Run, Run, Run
    • 9. Play It as It Lays
    • 10. Black Ladder
  • Contributed a song called "Children's Song" to the charity album Every Mother Counts, the song is a duet with her husband, Bruce Springsteen (2011)[19]
  • "Linda Paloma" (Looking into You: A Tribute To Jackson Browne) a duet with her husband Bruce Springsteen (2014).[20]

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Stewart, Allison. "Patti Scialfa's Glory Days; With 'Lullaby,' the Boss's Wife Steps Into the Spotlight", The Washington Post, June 20, 2004. Retrieved July 18, 2012. "Scialfa (pronounced SKAL-fah) grew up in the affluent suburb of Deal, N.J., and attended the prestigious jazz program at the University of Miami before moving to New York."
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ The Acoustic Storm Interviews acousticstorm.com
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Interview with Patti Scialfa, "Red-Headed Woman", page 42-44, Q, 1993
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 14.5 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Associated Press, "Springsteen scraps Halloween display", Kentucky New Era, October 30, 2008. Retrieved February 14, 2011. "The 59-year-old rocker and his wife say too many visitors to their Rumson neighborhood raised concerns for the safety of children and parents."
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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