Song Spotlight: JAMMA's Farewell (a night at Bar Lubitsch)

Playing the last set of the WFNM night at Bar Lubitsch was JAMMA (moniker for Marianna Vitale). She mentioned that she moved to Los Angeles from Italy a year ago. There was also mention that her name is pronounced with a sharp Y versus a J. I was thinking this has to be an Italian accent. I did an Internet search and in the Neapolitan (Naples) region the J (at least for this specific word) is pronounced like an English Y.      

JAMMA at Bar Lubitsch

I had no idea what to expect from her set. I first noticed her after an earlier artist finished his set. She rushed over to the sound guy with a slight look of urgency, asking if she was the next artist up. She was told that there was another artist going up and she had a sense of relief. When it was her time to hit the stage, my first thought was that she had some Silent Mass vibes going on as she was dressed in black. Were we about to get a mini-Substance Fest goth night ending at WFNM? 

I was off in my first impression. Her Spotify bio has the following, "Her smokey vocals and sweaty sounds are heavily inspired by blues and rock music." An interesting note is that she spent 10 years studying music before finally releasing her first song last year. It should also be mentioned that she plays bass. She only has three songs that are performance ready so she filled in her setlist with a number of covers. She showed her love of music from the 1960s-1970s and, other than her Beatles cover that started off her set, she focused on American tunes from that era. Perhaps her love for American music is what brought her to Los Angeles.

JAMMA at Bar Lubitsch

One of her own tunes is called "American Ways" - a song about her significant other. She mentioned that he is usually catching her sets, but he wasn't able to attend on this particular night. An Americana-folk tune that was sung with a Southern snarl. Love was in the air when she said at the end of the song, "It's so weird singing without him in the room. I didn't know who to look at." 

She relinquished her lead vocal duties to her guitarist Dedan Dials for the blues tune "Stormy Monday" by The Allman Brothers Band. For the "Roadhouse Blues" cover, she brought up bassist Mike Hightower to play her bass while she went out into the audience to show off her Italian dance moves. She also took a moment to check out her lipstick in one of the Bar Lubitsch mirrors. 

JAMMA at Bar Lubitsch

Her set went in an unexpected direction when she gave a shoutout to one of her friends. She mentioned that her friend was from Austin, Texas. The friend made a quick correction, saying proudly that she was from Houston. Being from Italy, JAMMA responded with a, "It is the same." Her band mate then popped into the conversation by saying with playful seriousness that one city was weird and the other was racist. Those were fighting words for the former Houston resident. After a little back and forth, JAMMA asked out loud, "What is happening here?" The crowd loved her set and an encore was provided, a cover of Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine."

The song spotlight goes to her first released song ever, "Farewell." She wrote on Instagram back in August 2025 that it is a song about leaving your old life behind and starting anew. She uses a photo taken at her 7th birthday party, "It’s for this kid that I left everything and everyone to move to the US to do what I have always dreamed of." It is a song that highlights her love of American blues. 

JAMMA at Bar Lubitsch

It's not the end. We'll meet again in a different life. 

Setlist: Come Together (Beatles cover), American Ways, Farewell, Angel From Montgomery (John Prine cover), Stormy Monday (The Allman Brothers Band cover), Roadhouse Blues (The Doors cover), Take Me Home. Encore: Ain't No Sunshine (Bill Withers cover).