Jazz Articles about Rebecca Parris

Rebecca Parris: 1951-2018

by C. Michael Bailey
June 22, 2018

You'll happen my way on some mem'rable day And the month will be May for a while... I was never fortunate enough to have met Rebecca Parris in person; but, I was fortunate enough to live in and be a part of the musical universe that surrounded her. That universe was created by the singer through her recordings, performances, and instruction of aspiring vocalists, each who went on to become part of the creative galaxy that ...

The Jazz Ballad Gauntlet: Rebecca Parris and Beat Kaestli

by C. Michael Bailey
March 30, 2014

bal * lad :noun \'ba-ləd\ A slow popular song that is typically about love. The ballad remains one of the most durable vehicles in any music genre. In jazz, it is a make-or-break format capable of revealing the haves and haves not in the jazz vocals department. There have been many nonpareil jazz ballad singers, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald and Shirley Horn immediately come to mind. Among the men are Frank Sinatra, ...

Rebecca Parris: You Don't Know Me

by Donald Elfman
November 9, 2007

It's about time somebody said it--Rebecca Parris is the real thing. Her voice speaks of years of experience but her melodic and harmonic inventiveness, rhythmic playfulness and different way with a lyric are all eternally young and new. You Don't Know Me, on a new label, is a rich and full program of tunes from our American Songbook--with a Brazilian evergreen thrown in for good, very good, measure. The voice is perhaps darker than it has been ...

Rebecca Parris: You Don't Know Me

by Tom Pierce
February 19, 2007

How does a singer ensure that there's sufficient variety on a fifteen-song record that the attention of even a passionate jazz vocal fan doesn't wander? You Don't Know Me, the tenth recording that Rebecca Parris has appeared on, represents yet another successful response by the revered Boston-area vocalist to this challenge.

The album features two powerfully expressive tenor saxophonists (Houston Person and Jerry Bergonzi) on various tracks. They clearly project the type of strong instrumental voice which is capable of ...

Rebecca Parris: You Don't Know Me

by C. Michael Bailey
January 24, 2007

Should you peruse Boston-based jazz vocalist Rebecca Parris's website, you're treated to photographs of Parris with some notable jazz artists, including Carol Sloane, Carmen McRae and Shirley Horn. If you glance at the links page, you'll note Parris's obvious friendship with the likes of the great Nancy King and Patti Wicks. It is in this heady company where Rebecca Parris belongs, front and center. Parris has a couple of major things in common with these artists to support this: one, ...

Rebecca Parris: My Foolish Heart

by AAJ Staff
January 20, 2003

With the winds of an international distributor behind her once more, Boston’s undisputed queen of jazz is ready to set sail for farther shores in her continuing conquest of deserving ears and willing hearts. Forgoing her signature scat and energizing pacings, Parris uses her fireplace voice to warm and warn herself and her fellow lovers before they venture forth once more into the romantic unknown. While “Never Let Me Go" plaintively pleads for known security, “If You Could See Me ...

Rebecca Parris: The Secret of Christmas

by C. Michael Bailey
November 15, 2002

Aural Brandy Eggnog...

Rebecca Parris slips into the opening “Silver Bells" like it was a plush and cozy mink coat tailored especially for her. Her sumptuously virile alto voice coaxes visions of bustling Christmas Eve sidewalks beneath a gentle snowfall while skating over a light Latin groove established and maintained by her working trio of pianist Brad Hatfield (or George Mesterhazy), bassist John Lockwood (or Peter Kontrimas), and drummer Matt Gordy. This heady highball Ms. Parris mixes throughout her very ...