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Rosana Eckert
With an international reputation in several facets of the world of media and entertainment, Rosana Eckert wears many hats as a versatile live and studio vocalist, a creative songwriter and arranger, a dynamic voiceover actor, and a master teacher of jazz and vocal technique. She has performed and recorded with many jazz luminaries, including Christian McBride, Lyle Mays, Bobby McFerrin, George Duke, Bill Mays, Jon Faddis, Marvin Stamm, and the New York Voices. Recently she was one of the three vocalists on "Eberhard," the Grammy Award-winning mini-symphony by legendary jazz pianist Lyle Mays, as well as a producer on the 2023 Grammy-nominated recording of “How Deep Is Your Love” by vocal group Kings Return. Performing regularly with her own bands and projects, Rosana's critically acclaimed album Sailing Home was praised as "bright and innovative" (AllAboutJazz) and “alluring” (Jazz Weekly). In 2021, her Brazilian jazz fusion band, Brasuka, released their highly acclaimed debut album of original songs titled A Vida Com Paixão. Lauded as “addictively joyful” (Exclusive Magazine) and "positively infectious" (The Big Takeaway), the album received 4 stars in Downbeat Magazine and All About Jazz.com and made it on several "Best of 2021" music lists. Rosana has also been featured with the Mike Steinel Quintet on the album Song and Dance and with the multi-media jazz novel/cd/audiobook project Saving Charlie Parker.
Formerly an accomplished French horn player, Rosana began singing jazz while in college at the University of North Texas, later becoming the first woman hired to their esteemed jazz faculty in 1999. Since then, Rosana has helped build the UNT vocal jazz program into one of the best in the world. A renowned arranger, she has published many vocal arrangements and created various educational resources for all levels, from elementary school singers to professionals. Her book, Singing with Expression: A Guide to Authentic and Adventurous Song Interpretation, has been praised as an unparalleled resource for contemporary singers.
In addition to her extensive performing, writing, arranging, and teaching, Rosana works regularly as a studio vocalist, producer, and voice-over actor. She is the in-house voice for the award-winning PBS TV station in Dallas, KERA, and she can be heard singing or speaking on hundreds of commercials, industrial videos, album projects, publishing demos, and radio IDs heard around the world.
Awards
2025 - Jazz Innovator Award - D'Jam (Dallas Jazz Appreciation Month)
2023 - Grammy Nominated Song "How Deep Is your Love" by Kings Return (co-producer)
2022 - Grammy Award Winner - Best Instrumental Composition "Eberhard" by Lyle Mays (vocalist)
2010 - Grammy Nominated Album - VOCABuLarieS by Bobby McFerrin (vocalist)
2006 Independent Music Awards - Finalist, Best Jazz Album
2000 Thelonious Monk Jazz Aspen Snowmass
1999 IAJE "Sisters in Jazz" Collegiate Sextet
Tags
Brasuka: A Vida Com Paixão
by Katchie Cartwright
The big lockdown buried a lot of music that was ready to roll when Covid struck in 2020. Tours and gigs were canceled, album launches fizzled. Some of us are still discovering good sounds we missed out on. These include Brasuka's debut album, which arrived several years post lockdown in a large packet of CDs sent by the group's publicist, stamped with an October 8 street date. Who knew that meant October of 2021? Nevertheless... The name Brasuka ...
Continue ReadingRob Parton's Ensemble 9+: Relentless
by Jack Bowers
Rob Parton, who once led the Chicago area's marvelous JazzTech big band, has since moved on to other pursuits, namely mentoring the next generation of jazz trumpeters at the stellar University of North Texas Jazz Lab in Denton. Having released eleven widely acclaimed albums with the JazzTech band, Parton has pared the lineup to nine (plus) on Relentless, enlisting the skills and talents of colleagues at UNT and drawing on the large talent pool of first-call musicians in the Dallas-Fort ...
Continue ReadingRob Parton's Ensemble 9+: Relentless
by Troy Dostert
After many years in the Windy City, most notably as the leader of the JazzTech Big Band, trumpeter Rob Parton wanted a change of scenery, which brought him to the University of North Texas, where he joined the faculty in 2019. And of course, that meant he now had the opportunity to work with lots of premium large-ensemble talent, as the college has been an incubator for big-band jazz for decades. Many of Parton's colleagues from UNT and other stalwarts ...
Continue ReadingBrasuka: A Vida Com Paixão
by Chris M. Slawecki
Brasuka first came together as a side project, led by keyboardist and vocalist Rosana Eckert and percussionist Ricardo Bozas, from out of a Sergio Mendes tribute band. You can still hear these roots in this full-length debut. But you can also hear where and how Brasuka's sound branches out into different styles and frameworks and yet retain the warm, inviting and bright sound of their original inspiration. Eckert's lead vocal on the title track to A Vida Com ...
Continue ReadingLyle Mays: Eberhard
by Mario Calvitti
La prematura scomparsa di Lyle Mays nel febbraio 2020 ha privato il mondo di uno straordinario musicista, troppo poco considerato al di fuori dell'importantissimo contributo da lui dato all'interno del Pat Metheny Group, dove ha rappresentato l'ideale complemento del chitarrista dal 1977 al 2010 prima di decidere di abbandonare definitivamente la scena musicale per dedicarsi professionalmente al mondo del software, un altro dei suoi numerosi interessi. Se i periodi trascorsi a fianco di Pat Metheny ne hanno ...
Continue ReadingLyle Mays: Eberhard
by John Kelman
When pianist, keyboardist, synthesist and composer Lyle Mays passed away at the far too young age of 66 following a long battle with a recurring (but, to this day, undisclosed) illness in February 2020, it was a major loss for his fans. It was an especially deep body blow to those who'd followed his decades-long work as performer and compositional collaborator with Pat Metheny in the guitarist's critically and commercially acclaimed Pat Metheny Group. Mays had been largely ...
Continue ReadingRosana Eckert: Sailing Home
by C. Michael Bailey
Rosana Eckert has made a name for herself as a jazz vocals composer and arranger with her previous recordings, At The End Of The Day (GEM Records, 2003) and Small Hotel (GEM Records, 2010). Bright and imaginative, Eckert draws from a lifetime of music beginning with her childhood in El Paso, Texas, where the musical melting pot was richly seasoned with American, Hispanic, and European influences. Educated at the notable music school, the University of North Texas, she went on ...
Continue ReadingRosana Eckert Offers Diverse Array Of Song Stylings On "Sailing Home," Set For June 21 Release By OA2/Origin Records
Source:
Terri Hinte Publicity
Vocalist-composer Rosana Eckert channels her eclectic musical influences into a similarly eclectic collection of tunes on her long-awaited fourth album, Sailing Home, set for a June 21 release on OA2/Origin Records. The album is a collaboration with Peter Eldridge, the highly sought-after vocalist, songwriter, and keyboardist, who in addition to producing and playing keyboards on the album cowrote three of its 11 tunes. Eckert (and Eldridge) also wrote with her husband Gary Eckert, a poet, composer, and multi-instrumentalist who plays ...
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Reviews for Sailing Home - Released on Origin Records 2019
"...a deep feeling for putting across a song is at the core of these heartfelt and occasionally surprising vocal performances... there's a studied yet ethereal focus to 'Someone Else's Life' and some fun and funk on the New Orleans-styled romp 'Coriander Stomp'." - Denise Sullivan, Downbeat Magazine
"Bright and imaginative... She has a giving and generous musical personality that manifests in her broad format and genre palette... Eckert sings wordlessly, scatting in and out of the musical celebration, which is a good way to describe the entire recording."--C. Michael Bailey, AllAboutJazz.com
"Innocent voiced...she can produce a mood that is soft and mellow as on ‘Blue Flower,’ ethereal and folksy on ‘Someone Else's Life’ and even gets bohemian on a reggae'd 'Waiting.' Alluring and well-dressed."
-- George W. Harris, Jazz Weekly
Primary Instrument
Vocals
Location
Dallas
Willing to teach
Intermediate to advanced
Credentials/Background
Vocal Jazz Faculty, University of North Texas has also served on faculty of: UNT Summer Vocal Jazz Workshop Jamey Aebersold Summer Jazz Camp Texas All Star Jazz Camp Speech Level Singing Summer Vocal Program, Los Angeles
Clinic/Workshop Information
"Finding Your Voice” This clinic focuses on the journey toward individuality and personal expression: Discovery, Imitation, and Creation. Rosana takes students through these steps: Deep and thoughtful listening Successful transcription and imitation (both technical and stylistic) Personal application, delivering a song’s message honestly and without preconception
Ellie Martin
vocals
Song Dynasty
band / ensemble / orchestraPhotos
Music
Videos
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