MP3 Christiana Drapkin - The Man I Love

Jazz Standards, Bebop, Jazz Vocals

10 MP3 Songs
JAZZ: Jazz Vocals, JAZZ: Bebop



Details:
Jazz vocalist Christiana Drapkin has been performing in the New York area and on the East Coast for more than a dozen years. She is noted for her lyrical and highly personal delivery of ballads and for her abandoned yet artful scat improvisations. Christiana's singing is deeply immersed in the rich traditions of Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Carmen McRae, as well as in the vocalese fireworks of Anita O'Day, Annie Ross and Eddie Jefferson. With her focus on Jazz Standards, she highlights improvisation and harmonic development, carrying on and developing the tradition of Be-Bop and musicians like Charlie Parker, Lester Young, Thelonious Monk, Lennie Tristano and Dizzy Gillespie, to name a few.

"... reminiscent of the style of the great café singers of the 40s and 50s. Christiana's voice and style sets the tone for the entire musical enterprise with verve and clarity. She is a felicitous combination of Peggy Lee and Ella Fitzgerald. Her voice is full, sweetly gentle, with an excellent range."
Paulina K. Dennis, music critic, The Brooklyn Paper

Christiana came to the US as a Fulbright exchange student from Germany twenty years ago, studying in New Orleans where she got her first immediate exposure to Jazz. Moving to New York provided her with her ideal artistic home, where she feels part of a vibrant local jazz scene. She studies jazz with pianist Charles Sibirsky and vocal coach Barbara Feller. She performs regularly with New York musicians, like guitarist John Merrill, bassist Murray Wall, drummer Bernice Brooks, and others. In the Washington, DC area she often partners with guitarist Mike Gellar. They have produced a mini-CD of Jazz Standards, which is available at their gigs, as a sneak preview of things to come.

"The Man I Love" is Christiana's debut album, recorded in 1999. The recording includes Stephen Lembo on piano, Steve Doyle on bass, and Bernice Brooks on percussion. The quartet as a whole conveys a chemistry and freshness which results from a group of musicians listening to each other and enjoying each other's company as they create their joyful musical dialog.

Her new CD "Songs About You" has just been released on Iana Records and is also available. It features several original compositions by pianist Charles Sibirsky, guitarist Andy Fite, and saxophonist Charley Krachy, rounded out by her fresh interpretations of Standards from the American Songbook. Charles Sibirsky is on piano, Murray Wall on bass, John Merrill on guitar, and Charley Krachy on saxophone.