Three of Karrin Allyson’s
albums (Ballads: Remembering John Coltrane,
2001; Footprints, 2006; and Imagina: Son
gs
of Brasil, 2008) have received Grammy
nominations for Best Jazz Vocal Album.
In 2009, Allyson released a
career-spanning “best of” collection. She tours
extensively, both in the United States and
internationally and is known as both a vocal artist
and as an expert bandleader.
Allyson sings in English,
French, Portuguese, Italian, and Spanish. The songs
she performs are drawn from a variety of genres,
including bossa nova, blues, bebop, pop standards,
soft rock, and folk rock. She has recorded vocal
performances of several instrumental jazz
compositions, using both scat and vocalese
techniques. As of 2009, Allyson has recorded 11
original studio albums, all under the Concord label.
She attended the
University of Nebraska at Omaha on a classical piano
scholarship but wound up as the lead singer of rock
band Tomboy in addition to performing both in a jazz
swing choir at UNO and in her own jazz ensemble,
which had gigs at various Omaha venues.
After graduating from UNO
in 1986, Allyson moved to Minneapolis, and
concentrated on her jazz career. In 1990, she moved
to Kansas City, where she recorded her well-received
1992 debut album, I Didn’t Know About You,
for Concord Records. In 1998, she moved to New York
City with her longtime partner, radio host Bill
McGlaughlin, whom she met in Kansas City in the
early 1990s.
Currently, she spends two
days out of three on the road, playing the major
jazz festivals and clubs of the US and making
repeated tours overseas; but she still has found
time to perform in her adopted hometown of New York
at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and the 92nd
Street YMCA.
For more:
Karrin Allyson
Ellis Marsalis is the
patriarch of one of the most distinguished musical
families in American history. Not only is he a fine
musician
in his own right as a pioneer in the modernist jazz
movement, but he is the father of jazz greats
Branford, Wynton, Delfeayo
and Jason Marsalis, as well as poet Ellis Marsalis
and son Mboya Kinyatta Marsalis, who was the primary
inspiration for Delfeayo’s founding of the New
Orleans based Uptown Music Theatre.
Ellis started out as a tenor
saxophonist, switching to piano while in high
school. From his first professional performance with
“The Groovy Boys” over fifty years ago, Ellis
Marsalis has been a major influence in jazz. He
played with fellow modernists including Cannonball
Adderley, Nat Adderley, and Al Hirt, becoming one of
the most respected pianists in jazz.
Though he has recorded almost
20 of his own albums and was featured on many discs
with such jazz greats as David “Fathead” Newman,
Eddie Harris, Marcus Roberts and Courtney Pine, he
focused on teaching. Marsalis’s approach encourages
his students to make discoveries in music on their
own, through experiment and very careful listening.
As a leading educator at the
New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, the University
of New Orleans, and Xavier University of Louisiana,
Ellis has influenced the careers of countless
musicians, including Terence Blanchard, Harry
Connick Jr. and Nicholas Payton. The Ellis Marsalis
Center for Music at Musicians’ Village in New
Orleans is named in honor of Ellis Marsalis.
In May, 2007, Marsalis
received an honorary doctorate from Tulane
University for his contributions to jazz and musical
education. On December 7, 2008, Ellis Marsalis was
inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
Marsalis and his sons are group recipients of the
2011 NEA Jazz Masters Award.
For more:
Ellis Marsalis
Although her mother, after
whom she is named, is
a rather well-known chef in New Orleans, singer Leah
Chase has found her own voice as an
extraordinary jazz vocalist. Leah inherited
the creative drive of her mother Leah and the love
of music of her father Dooky, who led a big band in
New Orleans, Reminisces Dooky Chase Orchestra.
Leah grew up with the sound
of her father’s trumpet and the smell of her
mother’s Creole cooking: a perfect recipe for
inspiration for a burgeoning jazz singer.
After graduating from Loyola
University in New Orleans with a degree in vocal
performance, she did graduate studies at the
Julliard School in New York. Currently, she balances
out her live performances with teaching at the
University of New Orleans in jazz studies.
The “Sweet
heart
of New Orleans.” Charmaine Neville is a member of
the famous Neville clan; the daughter of Charles
Neville, the sax playing Neville Brother.
Charmaine is currently the leader and lead singer of
the Charmaine Neville Band, a jazz & funk band based
in New Orleans and gigging regularly at various
venues, including Snug Harbor.
She has six solo albums to
her credit, as well and a long list of records on
which she worked with other jazzers.
Scott was born into a family of musicians. She
studied classical flute and attended Louisiana State
University on a music scholarship. Then, as an
exchange student in
Germany, she discovered jazz and began singing with
a German trio in the jazz cellars of the Black
Forest.
After returning to the US, Scott sang with the
Louisiana State University Big Band and also performed
at various jazz clubs. She eventually attended the
University of South Carolina for a Masters in
International Business, and while there, was the
soloist for their big band led by Roger Pemberton,
with whom she performed at the North Sea Jazz
Festival in The Hague, Netherlands.
Still balancing business and music, Scott
moved to Houston in 1995 and worked for a large
multinational energy services company while playing
frequently at all the top jazz venues in town. Cindy
established and hosted Jazz Vocal Thursday at the
renowned club Cézanne.
Finally in January 2005, Scott quit her
balancing act and decided to pursue music full time.
She returned to South Louisiana to accept a full
Graduate Assistantship in Jazz Studies at the
University of New Orleans (UNO). The following
August, Cindy, her husband, Bill, and their dog,
Kitty, evacuated the day before Hurricane Katrina
destroyed their one-story apartment. After a lengthy
departure, they returned to New Orleans to
participate in the city’s renaissance. Scott
completed her Masters in Jazz Studies in May, 2007
and now teaches the UNO Jazz Voices, the
university’s mixed-voice jazz vocal group. She plans
to remain in New Orleans and continues to perform
and teach in the area and elsewhere.
Cindy’s first CD, Major to Minor, has been
well received among critics and fans alike and is
currently being distributed in the US and Japan. Her
second CD, Let the Devil Take Tomorrow, is
now available on CDBaby and Amazon, and for digital
download at iTunes.For
More:
Cindy Scott
Whether
they are performing as a duo, part of a full band or
separately, Holly Bendtsen and Amasa Miller
are mainstays in the music world of New
Orleans.
Bendtsen is a singer,
songwriter and playwright who founded the jazz vocal
trio the Pfister Sisters in 1979. Miller is a New
York transplant who got hooked on New Orleans music
after hearing the piano playing of Professor
Longhair, Dr. John and James Booker. He has played
with Aaron Neville, Linda Ronstadt, Steven Stills
and Maria Muldaur, among others. He has recorded
with Bob Dylan , Lil Queenie, Pfister Sisters ,
Peter Stampfel , Spider John Koerner and Makoto
Kubota of Japan.
They are enjoying success
currently with their album of original music, Our
Songs, which grew out of their experiences in
the New Orleans Songwriters’ Workshop, which they
founded.
Guitarist Brian Seeger is
on the forefront of the New Orleans music scene as a
producer and composer as well as a musician. His
performance and recording credits include Aaron
Neville, Charlie Hunter, Big John Patton, Chris
Wood, Jason Marsalis, Davell Crawford, Jo Lawry,
Bobby Previte, Rakalam Bob Moses, Stanton Moore,
Johnny Vidacovich, Theresa Andersson, Delmark
Records tenorman Ed Petersen, Zachary Richard,
Rebecca Paris, and many others.
He was selected in 1999 by
New Orleans Magazine as one of their “Jazz
All-Stars.” Other honorees that year were Irving
Mayfield, Davell Crawford and Ricky Sebastian.
In the last few years,
Brian has found some time to share his experience
and insights with the next generation of creative
musicians. He currently holds the Alvin ”Red” Tyler
Professorship in the esteemed University of New
Orleans Jazz Studies program and is director of the
National Guitar Workshop’s Jam Summit. He has also
taught at Loyola University and Delgado Community
College. Seeger has been a guest clinician and
lecturer at many other jazz camps, colleges and
schools.
For More:
Brian Seeger
The
Wee Trio is a collaborative musical exploration
consisting of vibraphonist James Westfall, bassist
Dan Loomis, and drummer Jared Schonig. Hailing
variously from Los Angeles, St. Louis and Houston,
the three managed to merge in Brooklyn, kicking off
their inaugural tour performing throughout New York
and Pennsylvania playing at a few clubs, a jazz
festival, and an artist residency at a local
university. Despite the plethora of musicians in New
York, they have managed to carve their own niche
there.
Each
member of the Wee Trio is a leader in his own right.
Their respective recordings showcase their disparate
talents and visionary musical organization.
For More:
The Wee Trio
