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L'Tanya Mari'

About Me

Well respected on the East Coast as an inventive jazz singer, arranger, songwriter and educator, L'Tanya Mari's much-anticipated debut CD as a leader, A Teardrop of Sun is due to be release early 2009. The project is an eclectic mixture of songs that include fresh versions of standards along with numbers that are lesser-known but quite worthy, ranging from straightahead jazz to bossa novas, sambas, blues and modern fusion. “Of the standards, I particularly love 'You Go To My Head,' says L'Tanya. “It connects with and means a lot to many people even though it is decades old. It tells a story that is still relevant and has a life of its own, qualities that I hope are true of all of the songs that I perform.”

L'Tanya Mari', who grew up in Philadelphia, has always been surrounded by jazz. “I remember hearing Charlie Parker's recording of 'April In Paris' early on. Noticing that I was resonating more with fusion in my teen years, my father tried to tip the scales a bit by buying me some of the earlier recordings of Sarah, Ella and Carmen. That did it! By the time I was 17, I was out at record stores looking for other jazz vocal albums.”

Early signs seemed to indicate L'Tanya was going to be an instrumentalist, as she studied cello for seven year and then added piano into the mix,