Ada Rovatti on Piloo, Her Late Father and the Making of Done Deal
A Comic Duet for Kurt Elling and Niki Haris Closes a Record Written Through Loss
In July 2021, once travel reopened, Ada Rovatti flew home to Mortara to see her ailing father. She reached him a few hours before he died, and he greeted her as Piloo, her childhood nickname. Two and a half years later, Ada Rovatti closed the album named after that nickname with Done Deal. It is a comic gospel and jazz dialogue for Kurt Elling and Niki Haris.
Ada Rovatti’s Done Deal sits in the playlist below, among the jazz, classical and modern composition this desk has collected there, and her artist profile gathers her wider coverage. The single reached NewMusic.News through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news titles. Put it on, then keep reading for the story of the father behind the title.
Written Through the Pandemic and a Final Visit to Mortara, a Record Took Shape Around Mario Rovatti
Rovatti wrote most of The Hidden World of Piloo during the COVID years. Speaking to Lee Mergner of WBGO, she described the album as a snapshot of that time in her life. That period ended with her father’s death in 2021. For a year and a half before then, she could not travel home to Italy at all.
She later told DownBeat that losing Mario Rovatti hit her hard, because the two of them were very close. He died one month short of his 90th birthday.
The title keeps him in plain sight. As a child, she heard a story about a mischievous little cat called Piloo. Her father gave her the name because she behaved the same way. Years later, she gave it to her own label, Piloo Records, which has released her albums since Green Factor in 2009. Naming the album after his word for her turns the whole record into a conversation with him.
The obvious route would have been an elegy. Instead, Rovatti decided against it. She told WBGO that she did not want the album to sound like a record of mourning. Rather, she meant it as a celebration of him. The father she describes explains that choice. In her telling, Mario Rovatti lived in Africa, travelled the world and was always the life of the party. He was a funny man who kept the family door open to visitors at any hour.
Ada Rovatti Closes the Album With Done Deal, a Bluesy Dialogue for Kurt Elling and Niki Haris
Ada Rovatti released Done Deal first, as a single on 4 January 2024. Two weeks later, it took the last place among the ten tracks of the album. The record arrived on 19 January, credited to Rovatti with her husband, the trumpeter Randy Brecker. At seven minutes and 45 seconds, it is long for a joke. It uses the time to tell a full story.
The words are hers. She told WBGO that she tried lyricists first. Their samples did not match how she felt, so she wrote her own. DownBeat described the result as an amusing dialogue that imagines God as a Black woman. In the song, a man believes he has met God and finds that God is a woman. He then goes home to pass on what he has learned about changing his life. By the end, though, he has slipped back into the same daily routine. That return to the ordinary is the final twist.
The casting explains why the joke works. Elling has won two Grammy Awards for Best Vocal Jazz Album, for Dedicated to You and Secrets Are the Best Stories. He also once studied at the University of Chicago Divinity School. That gives a song about meeting God a quiet extra layer. Haris, meanwhile, spent fourteen years as one of Madonna’s backing vocalists. She also sang lead on several Snap! singles in the early 1990s, and her pop and R&B background answers him from the other side.
Early listeners picked up on the mood. Hot New Songs Blog listed the single in a January 2024 round-up of new jazz. Similarly, the reviewer at Phil’s Picks heard it as the album’s bluesy finale.
Why a Comic Meeting With God Ends a Record Rovatti Chose Not to Make Mournful
The album’s quieter songs carry the grief more directly. Rovatti finished Take It Home, a gospel-flavoured song sung by Haris, the day before she flew to see her father. She also wrote Make Up Girl for her teenage daughter, Stella. On record, she plays it with Brecker as a call and response between the two parents. Against that background, Done Deal answers loss with laughter. That suits a man his daughter remembers as the life of every party.
It also delivers the hidden side the title promises. Rovatti told DownBeat that people usually meet a cheerful, outgoing musician. This record, she said, shows a more private and observant one. Ending with a comic duet lets both versions of her share the last word.
For listeners, the track sits in a long line of saxophone-led records where church feeling meets a jazz groove. Cannonball Adderley showed with Mercy, Mercy, Mercy in the 1960s how far gospel phrasing could carry a jazz band. Similarly, Kirk Whalum has built a whole series of albums around The Gospel According to Jazz. Done Deal belongs to that conversation, with a story told in two voices on top.
The song suits listeners who like their jazz with a plot and their gospel with a smile. It also suits anyone who knows Elling from his ballads and wants to hear him play for laughs. For a wider view of the record, Piloo Records has posted an album trailer on YouTube.
From the NewMusic.News curator team: “Done Deal ends a record about loss with a punchline instead of a requiem. Elling and Haris trade the story line by line over a gospel groove. The closing return to ordinary life is the warmest joke on the album.”
Where to Hear Done Deal and Follow Ada Rovatti Online
Stream Done Deal by Ada Rovatti on Spotify and Apple Music. Then follow her on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer and SoundCloud.
She shares news on Instagram and Facebook. Her official site carries the discography and upcoming dates.
