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Susie Meissner

A major jazz and swing singer, Susie Meissner always seems to have a smile in her voice. In addition to her very appealing tone and impeccable musicianship, the enthusiasm that she displays when she performs is infectious. She always swings and is an excellent improviser yet the lyrics that she interprets are very important to her. "When I perform a song," says Susie, "I want to express the emotions of the words so the listener is experiencing the lyrics the way that the writer intended. I'm never casual about the lyrics." Her skill at reviving and revitalizing classic songs is very much in evidence throughout her finest recording, Tea For Two.

Since the New York-based Susie Meissner also performs regularly in Philadelphia, particularly at Chris' Jazz Café, for her latest recording she decided to feature some of Philly's best jazz musicians along with a few guests. Heard along the way are such greats as tenor-saxophonist Larry McKenna (a Philadelphia legend), valve trombonist John Swana, trumpeter Freddie Hendrix, guitarist Paul Meyers and clarinetist Ken Peplowski plus the superb rhythm section of pianist John Shaddy, bassist Lee Smith and drummer Dan Monaghan.

There are many highpoints to Tea For Two. The title cut displays the singer's beautiful voice at a slow tempo (her long tones are special) and is a very intimate and exquisite performance with Ken Peplowski. "It was complete magic when Ken was there. Recording 'Tea For Two' with him was a moving experience." Such songs as "Mean To Me" "Just You, Just Me" (a duet with bassist Smith), the touching "Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out To Dry" and a fetching "Crazy He Calls Me" are among the many other highlights. "Laura" has particularly beautiful ballad singing along with an atmospheric solo by John Swana on the EVI (electronic valve instrument). "Moonlight Saving Time" (recorded by Blossom Dearie and back in the 1930s by Annette Hanshaw) is both obscure and charming while the closing medley of two Irving Berlin songs ("Say It Isn't So" and "Always") finds the singer being quietly emotional. "I love all of these songs which are very much of the moment while being timeless."

"As a child I was always singing," remembers Susie. Her grandmother played stride piano and her family was very fond of show tunes. "My grandmother's sheet music with beautiful works of illustrated cover art caught my attention. I also explored the records in my grandfather's New Orleans collection early on." Susie, who grew up in Buffalo, had piano and vocal lessons and sang in school choirs and musicals. She became interested in jazz after seeing performances by guitarist Kenny Burrell, pianist Earl Hines and singer Nancy Wilson. When she was 17, Susie became a professional singer, performing the music from shows such as Hello Dolly and Anything Goes in regional and dinner theater. She learned a countless number of songs from the Great American Songbook (Irving Berlin, Lerner & Loewe, Frank Loesser and Cole Porter became some of her favorite composers) and gained experience performing jazz in nightclubs.

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Album Review

Susie Meissner: I Wish I Knew

Read "I Wish I Knew" reviewed by Jack Bowers


I wish I knew why the talented Philadelphia-based singer Susie Meissner chose to open her salute to the Great American Songbook with the only tune on the album that doesn't really qualify: Curtis Lewis' “The Great City." It's not a bad song but Cole Porter or Johnny Mandel it ain't. On the bright side, Meissner recovers quickly on the fourth album under her name with a burnished rendition of the title theme, a memorable composition by the legendary Hollywood songwriting ...

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Album Review

Susie Meissner: I Wish I Knew

Read "I Wish I Knew" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


Over the past decade and three previous recordings, Philadelphia-based vocalist Susie Meissner has crafted an intelligently conceived and thoughtfully paced survey of the Great American Songbook. Meissner's considerations of the standard jazz repertoire, in concert with pianist John Shaddy's sturdy arrangements and educated performance manner, have emerged, evolving from chaste and reverent beginnings, into rich and supple layerings of stylistic and technical outreach with each subsequent recording. Meissner's debut, I'll Remember April (Lydian Jazz, 2009), emerged as a ...

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Album Review

Susie Meissner: Tea for Two

Read "Tea for Two" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


Natural but determined evolution makes for well conceived and produced projects. Vocalist Susie Meissner has proved this statement as she progressed from her debut recording I'll Remember April (Lydian Jazz, 2009), through her sophomore effort, I'm Confessin' (Lydian Jazz, 2011) to the present Tea for Two. Using a well-worn repertoire, Meissner, mostly with the support of pianist John Shaddy and his regular rhythm section (bassist Lee Smith and drummer Dan Monaghan), has steadily moved from solid, if not predictable, arrangements ...

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Album Review

Susie Meissner: I'll Remember April

Read "I'll Remember April" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


Philadelphia-based vocalist Susie Meissner has been surveying the Great American Songbook for the past decade and some. Her approach is uncomplicated, using simple head arrangements, presenting the songs that made Tin Pan Alley noteworthy in a straightforward and authentic fashion, and recalling the original intentions of the composers. Hers is an archival and entertainment endeavor not unlike Linda Ronstadt's swing with Nelson Riddle, which resulted in What's New (Asylum, 1983), Lush Life (Asylum, 1984), and For Sentimental Reasons (Asylum, 1986), ...

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Album Review

Susie Meissner: I’m Confessin’

Read "I’m Confessin’" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


On vocalist Susie Meissner's previous recording, I'll Remember April (Self Produced, 2008), the singer staked out the center of the middle of the road stylistically. Her repertoire was from the most popular sections of The Great American Songbook, dispatched tastefully in her well-balanced high alto. Dedicated to the melody, Meissner is clearly not one given to vocal fireworks, preferring to honor the composer's original intentions. I'm Confessin' picks up where I'll Remember April left off, adding the ...

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Recording

Susie Meissner Releases New Jazz CD "I'll Remember April"

Susie Meissner Releases New Jazz CD "I'll Remember April"

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services

New York, New York-June 8, 2009--Susie Meissner began performing professionally with a dinner theatre group in the mid-70s earning a paltry $7 a night. The education she received during that tenure goes beyond anything tangible. Prior to that sojourn her lifetime love for jazz and great songwriters began in her youth by exploring that wonderful world through the recordings of Nancy Wilson, Joe Williams, Ella Fitzgerald, and Billie Holiday. Then once Susie was exposed to the genius of Cole Porter, ...

“Might as well confess! Susie Meissner can really sing!" Jazz Inside NY

"Fresh reads of enduring standards" Jazziz

"Shows off Meissner’s warm alto at its swinging fullest.” All About Jazz

A gifted stylist of the jazz idiom... this is simply a top notch, sophisticated and heartfelt gig.” Grady Harp, LA

"picks at the essence of a song, but with insight and excellent diction." The International Association of Jazz Record Collectors (IARJC Journal),

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

I Wish I Knew

Lydian Jazz
2020

buy

Tea for Two

Self Produced
2015

buy

I’m Confessin’

Lydian Jazz Records
2011

buy

I'll Remember April

Lydian Jazz Records
2009

buy

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