Big Band & Swing 4

Americas love affair with jazz has survived, thrived even, amidst a cacophony of musical extremes. The buttery voice of this singer is an oasis in any madness our world offers. When you listen to her you realize immediately that she is a consummate artist - the real thing. She is what they called in the old days, a storyteller - she paints pictures with words. Yet she bridges the gap between the past and the present. Her masterful interpretation of the lyrics makes an over worn song meaningful, or brings an unknown song to life as is evidenced in her latest release You Must Believe In Spring. There she blends the straightforward elements of traditional pop with a decidedly mainstream jazz execution.

 

"At each performance, my delivery is a little different, because I have experienced that additional kernel of life which changes everything; my point of view, my attitudes... My entire life experience is the point of reference from which I sing a song. I believe my gift is the ability to draw on that experience, be fully present in the moment, and unabashedly share it with the listener." And this is who she really is - open and accessible.

It seems as though she was destined to sing this kind of music. When she was a little girl in Pittsburgh, where she was born, her father often blew into his trombone mouthpiece as he moved around the house. He had a collection of 78 LPs of the big bands of the day, as well as many of the great smaller groups like Shearing, Bruebeck and Hampton. Growing up with this music, along with having classical piano lessons from age six to age sixteen, formed her musical sensibilities. She swings relentlessly, and sings ballads with exquisite phrasing and taste. In her second release, she does a version of the poignantly beautiful Lush Life that will make you cry.

Recently she had been working on a project with the late Jack Segal (When Sunny Gets Blue) to record some of his lesser known songs. She considers him and his material to be American Treasure and will continue with the project.

Her passion for well crafted music and her superb vocal ability clearly place her in a category in which few artists have arrived, and though she emerges from the shadows of the great ladies that have gone on before her, her style is unmistakably her own.