After Hours featuring Cyrille Aimée, air date March 10, 2021

Join me for the March 10, 2021, edition of After Hours on KRBD Rainbird Radio (and later on KSTK and KCAW Raven Radio) as I’m joined in conversation with French jazz vocalist Cyrille Aimée.

Improvisation is not just a technique for Grammy-nominated artist Cyrille Aimée, it’s a way of life. The acclaimed vocalist ventured from singing on street corners in Europe to dazzling audiences at the world’s most prestigious jazz festivals; from sneaking out to sing in gypsy encampments in her native France to acting on Broadway; from braving the notoriously tough audiences at New York’s Apollo Theatre to being called a “rising star in the galaxy of jazz singers” by The New York Times.

Among countless accolades, Aimée won the Montreux Jazz Festival Vocal Competition and the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition. As an actress, Aimée co-starred with Bernadette Peters in a Stephen Sondheim tribute at New York’s City Center which inspired her to dig deeper into Sondheim’s repertoire, resulting in her fourth and most recent album, Move On: A Sondheim Adventure. She’s shared her story via master classes, a TEDx talk, and a few addresses at the Conference on World Affairs.

Click this link to listen to the After Hours show featuring Cyrille Aimée, originally broadcast on March 10, 2021. Click here to visit Cyrille’s personal website.

After Hours featuring Lori Williams, air date Dec. 30, 2019

Join me for the Dec. 30, 2019, edition of After Hours on KCAW Raven Radio in Sitka, Alaska, when I was joined in conversation with “out-of-the-box” jazz vocalist Lori Williams

Lori blends straight ahead, contemporary, soul, inspirational, and urban, creating a truly unique smooth mix of sound. She also is an educator, songwriter, producer, support vocalist, and musical theater actress with five well-received CDs to her credit (a sixth is scheduled for release in 2020) — all of which she self-produced.

As an educator for more than 25 years, Lori has received many honors including Outstanding Music Teacher in the October 2000 issue of Teaching Music, the 2007 Superintendent’s Arts Teacher of the Year Award, and the 2010 Vincent E. Reed Teacher of the Year. As a performing artist, Lori was nominated for a 2014 Helen Hayes Award as an Outstanding Lead Actress in a Resident Musical for her role as Ella Fitzgerald in “Ladies Swing the Blues: A Jazz Fable” (directed by Thomas W. Jones). Lori has received letters of recognition for her performances by Vice President Joseph Biden, former Speaker of the House John Boehner, and Maryland Senator C. Anthony Muse.

Click this link to listen to the KCAW After Hours show featuring Lori Williams, originally broadcast on Dec. 30, 2019. Click here to visit Lori’s personal website.