Jazz Articles

Judi Silvano: Cleome: Live Takes

by Jim Santella
October 9, 2008

Judi Silvano’s improvising quartet, Cleome, dares to push with a unique air as her voice melds with the ensemble’s three instrumental sounds in an uproar of motion. Making its flexible journey through space and revealing her extended range, the leader’s voice pierces like a soprano bullet that ricochets through the room in random patterns. Her vocal arrangements make musical sense, however, as she carries each melodic pattern in partnership with saxophonist George Garzone in an outré display that ...

Judi Silvano: Women's Work: Live at Sweet Rhythm

by Suzanne Lorge
September 13, 2007

Each year since 2003 vocalist Judi Silvano has presented a concert featuring the music of female jazz composers during Women's History Month in March. In 2006 she recorded this effort live at New York City's Sweet Rhythm and the result is Women's Work, a collection of eleven inviting songs written by Abbey Lincoln, Blossom Dearie, Sheila Jordan, Bessie Smith and Silvano herself, among others.

Silvano used only female musicians for her band--Janice Friedman (piano), Jennifer Vincent (bass) and Allison Miller ...

Judi Silvano: Women's Work: Live at Sweet Rhythm

by Michael P. Gladstone
August 12, 2007

Jazz singer Judi Silvano is the wife of tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano and she has appeared on some of his Blue Note albums, including Viva Caruso (2002), Celebrating Sinatra (1996) and Universal Language (1992), with a rather operatic vocalese style.

Silvano began recording under her own name on Blue Note with Vocalese (1996) and then with her own JSL Label which has released several albums including Songs I Wrote or Wish I Wrote (2000), Sound Garden: Spirit Music ...

Judi Silvano and Mal Waldron: Riding a Zephyr

by Dan McClenaghan
November 1, 2002

She's been flirting with us, Judi Silvano has, these past few years. Her wordless vocalese on the Joe Lovano/Gunther Schuller masterpiece, Rush Hour ; and again on Joe Lovano's fine Celebrating Sinatra CD from '96; and more recently on James Emery's gorgeous and overlooked Fourth World. Great sounds, but sideperson roles; not enough of Judi Silvano.The flirtation is not by design, though. She's given us our shot at romance with three memorable CDs of her own that somehow ...

Judi Silvano: Songs I Wrote or Wish I Did

by David Adler
March 1, 2001

Judi Silvano brings her sparkling, high-register voice to bear on an interesting collection of original and non-original songs. She is joined by an equally interesting mix of players: Larry Goldings on organ, the underexposed Vic Juris on guitar, Essiet Essiet on bass, and Victor Lewis on drums, with tenorist/husband Joe Lovano guesting on two tracks. Of the originals, “Listen to This" and “Climbin’ the Peak" feature wordless vocal lines and quasi-operatic scat choruses that set Silvano apart from today’s crowd ...

Judi Silvano: Song I Wrote Or Wish I Did

by Mark Corroto
January 1, 2001

The title ‘jazz vocalist’ conjures some scary images as we begin the twenty-first century. Gone are the giants of song, Holiday, Torme, Fitzgerald, Vaughn, Hartman, and Carter. The current crop, for the most part, are pop singers who manipulate their voice into some strange and contrived ways (and I’m not naming names). What is missing is a pure voice, the vocalist as instrumentalist.

Like the classically trained pianist turned jazz soloist, Judi Silvano comes from a composing and arranging background ...

Judi Silvano: Vocalise

by Jim Santella
May 1, 1997

Singer Judi Silvano studied dance and music at Temple University and began collaborating with other East Coast jazz musicians in the late 1970s. With the major influence of Ella Fitzgerald in her early years, Silvano mixes classical, jazz, mainstream and free jazz styles. In the liner notes to Vocalise, she writes, “beautiful music and good technique go beyond any style." Silvano's first release as a leader presents a well-rounded set in many styles, with support from Vic Juris on guitars, ...