Mellow-Toned Vocalese Singer Giacomo Gates Swings into Town August 25-27
Giacomo Gates is a unique, powerful jazz singer, heavily steeped in the traditions of vocal improvisers from Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald through their modern counterparts, Betty Carter and Leon Thomas. While Gates' approach draws most heavily from the bebop-rooted masters like Jon Hendricks and, most of all, Eddie Jefferson, like those artists, Gates has forged a path of his own.
Giacomo Gates is a student of the music's great legacy, a fascination that seeps out of his performances. And Gates' warm, rhythmically challenging delivery is fueled by nuances of experience and emotion that come from his fascinating and unique life story.
Gates didn't begin singing in front of audiences until age 40. Before that, he'd lived a working class life, including 14 years in Alaska, driving trucks doing road construction and working on the Alaska pipeline. He always had a love of music, though, and he began performing in the late 80's. Encouraged by the musicians around him, and especially by late jazz writer Grover Sales, who saw Gates perform at a workshop, Gates finally returned to his native Connecticut in 1988 to focus on music full time.
Since then, Gates' career has blossomed, and he's played major U.S. clubs, New York's Birdland, the Five Spot and the Jazz Standard, Philadelphia's Zanzibar Blue, Blues Alley in D.C. and Snug Harbor in New Orleans, and a long list of festivals across the U.S, touring Europe as well. Add three popular CDs to the resume, as well. For Gates' Pearl's dates, his band will include trombonist John Gove (Friday and Sunday only), pianist Ben Flint, bassist Aaron Germaine and drummer Jeff Marrs.
Terese Genecco Salutes the Great Francis Faye on August 31
Terese Genecco came to prominence on the Bay Area music scene when she won Entertainer of the Year honors at the 2003 San Francisco Cabaret Competition. The fan-pleasing Genecco was soon a hit with nightclub audiences in the Bay Area and New York City alike. In 2005 she debuted her solo show, “Drunk with Love: A Tribute to Frances Faye" during a five-week run at San Francisco's New Conservatory Theatre. She now regularly plays high-profile venues in the Bay Area and New York, including the Plush Room and the ODC Theater in San Francisco, and Jazz@Lincoln Center, the Iridium, and the Metropolitan Room in New York.
Frances Faye was a fabulous, feisty nightclub/saloon singer who hit her peak in the late thirties in New York's swankiest supper clubs, and played to sold out crowds all over the world through the seventies, and was known as the Rat Pack's favorite nightclub singer. Genecco's pleasing style makes her just the performer to do justice to the music and legacy of this cherished, one-of-a-kind legend.
Genecco brings a high-energy jazz-concert version of “Drunk With Love" to Pearl's on August 31, backed by a swinging 8-piece ensemble, as she explores the improvisational, jazz dimension of the great songs that the indomitable Frances Faye made her own.
Ever Popular Jazz/Blues Diva Kim Nalley Opens September at Pearl's
Singer Kim Nalley's appearances onstage at Jazz at Pearl's have come to be much anticipated concerts for Bay Area locals and much sought out events for visitors, as well. Nalley combines a lithe, beautiful sound and compelling sense of swing with just enough saucy spark to create an instant and genuine rapport with her audience. What she delivers is a swinging evening of standards in the tradition of Billie Holiday, Joe Williams, Ella Fitzgerald and Nina Simone.
In fact, Kim Nalley topped the success of her 2003 CD, Need My Sugar, with this year's astounding She Put a Spell on Me, her powerful, heartfelt and hugely entertaining tribute to Simone. No secret to the music world at large, Kim Nalley has performed at most of the major Jazz festivals throughout the world, garnering rave reviews along the way, and performed with heavyweights from James Williams, Jimmy McGriff and Billy Higgins to Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony.
While Nalley has a semi-regular Tuesday night spot at Pearl's, and commands a large following for her tours across the U.S. and Europe, her weekend tenures in the North Beach nightspot have taken on a special buzz, attracting a happy mix of local jazz hounds and music loving tourists.
Jazz at Pearl's Special 2 for 1 All About Jazz Discount
Jazz at Pearl's is now offering the All About Jazz community a special 2 for 1 ticket deal for all shows, not including Saturday. AAJ community members who ask for the All About Jazz discount when purchasing tickets at the door, or who write All About Jazz Discount in the Comments field when purchasing tickets at www.jazzatpearls.com will receive half off the ticket price for all members of their parties. Jazz at Pearl's is an all ages club. Shows begin at 8:00 and 10:00 pm. Pearl's does have a 2-drink minimum.
For more information contact Rocket Words.
