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Elaine Dame
Elaine Dame is a Chicago-based jazz vocalist, flautist, band leader and teacher
About Me
Jazz dynamo Dame continues to be a gem in the city's vocal jazz scene. -TimeOut Chicago, Oct. 09'
Dame possesses all the musicality you could want in a true jazz vocalist - centered intonation, an enviable
command of rhythm and a translucent but powerful instrument.
-Neil Tesser, Author, Playboy Guide to Jazz, December, 2010
Elaine studied music and theatre at Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA and in California State Northridges’ two-year
intensive Theatre Repertory Program. Inspired to become a jazz singer by a book called, The Artist's Way, Elaine has
been a mainstay on the Chicago jazz scene since 1997 and has performed at over 200 venues in and around Chicago
and the midwest, appearing at The Fairmont Hotel (where she was in residency for sixteen months), The Jazz
Showcase, Andy's Jazz Club and Winter's Jazz Club, just to name a few. In fact, Neil Tesser, author of The Playboy
Guide to Jazz, said this about Elaine: Dame has quietly risen to the top ranks of Chicago jazz singers.
When she is not performing, Elaine is a private vocal jazz instructor. Elaine has been teaching privately for the last
thirteen years and was recently a teaching artist (scatting workshops) at Orbert Davis’ Chicago Jazz Philharmonic
Summer Jazz Academy. Elaine has also conducted master classes and clinics at Minneapolis Public Schools and The
Chicago Academy for the Arts.
In 2005, her self-produced debut recording, Comes Love, was released to wide critical acclaim and worldwide radio
play on Chicago’s own blujazz record label. The album features an all-star Chicago rhythm section: pianist Jeremy
Kahn, bassist Rob Amster and drummer Tim Davis, as well as Art Davis (trumpet), Dave Onderdonk (guitar) and the
late, great Johnny Frigo (violin).
Her sophomore recording, You're My Thrill, was released in 2014, and has garnered rave reviews. Elaine is currently
planning her 3rd recording, which will feature jazz arrangements of her favorite music from the 70's.
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Ms. Dame continues to tour nationally and has headlined jazz clubs from coast to coast.
Notable venues include:
The Rainbow Room - New York
The Metropolitan Club - New York
The Triad Theater - New York
Upstairs at Vitello's - Los Angeles
Herb Alpert's Vibrato Jazz Grill - Los Angeles
The Jazz Estate - Milwaukee
The Dunsmore Room at Crooner's Lounge - Minneapolis
C Grace - Raleigh
Tula's Jazz Club - Seattle
Cliff Bells - Detroit
Merriman's Playhouse - South Bend
Noce Jazz Club - Des Moines
The Kerrytown Concert House - Ann Arbor
Selected Press:
“From the start, it was apparent that Dame offered optimism, enthusiasm, and joy for both her partners and the jazz
standards they played together. This musical attitude was just as appealing as her considerable vocal and flute
playing skills...her intelligent phrasing proves she actually listens to the lyrics that she sings...a resounding musical
success...”
~ Chicago Jazz Magazine
“Blessed with such purity of sound that clarions could take lessons, Dame expresses wide open honesty, and her
clarity is matched note for note by her imagination...”
~ Jazz Times
”And artist who truly wants to sing and has dug deep down to do it. Dame’s first CD is very smooth and stylish. Every
track is note perfect… an intimate, personal style…interpretation is clearly her forte, she shapes a song like she’s
been doing it for years… Dame delivers the perfect twists and turns on every phrase, swinging from a whisper to a
husky wail with confidence and panache”
~ Jazzreview.com
“a clear and powerful voice along with the ability to improvise with subtlety…an excellent scat singer…beautiful
tone”
~ All Music Guide
“…a winning stage presence and a chameleon-like vocal flexibility”
~ The Chicago Reader
“Dame’s cool alto voice fits nicely with her instrumental support”
~ Cadence Magazine
Like clarified honey, her voice combines a hearty sweetness and a welcome translucence, and they enjoy a
complimentary balance.”
~ Neil Tesser Author, “The Playboy Guide to Jazz,” and host of “Listen Here,” NPR’s Jazz Review
“Her joy in the act of singing is obvious throughout the entirety of “Comes Love.” Dame combines a freshness of
approach, like the unpredictability of shifting meters Used to insert tension and increase the excitement of
“Yesterdays,” with an unaffected fondness for the music she sings. That fondness is evident in the unadorned respect
she pays for a classic song like “What’ll I Do?” The result is a clear-eyed approach to her material that remains
accessible to a broad cross section of listeners, potentially enlarging the audience for jazz.”
~ Jazz Improv Magazine
Dame has quietly risen to the top ranks of Chicago jazz singers, with a light and cheerful timbre and musicality that
allows her to improvise things most singers shouldn't even try
~ Neil Tesser, Author Playboy Guide to Jazz
www.elainedame.com