Jazz Articles about Mercedes Nicole

About Mercedes Nicole

Take Five With...

Take Five with Mercedes Nicole

by AAJ Staff
August 16, 2016

About Mercedes Nicole Soft-spoken Mercedes Nicole has an intimate and alluring stage presence that reaches out beyond the limits of time and space. Her voice is haunting and arresting, wrapping itself like a comforter around the human experience, encouraging uplift, seeking not only triumph but healing. She is that exquisite mix of a Mezzo-Soprano & Contralto blend that permeates and interrupts one's thoughts. Often with uncanny control...she lingers. Her own compositions acknowledge life's obscure and melancholy moments ...

Album Review

Mercedes Nicole: People Are Talking

Read "People Are Talking" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
May 28, 2015

The difference between Mercedes Nicole's Beautiful Alignment (Self Produced, 2013) and People Are Talking is artistic growth and confidence. Beautiful Alignment was fueled by a youthful ambition and precocious talent. Nicole's evolution from that point manifests squarely in the refining fire of performance and practice, both which enhance her existing gift. People Are Talking reveals mature, completely polished approach to standards and originals that offers more than a recapitulation of previous approaches. Nicole's standards choices are a ...

Album Review

Mercedes Nicole: Beautiful Alignment

Read "Beautiful Alignment" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
June 27, 2013

Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn and Nina Simone all make appearances in the biography of Seattle-based singer Mercedes Nicole. She has been a creative face in jazz since the turn of the century, writing, producing and performing tributes to Simone, Etta James, and Dinah Washington. With Beautiful Alignment, Nicole debuts on disc with a collection of songs reflecting her preferences and influences as well as her own original view of jazz vocals. Leading a trumpet-fronted quartet, ...