Exuberant, swinging and funky jazz. Pam Purvis knows how to get inside the music on this CD which combines standards and some great pop tunes like you've never heard them sung. Go on and have a ball.

10 MP3 Songs
JAZZ: Jazz Vocals, JAZZ: Jazz-Pop

Show all album songs: I Had A Ball Songs


Details:
Pam Purvis

Soulful, Sophisticated and Swinging!!!
Hello, my name is Pam Purvis. I am originally from Louisiana and Texas. I tell you that because it is an integral part of who I am and how I sing. I love imagery and color, texture and sensuality. I credit my style to âliving with a horn playerâ. I want to tell you a story about meeting and hanging out with the great scat singer Joe Carroll, one Juneteenth in Bed Sty, NYC (Bedford Styvesant). When I asked him how he learned to sing those improvised type lines he told me âListen to the horn players, baby, listen to the horn playersâ. This has been my musical credo in so many ways.
I credit my sense of the lyrics to the training I received at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. My approach to lyrics and phrasing is âof the momentâ. When I sing a song it is always for the first time, and therefore I hope it will always be fresh and always emotional.
I want you to see and feel the images in the song. I come from a wonderful part of the country, where there is so much color and energy and humor. I hope youâll find these things in my singing.
If you are into simple and overt, then I am not for you. I am the epitome of the statement that the greatest art âseemsâ effortless, but my music is complex in its simplicity and deeply sophisticated, while still being joyful, soulful, humorous & dramatic when called for.
Currently I live in the New York City area with my partner and husband Bob Ackerman, a wonderful composer and woodwind artist. I began singing jazz in 1974 in Paterson, NJ at Gulliverâs (now just a fond memory for those who were there). It was a good place to begin because I met and sang with Chuck Wayne, Joe Puma, Gabor Zabo, Joe Morello, Jack Six, and Bob Ackerman. The later of these fine musicians I decided to keep. We have been married and working together for 27 years, and have 9 recordings together to this date.
We spent 7 great years in Dallas, TX during its heyday. And worked with some of the best musicians that this great area had to offer, recording 2 albums with some of North Texas State Universityâs finest musicians along with Dave Fathead Newmanâs old rhythm section. When we got a contract to record for Blackhawk Records we decided to return to the New York City area.

During the last several years Bob and I have performed together in Europe as well as Mexico & Brazil and all over the US.
Appearing at the Skeppsholm Festival in Sweden
The Asti and San Remo Jazz Festivals in Italy
And toured in Switzerland; all over Italy; Amsterdam, Holland; Barcelona, and Porto Jose Banus, Spain (appearing nightly with Ian Shaw and John Porter)
The San Miguel de Allende Jazz Festival in San Miquel, Mexico

In the New York area we have appeared at:
The Blue Note NYC
Birdland NYC
The Newark Jazz Festival Newark, NJ
Trumpets and The Cornerstone and Cecilâs in NJ
And I was the producer of JAM (Jazz At Millburn Library) where I performed with:
Bob Dorough, Jay Leonhart, Cynthia Scott, Lenore Raphael and many other great musicians and singers.
Currently I am singing with some of the finest jazz musicians to be found anywhere:
Joe Cohn, Richard Wyands, Bob Devos, Mike Richmond, Chip Jackson, Dennis Irwin, Earl May, Steve Johns, and others. So if you are in the area, find out where I am playing and come see me. You wonât be disappointed. My website is www.pampurvis.com

I am a charter member of the New York Chapter of the Jazz Vocalists Coalition, a non-profit organization dedicated to the professional advancement of vocal jazz performers and the promotion of vocal jazz to the general public. We have very high hopes that this organization will help to put the art of jazz vocals on the proverbial map.

So for those of you who love the âwordâ or the lyric, and melody and harmony, Iâm your girl. Oh yes, I forgot to say it again SWING! What is jazz without the swing?

Here are a few reactions that people have to my singing. Invite me in, and see if they are right!

The first thing you notice when you hear Pam Purvis is the ease with which she sings. Every single note she delivers is beautiful.
Rosalind L. Picou - Jazz Now

⦠such a refreshingly direct, unaffected way of singing that she reminds me of Cleo Laine or Ella Fitzgerald in her younger days.
Nancy Bishop - Dallas Morning News

Purvis moves in and out of scat singing with ease - she has a good range and is never anything but musical. - Richard B. Kamins - Cadence

The strength and variety of her voice come across on her recordings, but sheâs especially charming in front of a live audience.
⦠the most facile voice with the widest range of any jazz vocalist Iâve had the pleasure to hear in several decades.
Dr. Duane Martin - Texas Ragg, The Music Magazine

"Pam's caressing of a lyric is as soothing and romantic as a glass of fine wine on a moonlit night...simply beautiful."
...Jazz vocalist Grady Tate

Watching and listening to Pam is a treat because of both her considerable stage presence and her voice, which moves effortlessly through and around melodies in a manner that reveals a strong singer. Underlying all her numbers is an obvious energy that constantly seduces the listener.
John O. Gunter - Dallas Morning News

⦠asserts herself as a new revelation of the discipline of song.
Phillippe Bourdin - Jazz Hot Magazine

Pamâs voice has all the qualities of a good jazz singer - good intonation, the ability to swing, the depth of feeling to sing âintoâ the lyrics and a wide range of dynamics from airy inflections to full bodied wailing.
Milo Fine - OP Magazine

She is clearly an accomplished musician from whom I most definitely want to hear more.
Alan Bargebuhr â Cadence

Pam Purvis has done her part in keeping the songs of the Great American Song Book sounding as fresh today as when they were written. She has a natural swing to her style which informs each of her interpretationsâ¦and approach very much her own. Two songs on the CD well describe both Purvis and the response she evokes, âSophisticated Ladyâ and âYou Do Something To Meâ.
Joe Lang â Compact Views Jersey Jazz â Review of Imagination CD
She is a wonderfully hip singer, whether giving a sultry reading to âIâll Never Be The Sameâ or swinging âIâve Got The World On A Stringâ. She obviously respects lyrics, and infuses each song with a true jazz sensibility.
Joe Lang â Compact Views Jersey Jazz â Review of Soft CD
President of New Jersey Jazz Society

Images of San Remo Jazz Festival by Pino Candini (English Translation)
â¦. The trio then presented the surprise of the festival: Pam Purvis, up-and-coming vocalist of sophisticated taste (her major influence is the Great Anita OâDay), with her husband Bob Ackerman. A short stint theirs, but short as it was, it was sufficient to make us understand that the return of jazz singing, discussed by Luciano Federighi in the last issue of Musica Jazz, has just begun.

In Search of a New Generation by Luciano Federighi (English Translation) Musica Jazz
â¦. Two voices, however, seem to stand out in this vast area by their class and substance: that of Pam Purvis, from Louisiana, and that of Patti Cathcart, black singer from San Francisco.

And Now I Can See Crowsâ¦. AllMusic Guide Review
â⦠her passionate scatting adds a unique flavor to a CD that is serene, joyful, and highly expressive.â
Steven Loewy