Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jane Monheit was born November 3, 1977 and grew up in Oakdale, New York on Long Island. Her father played banjo and guitar, her mother sang and played records by vocalists beginning with Ella Fitzgerald. At an early age, she was drawn to jazz and Broadway musicals.
She began singing professionally while attending Connetquot High School in Bohemia, New York. She attended the Usdan Summer Camp for the Arts and at the Manhattan School of Music, studying voice under Peter Eldridge, and graduating in 1999.
She was runner-up to Teri Thornton in the 1998 vocal competition at the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, in Washington, DC. The next year when she was 22, she recorded her debut album, Never Never Land that was released the following year. Jane recorded many songs from the Great American Songbook and after recording for five labels, she started her own, Emerald City Records. The label’s inaugural release was The Songbook Sessions in 2016, an homage to Fitzgerald.
Monheit’s vocals were featured in the 2010 film Never Let Me Go for the titular song, written by Luther Dixon, and credited to the fictional Judy Bridgewater.
She has released eleven albums as a leader and has been a guest vocalist on eight albums recorded by David Benoit, Terence Blanchard, Les Brown, Tom Harrell, Harold Mabern, Mark O’Connor, Frank Vignola, and Joe Ascione. Vocalist Jane Monheit continues to perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bobby Few was born October 21, 1935 in Cleveland, Ohio and grew up in the Fairfax neighborhood of the city’s East Side. His mother encouraged him to study classical piano, later discovering jazz listening to his father’s Jazz at the Philharmonic records. His father became his first booking agent and soon he was gigging around the greater Cleveland area with other local musicians including Bill Hardman, Bob Cunningham, Cevera Jefferies, and Frank Wright.
Exposed to Tadd Dameron and Benny Bailey as a youth and knew Albert Ayler, with whom he played in high school. As a young man, Bobby gigged with local tenor legend Tony “Big T” Lovano, Joe Lovano’s father. The late 1950s had him relocating to New York City, where he led a trio from 1958 to 1964; there, he met and began working with Brook Benton, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Jackie McLean, Joe Henderson and Ayler. Playing on several of Ayler’s albums, he also recorded with Alan Silva, Noah Howard, Muhammad Ali, Booker Ervin, and Kali Fasteau.
In 1969 he moved to France and rapidly integrated the expatriate jazz community, working frequently with Archie Shepp, Sunny Murray, Steve Lacy, and Rasul Siddik. Since 2001, he has toured internationally with American saxophonist Avram Fefer, with whom he recorded four critically acclaimed CDs. He plays extensively around Europe and continues to make regular trips back to the United States. Recently, Few has played with saxophonist Charles Gayle and leads his own trio in Paris. He is currently working on a Booker Ervin tribute project called Few’s Blues that features tenor player Tony Lakatos, bassist Reggie Johnson and drummer Doug Sides.
As a leader and co~leader, he recorded eighteen albums and fifty as a sideman. Pianist and vocalist Bobby Few, whose playing style has been described as delicate single-note melodies, roll out lush romantic chords, and rap out explicitly Monkish close-interval clanks, continued to perform and record until he passed away on January 6, 2021 at age 85.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Stephanie Crawford was born on August 30, 1942 in Detroit, Michigan and divided her childhood between living with her mother in Detroit’s Black Bottom, called that due to its dark soil, and with an aunt in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She grew up surrounded by jazz, blues, R&B, and gospel music, from which she draws from.
Although singing was her first love from childhood she did not sing in public until she was 36, after working on a Chrysler assembly line and as a short-order cook, and earning a bachelor’s degree in painting from Wayne State University.
Her first live performance in front of an audience was accidental while taking in a rather bad pianist/vocalist in a local dive. Whe she would forget the words, Stephanie would call out the lyrics. Fed up, the woman challenged her to come up and sing and the rest is history. The invite to come back was given and she found her home.
A move to New York City, while working on her master’s in fine arts, Crawford became so immersed in the Manhattan jazz scene that she dropped out of school in order to devote more time to sitting in at jam sessions. She found herself seeking out and studying with Frank Foster and Barry Harris.
Her next stop was Paris, France where she won the prestigious Django d’Or award for Best International Jazz Vocalist in 1993. Singing did not pay the bills, so to support herself Stephanie taught jazz singing at two music schools. Returning to New York City she found work with a Portuguese wine importer.
Vocalist Stephanie Crawford, is clear that talent and fame are not synonymous, and though she continues to sing, helping to keep the fading local jazz scene alive, and continues with her passion for art. Just prior to the pandemic she performed in New York City at the Laurie Beechman Theater.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Linda Ciofalo was born on August 28, 1972 in New York City, New York. She began singing from a very early age, first appearing in public at the age of nine. The music at this time in her life was traditional church music but later, after deciding upon a career as a singer, she studied at the Juilliard School of Music.
Encouraged by educator Howlett Smith to explore jazz, Linda studied at jazz workshops, learning from singers such as Sheila Jordan and Mark Murphy. She also performed with Murphy, as well as pianist Barry Harris.
In the mid-80s her professional career was launched when she was chosen from three hundred applicants to sing with a big band. Although her chosen field is jazz, Ciofalo has also sung with reggae and rock bands, and has performed in the musical theatre. Her performances take her from small clubs to festivals, and is mainly centred on the East Coast states.
Vocalist Linda Ciofalo, who is also an accomplished songwriter, sings a wide-ranging repertoire, incorporating sultry ballads and raunchy blues songs.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jeanie Barton was born on August 18, 1978 in London, England. She spent years as a principal in the National Youth Music Theatre, then studied jazz harmony at Morley College in London as well as improvisation with BBC Jazz award winner Anita Wardell. She also cut her teeth as a singer for bebop pioneer Laurie Morgan’s trio, fronting their famous North London weekly gig, Downstairs at The King’s Head in Crouch End for over a decade.
She went on to support Georgie Fame, as well as backing vocals for Luddy Samms of The Drifters. Barton has performed for Samuel L Jackson, Shirley Bassey, and Pierce Brosnan. She has sung at The Jazz Cafe, The 606 Club, Ronnie Scott’s and The National Theatre, as well as a Parisian cruise on the Seine and the Cannes Film Festival.
Vocalist Jeanie Barton was voted Best Newcomer at the Marlborough Jazz Festival 2015, and in addition writes for the London Jazz News and Nottingham Live, formally the Nottingham Post.
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