Daniela Spalletta is a Sicilian jazz vocalist, composer, arranger and lyricist, born in 1982 in Mazzarino, a small town in the province of Caltanissetta. She began voice studies around age 14, training first in classical singing (baroque and early-Romantic repertoire) before turning to jazz, and went on to earn a jazz-voice diploma with top marks at an Italian conservatory. Her Discogs artist entry (a single, unambiguous identity: artist 5087895, "Italian vocalist and composer," carrying 13 documented release credits between 2014 and 2025) is independently corroborated by her own official site, record-label pages and consistent Italian press coverage; no other notable musician sharing her name was found in any search, so name-collision risk is negligible.

Her recording career as a leader began with D/Birth (2015, Alfa Music), credited to Daniela Spalletta featuring the trio Urban Fabula (pianist Seby Burgio, bassist Alberto Fidone, drummer Peppe Tringali) with tenor saxophonist Max Ionata as special guest - a program of originals and standards (Gershwin's "But Not for Me" among them) that drew on the Hermès String Quartet for several tracks. In 2017 she released Sikania (Jazzy Records), co-billed with pianist Giovanni Mazzarino and completed by saxophonist Francesco Patti, bassist Gabriele Evangelista and drummer Alessandro Paternesi - a Discogs-credited quintet session (release 15524491) built around Sicilian folk material and dialect, reviewed by AllMusic. Her third leader album, Per Aspera Ad Astra (2021, TRP Music), is a concept record written over three years that the Italian press describes as moving between jazz, world music, rock and electronic textures across twelve tracks, again anchored by the Urban Fabula rhythm section with Fidone also co-producing. Most recently, press coverage across multiple Italian outlets (EZ Rome, Fatti Italiani, Metropolitan Web, PianoSolo, and others) confirms a fourth album, Con Fuoco (TRP Music, released April 24, 2026), a duo project with pianist Stefania Tallini setting jazz, Bach/Vivaldi/Villa-Lobos classical reinterpretations and Italian/Sicilian-dialect song side by side, led by the single "Alfonsina y el Mar." Con Fuoco postdates the most recent Discogs update and is not yet independently confirmed at the Discogs release-credit level; it is reported here on the strength of multiple independent Italian press sources rather than a Discogs credit - see daniela-spalletta_notes.md.

Alongside her own albums, Discogs documents a genuine, ongoing career as a sideman and featured vocalist across a run of other Italian (and one Polish) jazz projects: singer on Willow: A Jazz Suite (2014, Musica Jazz), a Steve Swallow tribute where she is credited as co-lyricist ("Text By," alongside British vocalist Norma Winstone) rather than as the album's singer (Cinzia Roncelli sings, with Swallow himself, Adam Nussbaum on drums, and Giovanni Mazzarino on piano); a featured-vocal credit on Janis (2016, Casa del Jazz), a large vocal-and-strings ensemble date; special-guest vocals and lyrics on the Claudio Giambruno Quartet's Juiu (2018, AlfaProjects), alongside Claudio Giambruno on tenor saxophone; a featured-vocal spot on the Giuseppe Mazzamuto Quintet's Melodyterranean (2018, Da Vinci Jazz), alongside trumpeter Alessandro Presti; lyrics and vocals on guitarist Francesco Guaiana's Bandha (2020, Dodicilune); and, most recently, a lyric-writing credit alongside Gegè Telesforo on guitarist Christian Mascetta's Ricami (2025, Groove Master Edition). A 2018 harmony-vocal guest credit on Polish drummer Jacek Kochan's Ajee (Audio Cave), tagged Electronic/Acid Jazz on Discogs, sits outside this vault's Italian-jazz scope and is noted only for completeness.

Spalletta's most significant recognition to date came in 2019, when she placed second (runner-up) among more than 600 entrants at the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition at NJPAC in Newark, New Jersey, judged by a jury that included bassist Christian McBride and vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater; the American jazz magazine DownBeat, reporting on the competition, described her as having "a silken voice, with remarkable fluidity and range" (writer Michael Barris) - a quote independently repeated across several Italian secondary sources and traceable to DownBeat's own competition coverage. Other Italian awards named on her own site and in press include the Premio Claudio Abbado, the Premio Nazionale delle Arti, Lucca Jazz Donna, the Tony Scott Jazz Award, the Multiculturità Europe Contest, and a full-tuition scholarship to Berklee College of Music's Valencia master's program (2015); these are reported as self-published/press claims, not independently adjudicated beyond the DownBeat and Sarah Vaughan Competition facts, which carry independent third-party sourcing.

Teaching runs alongside her performing career: she currently holds a jazz-singing post at the Conservatorio "Arcangelo Corelli" in Messina, and has also taught singing and ensemble practice at the conservatories of Trieste ("Giuseppe Tartini"), Como ("Giuseppe Verdi"), Vibo Valentia ("Fausto Torrefranca") and the ISSM "Arturo Toscanini." Her own site names workshop and seminar study with Steve Swallow and Anthony Coleman among others, and mentorship/collaboration with pianists Giovanni Mazzarino and Salvatore Bonafede; none of these could be independently matched to a Discogs recording credit beyond the Mazzarino/Swallow connections already documented above, so they are reported as self-described rather than independently verified.

Spalletta's identity spans three overlapping registers: a mainstream/contemporary jazz vocalist (the standards and originals on D/Birth), a folk-rooted regional voice bringing Sicilian dialect and pastoral imagery into a jazz quintet format (Sikania, whose cover art itself depicts a Sicilian sheep pasture), and, on her most recent work, a jazz-classical crossover artist reinterpreting Bach, Vivaldi and Villa-Lobos alongside original material (Con Fuoco, with pianist Stefania Tallini). DownBeat's own description - "a silken voice, with remarkable fluidity and range" - matches the wide-interval scatting and clear upper register heard in her 2019 Sarah Vaughan Competition performance of "Everybody's Song But My Own" and "Stella by Starlight." Her parallel identity as a lyricist (credited "Text By" or "Lyrics By" on several sideman dates, including for other artists' instrumental material) is a recurring thread distinct from her work purely as a featured singer.