Music and the food of love

Italian fine dining restaurant, Can Domingo, have perfected this trio of life’s joys by hosting live music every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday nights from June until the end of summer in their beautiful garden space in the hills of San Jose. The band performs a selection of classic jazz standards, the work of Italian singer-songwriters of the 1960s and rhythmic improvs, riffing off timeless funky beats of yesteryear.

Tuesdays see Chiara take the mic to serenade the stars with songs from some of her jazz idols such as Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Julie London. The ambience couldn’t be more suited for this homage to the dames of jazz. On Thursdays the band take Can Domingo on a journey through the pantheon of Italian singer-songwriters. Be romanced by the likes of Paolo Conte, Mina and Gino Paoli. Saturdays is when the band let loose in a free styling improv based on ageless funky.

Chiara had little choice but to let music into her life. Her grandfather was in the chorus at the world famous La Scala Opera House. Growing up was a melange of family sing-a-longs and from a very young age she had music in her soul. “We sang together always,” she says. “Classical, vintage, all the music I love is old. It must be my grandfather’s influence.” Her first visit to Ibiza was in 1995 and from the moment she touched down she wanted to live here. It took a while to make the dream come true. She met her husband, Alessandro Barni Spadacini, in their hometown of Milan, fell in love and created three beautiful children. They both had the dream to one day live in Ibiza and finally the dream came true. Can Domingo was born when Alessandro teamed up with Beppe Vivacqua and Andrea Sanarica to craft Ibiza’s most romantic fine dining Italian restaurant.

There was a band already providing ambient music a couple of nights a week and Alessandro, having witnessed Chiara’s talents encouraged her to join in. “Alessandro said to me, ‘This is a family business, sing with them!’ so I overcame my shyness and now it fits so perfectly. I love it.” The jazz and blues scene in Ibiza is a small eclectic community of excellent musicians and Chiara was soon enveloped within the local music scene. This year the Can Domingo house band is made up of pianist Luis Garcia Lillo, a child prodigy who has worked all over the world, Giovanni Perez, a bassist who brings a sultry sound from his Cuban homeland to the island and Fabio Capelli, saxophonist and composer whose work has featured in film scores and well-known ads.

For Chiara and the Can Domingo team music is something that envelops the ambience and complements the experience. Science tells us that smell, taste and music are essential in creating memories. We all have songs that invoke a moment in our lives and the foodies among us can recall meals of importance at the blink of an eye. “It has to be somewhat refined, like the cuisine. Music that is in tune with everything else, the wine, the food, the atmosphere. Nothing matches a fine wine better than Ella Fitzgerald,” says Chiara. We think The First Lady of Song would definitely agree.