One of NYC's great singers, Down For You features swingin' Jazz and lush, atmospheric Ballads with jazz greats Cyro Baptista, Patience Higgins, and Jim Cammack

15 MP3 Songs
JAZZ: Jazz Vocals



Details:
I was born in San Francisco, adopted and whisked away to a sleepy town in Oregon. My mother was a Southern belle and my larger than life father is a W.W.II Fighter Ace turned Sportscaster turned Lawyer. My parents didnât play instruments but my father had and still has a great tenor voice. I was musical from an early age, giving my first public performance when I was three singing Oh, Come All Ye Faithful somewhere in back home. No one remembers where it was, which doesnât surprise me. Records were played constantly and I memorized all of Nat King Coleâs songs. Dean Martin was a favorite of my mothers and of course, I loved Frank Sinatra. My parentâs Albee-esque marriage crumbled when I was twelve. I started scat singing to myself a few years later, and escaped to New York and Sarah Lawrence College at the age of 17.

After college, I got a day job and started singing in various East Village rock and roll bands, pop bands, and a hilarious disco cover band run by Colombians. Jo-Jo, Bo-Bo and Chico where are you? We played in social clubs in the Bronx. It was wild. Nothing ever got too far, but I learned a lot, made many friends that Iâm still playing with today, and had way too much fun.

I stumbled on to Marshall Brownâs studio on the Upper West Side. At Marshallâs I got to sing with big bands and I learned the fundamentals of phrasing and scatting. I also began to study classical music, OPERA. I was naive and tenacious and believed that if I worked hard enough, I could do anything. A series of bad sinus infections set me back. The operation to fix the problem gave me a brand new voice. By the time I had adjusted to my new soprano voice and learned all the new repertoire to audition with, family circumstances intervened and I had to put singing on the back burner for a couple of years. I still studied and performed but it was frustrating. I began searching for something that I couldnât identify.

It was at this time that I went to Sean Swinneyâs studio to record a classical demo for opera competitions. While we were mixing the tape I told Sean that my roots were in rock and jazz and that I would love to do some jazz singing again someday. He gave me a couple of pianistâs names and I wrote them down in my book. Every year I would transfer these names into my new datebook. In the summer of 1996 I finally called one. I called Christopher Cherney. All I wanted to do was make a demo.

I cut a deal with Chris to make a three song jazz demo. He worked with me on the songs, got the musicians together, and we went in and made the tape. It went so well that we decided to try and write some original music together. Chris was roommates at the time with Tony Romano, a fabulous guitar player. Chris, Tony and I have been playing together since. Those original songs turned into the Binky and Beano project . Chris and I wrote all originals, the exception being things like Monk or Bird tunes that we Binky and Beanocized. It was compositionally challenging music. At one point we decided to replace our bass player. We ran an ad in the Voice that read something like âIf Milt Hinton married Marcus Miller heâd be you and you would be the new bass player for Binky and Beano.â It was like that, the bass player really had to swing hard but also play a nasty funk line. People would say,âI really like it. But...what is it? Jazz or R&B or rock or...?â We played out at the clubs in NYC and the tri-state area and made a five song CD, which we sold off the bandstand. Curiously enough, this was when we first met Patrick Lo Re, who would eventually become our producer. At that time One Soul was a rehearsal studio and where Binky and Beano rehearsed. Crazy how the music goes round, right?

1998 began the Firenze chapter. Firenze was an intimate Italian restaurant on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Tony, Chris and I played there every Thursday night for nearly three years. Occasionally, we would substitute a bass player for Tony or add Sean Mahony, a wonderful trombone man. People would come sit in, On Duke Ellingtonâs hundredth birthday Britt Woodman played with us. He played all of Dukeâs songs in my keys but drew the line at playing Satin Doll in F. He said,âF major! Who in the world sings Satin Doll in F!â I sang it without him as we laughed.

Our boss, Tony Page was a fantastic guy, whoâs father had played the jazz trumpet. Tony page liked to sing Frank Sinatra songs. We loved him, the staff, and the whole scene. Some nights Tony would come to the front and introduce us. There was no one in the world like Tony Page to schmooze the crowd, he was a smooth cat. At the end of the night, he would come up and sing Fly Me To The Moon or Mack the Knife. The guys would back him up, and the joint would jump. Inspired by the things we created at Firenze, we ended up making a trio CD in 1999 at Sean Swinneyâs studio on New Yorkâs Upper West Side. Chris and Sean had known each other for years and years and I, as you know, had met Chris through Sean, so it was a great reunion. Sean is a fabulous engineer and is a sweet Southern Gentleman with a heart of gold. Tony and Chris and I howled our way through the sessions. You can tell because there is a lot of my laughter on the tracks that we decided to leave in. Weâve sold this CD off of bandstands and still do.

Tony Page eventually sold Firenze and the new owners didnât want music. We went to another Italian restaurant down the street and played a couple of months there, but it wasnât the same. You never know what you have until itâs gone and Firenze was a great time. I have a special place in my heart for Tony Page, Gustavo and the rest of the crew, regular patrons included.

I decided that I wanted to work with a larger band, which meant larger clubs. This is a challenge in Manhattan. Many venues want you to guarantee them their fee each night. I was determined not to become a âshowcaseâ, pay-to-play act. So, I started to look outside of the box and landed at West Main in Lakeville, CT. West Main is an marvelous restaurant that has live bands Thursday and Friday nights. When I went to pitch myself for a gig, they didnât really do jazz. Sue Miller, the beautiful proprietress, took a chance and gave me Saturday nights. It took off and this is when I met and began playing regularly with Artie Dixson (drums) and Jim Cammack (bass). Chris was on keyboard and Tony was wailing on the guitar. We were swinginâ and schmoozing standards. It was a collaboration that really worked. I knew that I had to get this recorded.

We went into the studio with leadsheets of songs we wanted to record in my keys, but no full rehearsals, and only very basic arrangements. We wanted to see if we could do it the same way Miles or Coltrane made so many of their great records. We had four (or five?) recording sessions in which we played three or four songs each time. It was so exciting. In everything we did we really listened to each other, and that is truly at the heart of the matter. Many of the songs on the CD we had not played live. I found So Many Stars in a fakebook, and when I read it I cried. The Music goes Round was the first jazz song I ever learned, courtesy of my father to whom the CD is dedicated. Ridinâ High was a whim. I learned it the night before the session. Five Hundred Miles High was something that Chris, Tony, and I rehearsed one day and found a sexiness in it. I love this CD. I am so grateful to work with such wonderful musicians. A singer is nothing without her band, and, as far as Iâm concerned I am the luckiest girl alive to play with such vibrant risk takers who swoon and swing and play like bandits.