Jazz Articles about Amy Cervini

About Amy Cervini

Album Review

A great party is never just an event. It is a sequence of emotions, encounters, expectations, surprises, fleeting romances, moments of reflection, and, ultimately, gratitude. On A Marvelous Party, Duchess (Amy Cervini, Hilary Gardner, Melissa Stylianou) transforms that universal experience into an irresistible jazz journey. More than a collection of standards and popular songs, this is a carefully conceived concept album that traces the cycle of a memorable gathering from invitation to farewell. Throughout the program, arranger Oded ...

Album Review

DUCHESS: Live At Jazz Standard

Read "Live At Jazz Standard" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
March 29, 2020

There are a fair number of vocal groups blending harmoniously and swinging through the jazz set today, but none are as charmingly sassy as DUCHESS. With two studio albums already under a collective belt—actually three, if you include an under-the-radar Christmas set—it only made sense for vocalists Amy Cervini, Hilary Gardner and Melissa Stylianou to finally show the greater listening community what Duchess does on the stage. Joining up with its regular rhythm section—pianist Michael Cabe, guitarist ...

Album Review

Amy Cervini: No One Ever Tells You

Read "No One Ever Tells You" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
June 15, 2018

As we mature, grow, and enter new phases of life, we constantly discover things that no one ever told us about. In those revelations, be they related to profession, partnership, or parenthood, the truth stands naked. Sometimes it's enlightening in its disrobing; other times it's mildly depressing in its unfolding; and on occasion, it's absolutely gut-wrenching in its explanatory entrance(s). Perhaps there's a reason no one ever tells us these things. But the truth is that the truth can't hide ...

Album Review

Amy Cervini: Jazz Country

Read "Jazz Country" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
January 28, 2014

This album title is something of a double entendre. It references the jazz community that surrounds the lady of the hour, but it's really about the nexus that exists between the two American-born forms of music that make up its name. Therefore, it could be said that Jazz Country is missing a hyphen, but that's about the only thing it's missing; in all other respects, this is a complete and beautiful work of art. Whether you call ...

Album Review

Amy Cervini: Digging Me Digging You

Read "Digging Me Digging You" reviewed by William Carey

by William Carey
January 20, 2012

It's funny hearing such signature Blossom Dearie songs as “Dear John" and the Schoolhouse Rock classic “Figure Eight" without that oh-so-identifiable voice and delivery. Funny, but Amy Cervini is a talented enough vocalist that it isn't the slightest bit distracting to not have that adorably individual style and delivery that is unmistakably Blossom Dearie. Cervini claims to be paying homage, not so much to her predecessor's specific work as a pianist or a vocalist, but to the choices ...

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Album Review

Amy Cervini: Lovefool

Read "Lovefool" reviewed by Andrew Velez

by Andrew Velez
January 19, 2010

For this recording songbird Amy Cervini drops ever so lightly upon songs on the theme of love. The sources are as varied as Jack Johnson and Depeche Mode, covering a broad spectrum of genres, styles and periods. The opener, “Bye-Bye Country Boy," recalls a sophisticate's brief pastoral dalliance. It's a tune that others are rediscovering now that Blossom Dearie, the previous owner, has passed on. Cervini's soprano is of firmer stuff than Dearie's, though her clarity and lyric touch are ...

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Album Review

Amy Cervini Quartet: Famous Blue

Read "Famous Blue" reviewed by Budd Kopman

by Budd Kopman
June 27, 2007

Famous Blue, by vocalist Amy Cervini and her quartet, is a marvelous example of the way jazz can be stretched to encompass almost any musical style. While many well-known jazz players are using pop or progressive rock tunes as the basis for improvisation, such as Greg Osby with the music of Bjork, there seems to be some kind of audible boundary that excludes this or that tune from being “jazzified." Whether it is the music's rhythm, its ...