Michelle Lordi

On her critically hailed 2015 album Drive, Michelle Lordi joined forces with pianist/arranger Orrin Evans, who produced the project and accompanied her on a program of emotionally taut ballads featuring an all star Philadelphia band. With her new album Dream a Little Dream, she delivers an intoxicating set of beloved standards with an illustrious cast of Philadelphia jazz veterans, including the storied tenor saxophonist Larry McKenna and guitarist Sonny Troy (who have played together since they met in South Philadelphia in Frankie Avalon's band in the late 1950s).

A singer blessed with a sumptuous voice, Michelle Lordi turns each musical encounter into an emotionally charged communion, creating an exhilarating circuit between her voice, her collaborators and the audience.

Whether she’s performing with Philadelphia or New York jazz legends, exploring experimental soundscapes, or delivering taut, mesmerizing pop ballads with pianist Orrin Evans, Lordi is looking for those moments of discovery when the unfolding musical narrative reveals something new and unexpected.

“An emotionally insightful performer with an arrestingly beautiful sound”-Andrew Gilbert, San Francisco Chronicle.

“Singer Michelle Lordi has released a notable CD in Drive…She is Julie London intimate, Straight forward, clear and appropriately dreamy. Even so she builds up tension…The backing is perfect across the board and Orrin Evans does some wonderful, almost haunting, reharmonizations on “I Fall In Love Too Easily”. A very pleasant and understated album.” -Robert Rusch/Cadence Magazine July 2015

“Lordi’s singing is reminiscent of Chet Baker’s minimalist style, allowing for exceptional rapport between her and her instrumentalists. She is rapidly gaining a reputation as one of the finest singers on the circuit today, and Drive is a further illustration of her remarkable talent.” -Victor L. Schermer/ All About Jazz March 2015

Michelle has performed at the Birchmere ( Alexandria, VA) BluJazz ( Akron, OH) Bop Stop (Cleveland,OH) Cliff Bell's ( Detroit, MI) Chris’ Jazz Café ( Philadelphia, PA) DazzleJazz (Denver, CO) Harlem Jazz (Barcelona, Spain) The Kimmel Center ( Philadelphia, PA) The Mann Music Center (Philadelphia, PA) Maureen's Jazz Cellar ( Nyack, NY) The Metropolitan Room (NYC) South Jazz Parlor ( Philadelphia, PA) SMOKE Jazz & Supper Club (NYC) and many other fine jazz festivals, art centers and musical venues.

Michelle is passionate about bringing generations of jazz fans and musicians together and has run one of Philadelphia’s best attended and successful weekly Jam Sessions at Vintage Bar & Grill in Abington, PA since September of 2014 with equal doses humor, professionalism and wonder.

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Album Review

Michelle Lordi Sings by Victor L. Schermer
Drive by Victor L. Schermer
Dream a Little Dream by Victor L. Schermer

"Michelle Lordi sings in a way that is uncommon today: simple, straightforward, direct, and conveying the emotions in the way we all do: in our voice inflections. No gimmicks. This is a style that emerged in the swing and cool jazz eras, a strict adherence to the tune that virtually vanished as singers began to add embellishments, scat, and too often a hysterical emotionality where personality crowded out the melody…Cool uncorrupted understatement that swings is a way to describe Lordi's vocal style in a nutshell. Her voice is clear and never shrill, her diction is flawless, and she uses almost no vibrato. So what you get is the pure unadulterated song." —Victor Shermer, All About Jazz