Results for "Jazz Singer"

Tony Hightower

Singer/Songwriter Tony Hightower is taking up the mantle to be a bridge that ushers R&B audiences into Jazz…Real Jazz. With years of experience as a musical performer and actor with familiar roots that place him firmly within the music’s firmament, Atlanta-native Hightower is still just getting started on this benevolent turn in his journey. And he is bringing a lot of young people with him.

His sophomore project, LEGACY, finds Hightower exploring Jazz vocal stylings from a dazzling prism of angles. The 10-song album moves confidently and assuredly from original compositions such as the soulful scat-laced “All to the Good,” the seductive Brazilian bossa nova of “Rendezvous” and the tender carnal Jarreau-esque love beg “I Need You” to swingin’ covers of Earth, Wind & Fire’s classic Skip Scarborough-penned “Can’t Hide Love,” a mean shuffle boogie groove through Al Green’s “Love and Happiness” and a smoldering upright bass accompanied tiptoe through the 1929 Andy Razaf standard “Gee, Baby, Ain’t I Good To You” made further famous in 1944 by one of Hightower’s greatest and earliest Jazz vocal heroes, Nat “King” Cole. That one’ll make the women wiggle.

“I didn’t have a choice about doing this music,” Hightower confesses. “My mother, Theresa Hightower, lived her life onstage. She was a fiery and versatile vocal pro by age 16 and had me when she was 19. So, you could say I’ve been performing since the womb.” And though he did not know his father, Ralph Baker, well, the man’s DNA pulsed within his being as Hightower inherited the percussionist’s keen sense of fascinating rhythm, which led to Tony’s first pro gig at age 14 playing drums in the stage band for “The Dinah Washington Story” at the 14th Street Playhouse.

Growing up in Atlanta with a local legend mother who was a Funk-Rock singer but could sing anything and mentored many singers coming behind her, Tony learned music first-hand from Bobby Blue Bland and the Platters to Mother’s Finest, S.O.S. Band and Brick. And as mother Theresa evolved as a first-class singer - shifting her focus to Jazz that resulted in her historic residency at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in once fiercely segregated Buckhead. GA - so, too, did Tony’s taste begin to broaden. The artist that Theresa followed at The Ritz: Freddy Cole, Nat’s brother.

Aubrey Johnson

Aubrey Johnson is a New York-based jazz vocalist, composer, and educator. Her debut record, Unraveled, featuring her original music and arrangements and produced by Steve Rodby (Pat Metheny Group), was released on Outside In Music in 2020. Play Favorites, her duo album with the pianist Randy Ingram was released on Sunnyside Records in 2022. A third studio album, The Lively Air, featuring Aubrey’s compositions and arrangements was will be released in March 2026 on Greenleaf Records. Among the 50+ albums Aubrey has appeared on as a sideperson are Bobby McFerrin’s Grammy-nominated release, VOCAbuLaries, Arturo O'Farrill's Grammy Award-winning album Four Questions, and Lyle Mays’ Grammy Award-winning Eberhard (on which she also served as executive producer.) 

Anna Elizabeth Kendrick

Born: May 18

Anna Elizabeth Kendrick is a modern day old-fashioned jazz songbird and composer. She revisits the spirit of the earlier decades of the last century in her song-writing and singing style, particularly embracing the 30's, 40's and 50's.

Anna is thrilled to announce that her 3rd jazz album "Almost LIke Being In Love" was released on May 9th of 2025! It is an album of 10 classic jazz standards that she loves very much and performs frequently in her shows. There are a limited amount of CD's made up of her new album as well. "Almost Like Being In Love" was For Your Consideration in the Best Traditional Pop Vocal album category for the 1st round voting of the 68th Grammys.

Deanne Matley

Canadian vocalist Deanne Matley has many superpowers. Trained as a jazz vocalist, she brings a sensual style, a stunning emotional range, and a deep connection with her audience to everything she sings. She’s made a name for herself across Canada and beyond with her dynamic, knock ‘em dead performances with combos of all sizes and singles and albums ranging from standards to pop to Christmas favourites. Deanne, a flexible performer with an eclectic repertoire in English and French, has wowed audiences at clubs and festivals in Canada, France, and even Mongolia. She’s shared the stage with jazz greats including Larry Koonse, Bryan Lynch, Matt Catingub, Tommy Banks and Al Kay, has been featured in Downbeat magazine and is a featured artist on ICI Musique (CBC Quebec)

Maria Schafer

Born: October 6

With a twinkle in her eye and a dazzling, velveteen voice well-informed by the Great American Songbook, singer Maria Schafer presents a contemporary jazz voice for the 21st century. She has performed in some of the biggest jazz festivals and venues in North America, Europe, and Japan while firmly establishing a home base in Los Angeles.

Two years spent touring full-time as the star female vocalist of the international Glenn Miller Orchestra have cultivated an alluring and honest stage presence, while her albums To Know Love and No Broken Hearts garner weekly airplay on international and domestic jazz radio stations alike, including L.A.'s KKJZ 88.1.

Judith Nijland

Born: February 2

Judith is a jazz singer and composer. She likes to create stories and songs. And her concerts are little journeys with food for thought and a lasting smile. FROM CLASSICAL LANGUAGES TO JAZZ Judith is music. Starting at a young age she participated in talent shows with her own songs. The piano at home is often played and used for private try outs and classical lessons. After graduating in Greek and Latin, Judith studied Jazz at the Royal Conservatory in the Hague. She now mainly focusses on writing her own material and creating new versions of old songs. Jazz remains her true love. VOICE AND PERFORMANCE Her clear and warm voice with a wide range is very flexible

Shawnn Monteiro

Exciting, captivating and completely distinctive” is how most jazz cognoscenti describe Shawnn's pulsating lyric style. Whether in the intimacy of a club date or the glitter of a Las Vegas showroom, Shawnn has delighted audiences from USA to Europe with her highly popular jazz repertoire laced with blues-oriented improvisations. Evident in Shawnn's liveliness of lyrical phrasing and intermittent scat variations is the influences of Carmen McRae and Sarah Vaughan, from whom she draws that inner core of creative energy. But good genes help, too. Shawnn's father was the late renowned bassist Jimmy Woode, veteran of the Duke Ellington band

Kristen Mather de Andrade

Born: December 29

New York-based artist Kristen Mather de Andrade has immersed herself in a broad array of musical worlds and cultures, from the classical canon to world music, and beyond. Devoting time to both the worlds of clarinet and voice, Mather de Andrade has enjoyed a career of prime accolades and acclaim within her chosen musical paths, but these days music feels as vital as ever as she explores being a solo artist. This fresh outlet of releasing her own recorded music has been transformative, as Kristen is already releasing her sophomore album As Bright As The Skies Are Blue on the heels of her debut album Clarão (2021). 

Kristin Callahan

Kristin has been singing and performing since she was 8 years old. She began studying jazz and piano in 2009 and performs at festivals and venues such as the Mid Atlantic Jazz Festival, SOUTH, Montpelier Arts Center, Wine in the Woods, Woodmere Art Museum, Rockwood Music Hall, Twins Jazz, and Rams Head On Stage with the Chuck Redd Quintet. In 2015, Kristin recorded “Poor Butterfly” with bassist, Blake Meister for the Maryland Public Television show, “Artworks.” In November 2017, she sang for the NBC Executive’s Event with guitarist, Rich Barry and pianist, Pascal Le Boeuf and a month later was featured in the Melting Pot Big Band at the Havre De Grace Opera House

Gillian Margot

Born: June 23

Following her acclaimed debut Black Butterfly, Toronto native Gillian Margot builds on her unique and emotive interpretations of American Standards with Power Flower, a deeply soothing homage to her influences in the Jazz, Pop, and Funk of the 70s and 80s. Margot spent two and a half years building the work; selecting seasoned titans Geoffrey Keezer, Billy Kilson, Seamus Blake, Ingrid Jensen, and Munyungo Jackson, and working the arrangements and recordings to her complete satisfaction. Included in the liner notes is the phrase ‘All vocals recorded without use of any pitch correction technology,’ which sums up the care and attention she has paid to Power Flower