Concord Jazz recording and performing vocalist with two recordings that hit the top twenty in USA jazz charts.
Recordings and performances
Her debut album, Let There Be Love, with Stan Getz on saxophone and
Eddie Duran (a Benny Goodman Band graduate) on guitar, was
released on the Concord Jazz label (CJ-206) as an LP for Valentine's
Day 1983. The record also featured prominent Bay Area musicians Al
Plank, Vince Lateano, and Dean Reilly. This album was posted in the top
ten in Radio and Records jazz airplay charts in the spring of 1983. Her
follow-up recording in 1985 of One by One (CJ-271), also on the
Concord Jazz label, reached number 13 on the Radio and Records jazz
airplay charts in early summer 1985. This album featured trumpeter
Tom Harrell along with Duran and Plank, and other Bay Area jazz
musicians. Let There Be Love was chosen as a BillBoard Magazine
Recommended LP Jazz Pick in their March 26, 1983 issue. Bell was
also nominated by Down beat magazine in their Jazz Critic's Poll of 1984
and 1985 as “Talent Deserving Wider Recognition”. BAM Magazine
nominated Let There Be Love as the Best Debut Album in their 1983
Awards.
Bell has performed around the US and internationally, appearing at the
Golden Globe Awards, the Russian River Jazz Festival, the Jazz in the
City Festival, the first and only Mill Valley Jazz Festival, the Napa Valley
Mustard Festival and the Cotati Jazz Festival, as well as television and
hotel performances.
Critical reception
Leonard Feather of the Los Angeles Times wrote in a 1985 article that
”Bell has a haunting, jazz-infected sound, her diction and phrasing
flawless.” Jay Roebuck at the Orange County Register chose One by
One as the third best album of 1985, stating that “Dee Bell sings with a
beautiful, clear voice that brings to mind Jackie Cain with just a touch of
Chris Connor here and there. It's a pleasant combination, and she
definitely has style of her own.” In the British Jazz Journal, Derrick-
Stewart Baxter also wrote in 1985 that “Dee Bell is more than just a good
professional. She knows just how to bring the best out in a song. She
does her own thing, lazy, hazy smoky singing.”
Personal life
Bell began playing music at home, where she grew up in a musical
family. She was first chair clarinet in the Plainfield High School band and
performed in an a cappella trio from age ten through to her senior year.
Bell graduated from Indiana University in December 1972 with a BS in
Art Education, lived on the edge of the Hoosier National Forest in a 2-
room cabin with a woodstove for heat, and was co-founder and head
chef of the Earth Kitchen vegetarian restaurant in Bloomington, Indiana
(the restaurant fostered the food cooperative and grocery store
Bloomingfoods).
Bell resides as of January 2009 in Mill Valley, California with her son and
husband. She continues to perform and write lyrics and music.
