{"key":"15325","name":"Stacey Kent","bio":"Stacey Kent (born March 27, 1968 in South Orange, New Jersey) is a Grammy-nominated USA jazz vocalist, who debuted with \"Close Your Eyes\" (1997) and has \"Hushabye Mountain\" (2011), as her latest album.Kent attended Newark Academy in Livingston, New Jersey. She graduated with a Degree in Comparative Literature from Sarah Lawrence College in New York, and moved to England after her graduation. While studying at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama, she met tenor saxophonist, Jim Tomlinson, whom she married on 9 Aug 1991.Discography: \"Close Your Eyes\" (1997), \"The Tender Trap\" (1998), \"Let Yourself Go: Celebrating Fred Astaire\" (2000),\"Dreamsville\" (2001), \"Brazilian Sketches\" (2001), \"In Love Again: The Music of Richard Rodgers\" (2002), \"The Boy Next Door\" (2003), \"Collection\" (2001), \"Collection II\" (2003), \"Collection III\" (2006), \"Breakfast On The Morning Tram\" (2007), \"Breakfast on the Morning Tram\" (2008, limited edition boxset CD\/DVD), \"Raconte-Moi...\" (2010) , \"Hushabye Mountain\" (2011) , \"THE CHANGING LIGHTS\" (2013)Kent has also featured in Tomlinson's 2006 album, The Lyric, which won \"Album of the Year\" at the 2006 BBC Jazz Awards.Awards: British Jazz Award (2001) and BBC Jazz Award for Best Vocalist (2002).Kent's album, Breakfast on the Morning Tram, was a nominee for Best Jazz Vocal Album at the 51st Grammy Awards (2009).Trivia: Novelist Kazuo Ishiguro wrote the liner notes to Kent's 2003 album, The Boy Next Door, and also co-wrote four of the songs on the 2007 album, Breakfast on the Morning Tram.Sites: Discogs","featuredImage":"https:\/\/assets.allamericanmusic.com\/images\/15325_h_0.jpg","feeRange":"please contact"}

{"key":"16736","name":"Lisa Ekdahl","bio":"Lisa Ekdahl (born 29th July 1971 in Stockholm) is a Swedish singer and song writer in popular music and jazz singer. Debut in 1990 with Peter Nordahls jazz trio and contributes to an album with Toni Holgersson. Contract with EMI. The self named debut album, Lisa Ekdahl was released in 1994 She has so far published ten albums, six of them in Swedish and four in English. Awards: Tree Grammis (Swedish) and the Rockbear (Rockbj\u00f6rn) in 1994, for best female artist, best female pop-singer, and album of the year.","featuredImage":"https:\/\/assets.allamericanmusic.com\/images\/16736_h_0.jpg","feeRange":"please contact"}

{"key":"15059","name":"Cassandra Wilson","bio":"Cassandra Wilson (born 4th December 1955) is a U.S. jazz vocalist and two-time Grammy Award winner from Jackson, Mississippi. Two of her albums, Blue Skies (1988) and New Moon Daughter (1996), have topped the US jazz charts, and the latter also won her a Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Performance in 1997. More recently, Wilson's album Loverly (2008) also won the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album at the 51st Grammy Awards in 2009.Wilson's repertoire includes both jazz and blues standards and renditions of pop and rock songs. Her contralto voice has been described as bluesy and sultry, and the style of her music ranges from swing to funk to bossa nova. Many of the songs she covers are by artists who usually record in other genres.Wilson counts the late Miles Davis as one of her greatest influences. In 1989 she performed as the opening act for Davis at the JVC Jazz Festival in Chicago. In 1999 she produced Traveling Miles as a tribute to Davis. The album developed from a series of jazz concerts that she performed at Lincoln Center in November 1997 in Davis's honor and includes three selections based on Davis's own compositions, in which Wilson adapted the original themes.A Brief DiscographyPoint of View (1986, JMT)Days Aweigh (1987, JMT)Blue Skies (1988, JMT)Jumpworld (1989, JMT)She Who Weeps (1990, JMT)Live (1991, JMT)After the Beginning Again (1992, JMT)Dance to the Drums Again (1992, DIW\/Columbia)Blue Light 'til Dawn (1993, Blue Note)New Moon Daughter (1995, Blue Note)Rendezvous (with Jacky Terrasson) (1998, Blue Note)Traveling Miles (1999, Blue Note)Belly of the Sun (2002, Blue Note)Glamoured (2003, Blue Note)Thunderbird (2006, Blue Note)Loverly (2008, Blue Note)Silver Pony (2010, Blue Note)Another Country (2012, eOne)Official website: www.cassandrawilson.com","featuredImage":"https:\/\/assets.allamericanmusic.com\/images\/15059_h_0.jpg","feeRange":"please contact"}

{"key":"16754","name":"Lizz Wright","bio":"Lizz Wright is a U.S. jazz singer and composer.In 2000 Wright joined the Atlanta-based vocal quartet In the Spirit, which soon achieved critical acclaim; in 2002 she signed a recording contract with Verve Records. Her first album, Salt, was released in 2003 (reaching number two on the Billboard Top Contemporary Jazz chart in 2004), followed by Dreaming Wide Awake in June 2005 (reaching number one on the Top Contemporary Jazz chart in 2005 and 2006).","featuredImage":"https:\/\/assets.allamericanmusic.com\/images\/16754_h_0.jpg","feeRange":"please contact"}

{"key":"16761","name":"Sophie Hunger","bio":"Sophie Hunger is a pseudonym of Emilie Welti (b. 31 Mar 1983, in Bern), a multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter, based in Z\u00fcrich, Switzerland. She made her recording d\u00e9buted, as Emilie Welti and a member of Fisher, on their eponymous \"Fisher\" (2005). Her first solo album was \"Sketches on Sea\" (Sept 2007, Two Gentlemen) and her latest is \"The Danger Of Light\" (Sept 2012, Two Gentlemen).Her independently released second album \"Monday's Ghost\" (2008) stayed at the top of the swiss charts for several weeks and caught the attention of critics abroad. The Guardian described her as \"Laura Marling, Beth Orton and Bj\u00f6rk in one folk-rocking package\".The Swiss singer spent parts of her youth abroad, living in England and Germany. Her cosmopolitan biography is reflected in her multilingual songwriting. While most songs are in English or German language, each album contains one song in a Swiss German dialect. Her third studio album 1983 (2010) also includes a cover version of Noir D\u00e9sir's Le Vent Nous Portera in French language.Hunger has always worked in a collaborative spirit, and her many musical interests have led her to a fascinating geographic and personality mix. While she had recorded her solo d\u00e9but \"Sketches On Sea\" at home in just a few days, her latest album \"The Danger Of Light\" evolved over three sessions abroad. In Los Angeles she was joined by Josh Klinghoffer (Red Hot Chilli Peppers, PJ Harvey), Nathaniel Walcott (Bright Eyes) and Steven Nistor (Danger Mouse); in Montr\u00e9al Howard Bilerman (Arcade Fire), singer\/songwriter Mark B\u00e9rub\u00e9, Brad Barr (The Barr Brothers) und David Payant (A Silver Mt. Zion) jammed along. That last session from Hotel2Tango-Studio in Montr\u00e9al is included on the Deluxe Edition of her latest release.Rapidly gaining a reputation as an electrifying live performer, Hunger has been sharing stages with some of Switzerlands\u2019s most successful artists, like Erik Truffaz, The Young Gods, Kutti MC or Stephan Eicher and appearing at locations such as Olympia in Paris, Miles Davis Hall at the Montreux Jazz Festival or the John Peel Stage at Glastonbury Festival. The musical directions of Sophie Hunger are limitless, from traditional folk songwriting bathed in jazzy moods to soul balladry. Her musical universe is very flourished, nourished by an exceptionally fragile yet mature voice as well as an ability to cross genres. For Sketches On Sea, she collaborated with a great number of musicians, from a trombone player to a flamenco guitarist. Sophie\u2019s technical prowesses can lead her anywhere and allow her to do things that nobody else could get away with.Sophie Hunger also contributed the soundtrack to the documentary \"Zimmer 202\" and the movie \"Der Freund\" by Micha Lewinsky.Sites: SoundCloud, Vimeo and Facebook.","featuredImage":"https:\/\/assets.allamericanmusic.com\/images\/16761_h_0.jpg","feeRange":"please contact"}

{"key":"15334","name":"Jane Monheit","bio":"Jane Monheit (born November 3, 1977) is considered to be one of the most promising American jazz vocalists of her generation.Born in Oakdale, New York on Long Island, Monheit began singing professionally while attending Connetquot High School. At 17, she began studying at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City under the tutelage of Peter Eldridge. At the age of 20, as a senior, she won the first runner-up prize at the 1998 Thelonious Monk Institute Vocal Competition. In 1999, she received her Bachelor's degree in music.Monheit's voice has been compared to that of Ella Fitzgerald, whom she lists as one of her influences. Songs she has recorded range from jazz standards to MGM\/RKO musicals of the 1930s-1950s and Brazilian rhythms such as \"Come\u00e7ar de novo\".Monheit released her debut album, Never Never Land in October 2000 and it became an instant success. This was followed shortly by her second album, Come Dream With Me (May 2001) and her third, In The Sun (October 2002).Her fourth album, Live at the Rainbow Room, was released in December 2003. A similarly-titled DVD was released to complement the CD.Her fifth album, Taking a Chance on Love, was released in September 2004. It debuted at the #1 spot on Billboard's traditional jazz chart and entered Billboard's top 100 pop chart the first week it was released. The album included the song Over the Rainbow, which had been included in her previous release recorded at the Rainbow Room, and also in the soundtrack for the film, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.The Taking a Chance on Love DVD was released in March 2005 and contains performances from the Brecon Jazz Festival in Wales, UK. Monheit released her sixth album, The Season, in October 2005. Her first holiday-themed album, it debuted in the top 10 on Billboard's jazz chart. Monheit told jazzreview.com that it was inspired by Ella Fitzgerald's holiday album, Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas.The singer recently signed a recording contract with Concord Records. Her most recent album, Surrender, debuted at #1 on Billboard's jazz chart.","featuredImage":"https:\/\/assets.allamericanmusic.com\/images\/15334_h_0.jpg","feeRange":"please contact"}

{"key":"15417","name":"Eliane Elias","bio":"Eliane Elias (b. 1960) is a Brazilian jazz composer, pianist, and singer.Born on the 19th March 1960 in S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil, Elias started learning to play the piano at the age of seven, and was transcribing solo portions of her parents\u2019 jazz records by the age of twelve. After studying for six years (and teaching by the age of fifteen) at Brazil\u2019s prestigious Free Centre of Music Apprenticeship, she continued her classical education with Amilton Godoy and Amaral Vieria. She was also the prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of Vinicius de Moraes, lyricist and songwriting partner of Antonio Carlos Jobim, a huge influence on Elias' work, and master of the Brazilian bossa nova movement. By the time she was seventeen years old she was touring with the best bossa nova composers and interpreters, composing her own pieces and performing at jazz clubs regularly.Elias then moved to New York and studied privately with Olegna Fuschi at the Julliard School of Music, eventually joining jazz supergroup Steps Ahead (whose members included Eddie Gomez, Michael Brecker, Peter Erskine, and Mike Mainieri). Her first live instrumental recording, Eliane Elias Plays Live, was recorded in Amsterdam on the 31st May 2002, and digitally released in the USA in 2010.Elias lives in New York City with her husband, bassist Marc Johnson.* Official siteThe classical tradition meets the spontaneity of jazz through the virtuosic playing of Brazil-born and New York-based pianist Eliane Elias. A former member of jazz ensemble Steps Ahead, Elias has continued to explore two distinct musical streams through her solo recordings and her performances since the mid-'80s. In 1993, she became one of the few artists to release jazz and classical albums simultaneously. In a review of a concert in her homeland, Brazil magazine praised Elias for \"her dazzling right-hand runs, executed often at frightening speeds. Her command of the keyboard was total. Her harmonic sensibility caused a sense of wonderment.\" Elias may have inherited at least some of her musical talents from her mother, Lucy, a classical pianist who often played jazz records in the family home. After studying for six years at the Free Center of Music Apprenticeship in S\u00e3o Paulo, she continued to study classical technique with Amilton Godoy and Amaral Vieira. By her teens, Elias was composing her own pieces and performing in jazz clubs. While touring in Europe in 1981, she met jazz bassist Eddie Gomez and was encouraged to travel to New York. Arriving in the Big Apple the following year, she studied privately with Olegna Fuschi at the Juilliard School of Music. Elias' professional career received a boost when she was invited to join Steps Ahead, a jazz \"supergroup\" featuring Michael Brecker, Peter Erskine, Mike Manieri, and Eddie Gomez. She recorded one album with the group \u2013 Steps Ahead \u2013 in 1983. Shortly after leaving Steps Ahead, Elias began collaborating with trumpet player Randy Brecker, whom she subsequently married but later divorced. Their sole duo album, released in 1985, was named after their daughter Amanda. The following year, Elias launched her career as a bandleader. Since then, she's alternated tours with two different trios, one featuring drummer Jack DeJohnette and bassist Gomez and the other featuring drummer Erskine and her current husband, bassist Marc Johnson. Elias has also performed with a third trio, featuring Johnson on bass and Satoshi Takeishi on drums. She signed with Blue Note in 1989, and released her debut for the label, So Far So Close, the same year with a slew of guests. While most of her recordings have been instrumental, Elias introduced her soft but coarse vocals on her 1990 album Eliane Elias Plays Jobim, and has employed vocals on occasion ever since. Her 1995 album Solos and Duets featured a brilliantly executed duet with Herbie Hancock. In addition to working periodically with Toots Thielemans' Brasil Project, Elias has served as musical director for Gilberto Gil's group. While she continued to record for the rest of the '90s, it was 2000's Impulsive! that proved one of the largest surprises in her career as she collaborated with conductor and arranger Bob Brookmeyer leading the Danish Radio Jazz Orchestra. In 2002 she left Blue Note for RCA's Bluebird label, where she debuted with Kissed by Nature, a primarily vocal album, and followed it up with the lovely Dreamer in 2004. Elias released Around the City in 2006, a collection of primarily vocal tracks that moved ever further into pop territory, covering music by Santana, Bob Marley, and even Beck. It was her final album for Bluebird. She returned to Blue Note for 2007's Something for You: Elaine Elias Sings & Plays Bill Evans, fronting a trio with Johnson (who played with Evans) and drummer Joey Baron. In 2009, she issued what many have argued is her finest recording, Bossa Nova Stories, fully engaging her Brazilian heritage in bossa and samba and illustrating her singular jazz instincts as a pianist. In 2010, Savoy Records issued Timeless Eliane Elias, a compilation of tracks culled from her mid-'80s recordings Illusions and Cross Currents. In late 2010, Elias signed with Concord; in the late spring of 2011 she released Light My Fire, her debut set on the label. A year later, Elias paired with bassist Marc Johnson for the instrumental ECM date, Swept Away. In 2013, Elias paid homage to trumpeter\/vocalist Chet Baker with I Thought About You: A Tribute to Chet Baker. ~ Craig Harris & Thom Jurek, Rovi","featuredImage":"https:\/\/assets.allamericanmusic.com\/images\/15417_h_0.jpg","feeRange":"please contact"}

{"key":"33715","name":"Gregory Porter","bio":"Gregory Porter was born in Los Angeles, raised in Bakersfield, and is now living in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn, Gregory Porter has made the world his musical home. With a voice that can caress or confront, embrace or exhort, Gregory Porter exhibits such an incredible degree of vocal mastery that no less a jazz luminary than Wynton Marsalis has gone on record to call him \"a fantastic young singer,\" which makes the fact that Water is his recording debut even more impressive.A debut release it may be, yet Water flows with a sense of timelessness that reflects the seasoned talents of the giants of blues, gospel and soul that have influenced Porter throughout his career. Some of the singers that Porter cites as influential are familiar \u2013 Nat King Cole, Joe Williams, and Donny Hathaway \u2013 and others \u2013 such as the pastor of the church he attended as a child among them \u2013 may never realize their impact on his development as an artist. While the work of singers such as Hathaway or Cole obviously helped to shape Porter\u2019s vocal styling, his own world view, as evidenced in his seven original compositions and his striking interpretation of classic songs such as \"But Beautiful\", and \"Skylark\" adds an emotional intensity that makes each of the albums's eleven tracks speak so eloquently. The album Water was produced by saxophonist, pianist and composer Kamau Kenyatta, who Porter refers to as his \u201cbest friend.\u201d In fact, it is Kenyatta who bears much of the responsibility for Porter\u2019s career trajectory, which can be traced back to Porter\u2019s early days singing in small jazz clubs in San Diego. He lived there while at San Diego State University which he attended on a football scholarship, as an outside linebacker, until a shoulder injury sidelined him permanently. Recognizing his talents, Kenyatta \u2013 along with saxophonist Daniel Jackson (Ray Charles, Buddy Rich, Art Farmer, and more) \u2013 nurtured the burgeoning performer, and, as Porter says, \u201ctaught him what he needed to know.\u201d Kenyatta invited Porter to visit him in the studio in Los Angeles, where he was producing the flutist Hubert Laws\u2019 Remembers the Unforgettable Nat King Cole.Certainly Kenyatta was aware of Porter\u2019s childhood infatuation with Cole\u2019s music, and certainly he could hear the echoes of Cole\u2019s mellow baritone in Porter\u2019s own voice. What he could not have predicted was that when Laws heard Porter singing along when he was tracking the Charlie Chaplin-penned \u201cSmile,\u201d the flutist would be so impressed with the young singer that he would choose to include a \u2018bonus\u2019 track of Porter singing the song on the album. Just as serendipitous was Laws\u2019 sister, Eloise\u2019s, presence that day in the studio. A highly respected singer and recording artist in her own right, Eloise was about to join the cast of a new musical theater work, \u201cIt Ain\u2019t Nothin\u2019 But the Blues.\u201d Although he\u2019d only had minimal theatrical experience to that point (in the Doo Wop musical \u201cAvenue X\u201d), Porter eventually was cast in one of eight lead roles when the play opened in Colorado at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, and eventually followed it to Off-Broadway and then Broadway theater, where the NY Times, in its 1999 rave review, mentioned Porter among the show\u2019s \u201cpowerhouse line up of singer.\u201d \u201cIt Ain\u2019t Nothin\u2019 But the Blues\u201d went on to earn both Tony and Drama Desk Award nominations that year. Although he now says, \u201cI never felt that my career was going to be strictly in the theater,\u201d Porter\u2019s success on stage with \u201cIt Ain\u2019t Nothin\u2019 But the Blues\u201d paved the way for another theatrical outing and pairing with Eloise Laws. In his semi-autobiographical \u201cNat King Cole and Me,\u201d he dramatically documented his childhood, which was marked by an absentee father and the joy and pain he heard when listening to his mother\u2019s Nat King Cole records.Apparently, one day, when his mother heard her young son singing along, she remarked that he sounded like Cole. This led to a rich imaginary life where the young Porter actually believed that the legendary crooner was indeed his dad, and that the love songs Cole sang were secretly being sung to him. Porter\u2019s moving \u201cNat King Cole & Me\u201d ran for two very successful months at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts and has since travelled to Houston, TX (without Porter\u2019s involvement.) The intimacy of Porter\u2019s \u201cNat King Cole and Me,\u201d revealed a courageous thespian, who bravely shared his life story with his audience, so it\u2019s hardly surprising that many of the songs on Water come also from an emotional place. The album Water opens with the ruminative \"Illusion\" an exquisite duet between Porter and pianist Chip Crawford, which the singer says was inspired by the pain that will accompany every relationship at one time or another. The song ends with Porter exhaling a quiet sigh \u2013 whether it\u2019s one of resignation or acceptance depends, he says, on perspective. \u201cLove makes us all crazy,\u201d he says. \"Pretty\", a soulful tribute to a woman from Porter\u2019s past, is an understated ensemble piece that is bolstered by the alto sax work of Yoske Sato. \u201cI love coffee,\u201d says Porter, \u201cand \"Magic Cup\" was written for a beautiful friend who works at my favorite coffee shop.\u201d Percolating with a smooth energy heightened by frenetic sax breaks courtesy of Sato, the song is as rich as a morning cup of French roast. Porter\u2019s effluent baritone does the Hoagie Carmichael\/Johnny Mercer standard, \"Skylark\" more than justice, while his rendition of Wayne Shorter's \"Black Nile\" continues to emphasize the theme of water that runs throughout the album and features veteran sax player James Spaulding. Porter contributed the lyrics to \"Wisdom\", the melody of which was written by one of his mentors, Daniel Jackson. Spaulding\u2019s saxophone lends a haunting air to the song, which, Porter says in retrospect could very well be about post-Katrina New Orleans. Emphasizing his gospel roots with lyrics that echo the traditional biblical song \u201cWade in the Water,\u201d Porter metaphorically positions water as an impediment, and wisdom as the means to overcome it. Water\u2019s most overly political song is \"1960 What?\", inspired in part by Kamau Kenyatta\u2019s stories of life in Detroit and by the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King, as well as by his own experiences growing up in Los Angeles.\u201cI\u2019ve always loved ballads, and \"But Beautiful\" is one of my favorites,\u201d says Porter of the standard, on which his vocals and Chip Crawford\u2019s piano share center stage. The mournful \"Lonely One\" paints a lyrical picture of a tragic love story, while the album's title track, \"Water\", reiterates the artist\u2019s use of water as metaphor for redemption, cleansing, history and survival. Water\u2019s coda is a raw yet soulful Mahalia Jackson-influenced a cappella version of the classic \"Feeling Good\".In the short fifteen months since Gregory Porter exploded onto the international music scene with his debut album, Water, he has racked up a continuing stream of accolades and awards. Porter\u2019s Water garnered a \u2018Best Jazz Vocal \u2019 Grammy\u00ae nomination (a rare feat for a debut recording), rocketed to #1 on both iTunes and Amazon in the UK, made significant sales inroads and has soared on to be included on an international array of year-end \u2018Best Of\u2019 lists for 2010 in several genres. The happy result is that, in less than a year and a half, these successes have created a formidable draw for Porter as an international touring artist.Porter\u2019s ascending star is viewed most brightly in Europe, especially in the UK, where he has performed on Jamie Cullum\u2019s BBC radio program, on Later with Jools Holland, as a featured guest at the London Jazz Festival and as one of two special guests on Carole King\u2019s 2011 BBC holiday television special. UK\u2019s Jazz Wise magazine named Water the #1 Jazz Album of 2011 (the first time a vocal album has achieved this distinction.). Meanwhile, across the channel in France and Belgium press and radio have showered Porter with incredible accolades, lauding him as the new \u201cRoi of Vocal Jazz,\u201d in both jazz and mainstream press outlets such as L\u2019Express.\u201d As his international reputation continues to grow, \"Be Good\", the title track from Porter\u2019s sophomore album, was released as an advance single to herald the much-anticipated release.On Porter's sophomore album, Be Good, which was released on February 14, 2012 on Mot\u00e9ma), Porter has crafted a work that not only meets, but is likely to surpass, the heightened expectations of the jazz and soul audiences eagerly awaiting his follow up to Water. Featuring Porter\u2019s winning combination of \u201coutstanding original songs, erudite lyrics and social comment, top drawer musicianship and improvisation, and a voice to die for\u201d (Jazz Wise), Be Good is a musical compendium of groove-driven delights, ranging from quiet ballads to up-tempo burners, from romantic charmers to powerful, blues-tinged anthems. Be Good finds Porter surrounded by the core of his powerhouse working band, with whom he recorded his Grammy nominated debut, and who have performed with him for over three years now: Chip Crawford on piano, Aaron James on bass, Emanuel Harrold on drums, and Yosuke Sato on alto sax. Under the sure hand of producer Brian Bacchus, Porter and the band rise to new heights on Be Good, which is further fueled by richly emotional horn arrangements by Kamau Kenyatta, who produced Water and who continues to play an important role in Porter\u2019s sound. Kenyatta also performs on one track (\"Painted on Canvas\") and guest instrumentalists Keyon Harrold on trumpet and Tivon Pennicott on tenor sax are also featured throughout.Porter tapped the prodigious talents of veteran producer Brian Bacchus for Be Good. Bacchus, whose A&R successes have included Norah Jones' Grammy-winning Come Away with Me, as well as Cassandra Wilson, Gonzo Rubalcaba, The Wild Magnolias, and Joe Lovano's tribute to opera legend Enrico Caruso, Via Caruso, has produced projects for acclaimed jazz artists including Randy Weston, Lizz Wright, Richie Havens, Ronny Jordan, and Patricia Barber. Bachus first met Porter through a mutual friend and the two immediately recognized a shared sensibility, a sense of musical camaraderie that resulted in a strong in-studio collaboration. \"Gregory is the real deal and a revelation in terms of new male jazz singers, but I think that his voice coupled with his songwriting may be the thing that leaves most listeners with their mouths open,\u201d says Bacchus. \u201cThere have been many solid singer songwriters coming from under the jazz umbrella of the last 10 years that are mostly brimming with folk and country influences. Gregory is the first that I\u2019m hearing that is squarely coming out of a real classic soul bag (i.e. Bill Withers, Curtis Mayfield, Donny Hathaway) as a songwriter, but with both feet firmly planted in jazz\u2019s soil.\u201dA disarmingly sincere performer, with a groove that never quits, a voice of incredible virtuosity and a seemingly universal appeal as a songwriter, Porter\u2019s lyrics often speak as dreams do, in the languages of image and emotion, communicating thoroughly though not always directly. His objective as a songwriter, he says, is \u201cto create a sincere message about my feelings on love, culture, family and our human joys and pain.\u201d Even in conversation he leans toward the poetic: \u201cJust like the song \u2018Painted on Canvas\u2019 says, \u2018I\u2019m \u2018made of the pigment of paint that is put upon\u2019 \u2026trying to be honest and organic in my colors that I show.\u201d Be Good clearly attains that goal, and also proves to have a wide palette of colors to show.The album Be Good's opening track, the song mentioned above, masterfully primes the canvas of Porter\u2019s sophomore release. Gentle as a bedtime story-teller, his vocals weave seamlessly in and around the warm tones established by his core band, enhanced by the sparkling threads of Kamau Kenyatta\u2019s tenor sax and Chip Crawford\u2019s impressionistic pianism. \"Be Good (Lion's Song)\" (the leading single from the album) has been a favorite at Porter\u2019s live shows for some time, here finally making its much anticipated recording debut. The upbeat tribute \u201cOn My Way to Harlem\u201d percolates with the vibrant cultural energy of the Harlem renaissance figures that once walked the streets near St. Nick\u2019s Pub, where Porter\u2019s working band came together and where he finally solidified his conviction to record his first record in 2010. \u201cI grew up in California and now I live in Brooklyn,\u201d explains Porter, \u201cbut even so, I feel that the spirit of the artists that came out of Harlem \u2013 from Duke Ellington to Langston Hughes \u2013 has so influenced my work that Harlem is as much a part of me as if I had lived there.\u201d The soulful spirit of the \u201870s, epitomized by such artists as Lou Rawls and the Chi Lights, echoes forth in style on Porter\u2019s \"Real Good Hands\", a track that makes it clear that Porter is a complete romantic at heart. On the intriguing ballad, \"The Way You Want to Live\", a song of dangerous personal choices that he dedicated to Amy Winehouse during a performance at the Blue Note in New York just days after her untimely death, Chip Crawford\u2019s poignant touch on the keyboards is matched by Porter\u2019s fervent delivery. Next up, the band\u2019s unassuming, solid rapport underscores the tenderness of Porter\u2019s lyrics on \"When Did You Learn?\".\"Imitation of Life\", the first of the three tracks on Be Good not written by Porter, is the title track from an Oscar-nominated 1959 film starring Lana Turner and Sandra Dee. Written by Paul Francis Webster and Sammy Fain, who also penned the Academy Award-winning \u201cLove Is a Many Splendored Thing,\u201d and the Johnny Mathis hit, \u201cA Certain Smile, \u201cImitation of Life\u201d was originally performed by Earl Grant and has seldom since been recorded.Porter, the youngest of a family of six raised in Bakersfield California by a single mother who was also a minister, offers a show stopping and inspiringly heartfelt tribute to this clearly exceptionally woman in \"Mother's Song\", emphasizing the extraordinary impact her love and fortitude has upon his life and work. \u201cOur Love\u201d which takes as its theme romantic love that succeeds despite the odds and in spite of naysayers, sustains the albums\u2019s mellow mood until Porter shakes things up completely with the scat-inflected, high energy \"Bling Bling\". Next, Porter delivers perhaps one of the hottest and grittiest versions ever of Nat Adderly's classic, \"Work Song\", a hard driving blues and jazz standard that has been recorded by vocalists as disparate as Nina Simone, Bobby Darin, Sammy Davis Jr., and Johnny Rivers. Porter closes the proceedings with an a cappella version of \"God Bless the Child\", that is as understated as a prayer and as comforting as a lullaby.","featuredImage":"https:\/\/assets.allamericanmusic.com\/images\/33715_h_0.jpg","feeRange":"please contact"}

{"key":"16718","name":"Silje Nergaard","bio":"Silje Nergaard (born June 19, 1966 in Steinkjer, Norway) is a Norwegian pop and jazz vocalist based in Oslo. While her music early in her career (e.g. Si det, si det from 1985) may have had a distinct pop feel, she has since moved on, and virtually all of her later releases consist of jazz-oriented tunes. Nergaard's musical journey began early. At age 16, she stepped on stage joining a jam session at Moldejazz, Norway\u2019s international jazz festival, with a band comprised of musicians from the band of the late jazz bass virtuoso Jaco Pastorius. The country's jazz journalists applauded the young talent. Since that day, she has steadily developed as a composer and become popular for her unique voice and talent for songwriting. Since her 1990 inaugural jazz album, Tell Me Where You're Going, produced by jazz guitar maestro Pat Metheny, Nergaard has become one among very few Norwegian artists to have had commercial releases in major music markets around the globe - including Brazil, Germany, the U.S., and the United Kingdom - and doing so with great success.Her later albums, Port of Call (2000), At First Light (2001), and Nightwatch (2003), have all proved resounding commercial successes and received rapturous critical praise. With Nightwatch she also made history: no other jazz artist before her had shot straight into the Norwegian sales charts twice to reach #1 within the first week of release. In 2004 she received a Norwegian music award for Musician of the Year. With the 2007 release of her critically-acclaimed Darkness Out of Blue, Nergaard finally realized her dream of working with Grammy Award winner and renowned arranger Vince Mendoza, (Elvis Costello, Joni Mitchell, Herbie Hancock), who contributed string arrangements to two songs in the album, Paper Boats and Let Me Be Troubled, with his beautiful sound and touch.A year or two earlier, Nergaard had already decided to make a change in her music, which meant having to change some of her musicians, who had been touring with her for the past several years. As much as the style and 'voice' they had developed together were important to her, she came to realize that \"you come to a point where you know you need to have a new challenge.\"On October 4, 2007, it was officially announced in the Netherlands that Darkness Out of Blue had garnered Nergaard the Edison Award, the Dutch equivalent of the Grammy. The prize was presented to her by the Norwegian ambassador to the Netherlands at the Edison Music Awards Gala on November 6 in Eindhoven, during which Nergaard also performed the two songs from the album that Mendoza had arranged, backed by The Metropole Orchestra.The new and promising musical collaboration between them in Darkness led inevitably to Mendoza's involvement once again in Nergaard's latest studio project, A Thousand True Stories, which was released in Norway on February 9, 2009, and will be available internationally in the autumn. The songs from the album were written the previous year and recorded in August 2008 with The Metropole Orchestra from the Netherlands, and arranged by its conductor Mendoza.Here's a press kit video of A Thousand True Stories, with all interviews in English.Watch the making of Nergaard's latest project, A Thousand True Stories:video clip 1 (9:34) | video clip 2 (9:54)Official website: http:\/\/www.siljenergaard.comSilje on MySpace: http:\/\/www.myspace.com\/siljenergaardSilje on Facebook: click here","featuredImage":"https:\/\/assets.allamericanmusic.com\/images\/16718_h_0.jpg","feeRange":"please contact"}