Category: Vocals

After Hours featuring Alicia Olatuja, air date June 29, 2020

On By Charles BinghamIn Featured guest, VocalsLeave a comment

Join me for the June 29, 2020, edition of After Hours on KCAW Raven Radio as I’m joined in conversation with jazz/R&B/soul vocalist Alicia Olatuja.

Praised by the New York Times as “a singer with a strong and luscious tone and an amiably regal presence on stage”, Alicia Olatuja has been astounding audiences with her exquisite vocals, artistic versatility and captivating demeanor. She first came into the national spotlight in 2013, while performing as the featured soloist with the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir at President Barack Obama’s Second Inauguration. Shortly thereafter, she assembled her own jazz-based ensemble and recorded her first solo album, Timeless (2014).

Click this link to listen to the After Hours show featuring Alicia Olatuja, originally broadcast on June 29, 2020. Click here to visit Alicia’s personal website.

After Hours featuring Kate McGarry, air date June 22, 2020

On By Charles BinghamIn educator, Featured guest, VocalsLeave a comment

Join me for the June 22, 2020, edition of After Hours on KCAW Raven Radio as I’m joined in conversation with jazz vocalist Kate McGarry.

Kate has many critically acclaimed CDs and two Grammy nominations (2019 and 2009) for Best Jazz Vocal CD. She has become recognized as a jazz artist who brings authenticity and vitality to every song regardless of genre. The Wall St. Journal calls her music, “Austere and elegant,” and The New York Times pronounced it, “astute and sensitive”.

Kate currently performs in jazz clubs, performing arts centers and festivals throughout the US and abroad. As an educator she has taught at New England Conservatory and Manhattan School of Music. Downbeat’s 2016 Critics Poll named McGarry the No. 1 Rising Star Female Vocalist. She has been interviewed on All Things Considered, and has performed on Jazz Set  With DeeDee Bridgewater, Piano Jazz With Marion McPartland, and a host of nationally syndicated radio shows.

Click this link to listen to the After Hours show featuring Kate McGarry, originally broadcast on June 22, 2020. Click here to visit Kate’s personal website.

After Hours featuring Diane Schuur, air date June 8, 2020

On By Charles BinghamIn Featured guest, Piano, VocalsLeave a comment

Join me for the June 8, 2020, edition of After Hours on KCAW Raven Radio as I’m joined for an uplifting and stirring conversation with jazz vocalist and pianist Diane Schuur.

Nicknamed “Deedles”, she’s been blind since birth due to retinopathy of prematurity but has been gifted with absolute pitch memory and a clear vocal tone.

Stephen Holden, from the New York Times says, “Her voice is impressive in its size, range and brightness. A song can suddenly fly up an octave into little-girl squeals, then make a swan dive into the murky depths. She uses her twirling vibrato as a rhythmic punctuation. After drawing out a note, she dispenses that vibrato like a cherry on a sundae.”

Click this link to listen to the After Hours show featuring Diane Schuur, originally broadcast on June 8, 2020. Click here to visit Diane’s personal website.

After Hours featuring Giacomo Gates, air date June 1, 2020

On By Charles BinghamIn educator, Featured guest, VocalsLeave a comment

Join me for the June 1, 2020, edition of After Hours on KCAW Raven Radio as I’m joined for an uplifting and stirring conversation with bebop jazz vocalist and educator Giacomo Gates.

Without a question, Giacomo’s life experience is unlike any other jazz artist that may come to mind. He didn’t really step into the limelight until 1990 when he was 40. That came after a blue-collar career that included a three-year stint in the 1970s working on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline and 14 years in Alaska where he drove a school buses, 18-wheelers and cattle transporters, operating bulldozers, scrapers and other heavy equipment, pounding in railway spikes, and moonlighting as a bouncer at Fairbanks night clubs. Giacomo had been exposed to music when he was young, singing and playing guitar, and he sometimes left Alaska to perform in Washington State or Tucson, Ariz. Eventually he moved back to his childhood home of Connecticut so he could devote more time to music.

Blessed with a full-bodied and mellifluous voice, extraordinary rhythmic precision and an unerring sense of lyricism, Giacomo’s total command of the vernacular, boundless creativity and exuberant passion set him apart from nearly every other vocalist on the scene today. His performing style is heavily steeped in the traditions of the original vocal improvisers from Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald through their modern counterparts Betty Carter and Leon Thomas, Giacomo’s own approach draws most heavily from the bebop-rooted masters like Jon Hendricks, Babs Gonzales, King Pleasure and most of all, Eddie Jefferson. Giacomo teaches at Wesleyan University and Sacred Heart University, and has conducted workshops and residencies at numerous educational institutions all over the U.S.

Click this link to listen to the After Hours show featuring Giacomo Gates, originally broadcast on June 1, 2020. Click here to visit Giacomo’s personal website.

After Hours featuring Eliane Elias, air date May 25, 2020

On By Charles BinghamIn Featured guest, Songwriter, VocalsLeave a comment

Join me for the May 25, 2020, edition of After Hours on KCAW Raven Radio as I’m joined for an uplifting and stirring conversation with Eliane Elias.

Eliane has had a distinguished career spanning nearly 30 albums, and is a multi-GRAMMY winning pianist/singer/composer. Her distinctive and intoxicating musical style has emerged as one of the most unique and immediately recognizable sounds in jazz.

With more than 2.2 million albums sold to date, she blends her Brazilian roots and alluring voice with her virtuosic instrumental jazz, classical and compositional skills, while she consistently displays her pianistic mastery and ability to integrate the many artistic roles she takes on. Jazziz Magazine describes Eliane as “an artist beyond category.”

Click this link to listen to the After Hours show featuring Eliane Elias, originally broadcast on May 25, 2020. Click here to visit Eliane’s personal website.

After Hours featuring Sheila Jordan, air date May 18, 2020

On By Charles BinghamIn Featured guest, Songwriter, VocalsLeave a comment

Join me for the May 18, 2020, edition of After Hours on KCAW Raven Radio as I’m joined in conversation with guest artist Sheila Jordan.

Sheila is an American jazz singer and songwriter. She has recorded as a session musician with an array of critically acclaimed artists in addition to recording her own albums. Sheila pioneered a bebop and scat jazz singing style with an upright bass as the only accompaniment. Her music has earned praise from many critics, particularly for her ability to improvise lyrics.

Scott Yanow describes her as “one of the most consistently creative of all jazz singers.” Charlie Parker often introduced Jordan as “the singer with the million dollar ears.”

Click this link to listen to the After Hours show featuring Sheila Jordan, originally broadcast on May 18, 2020. Click here to visit Sheila’s personal website.

After Hours featuring Gina Saputo, air date April 13, 2020

On By Charles BinghamIn Author, educator, Featured guest, Songwriter, VocalsLeave a comment

Join me for the April 13, 2020, edition of After Hours on KCAW Raven Radio as I’m joined in conversation with L.A. jazz singer gem Gina Saputo.

Gina is an international jazz performer, college instructor, recording artist, session singer, model, actress and three-time published author. She is currently finishing her fourth book, Vocal Technique for Songwriters, and teaching full time in the bachelor’s department at Musicians Institute in Hollywood, California.

Click this link to listen to the After Hours show featuring Gina Saputo, originally broadcast on April 13, 2020. Click here to visit Gina’s personal website.

After Hours featuring Caterina Zapponi, air date March 9, 2020

On By Charles BinghamIn Vocals2 Comments

Join me for the March 9, 2020, edition of After Hours on KCAW Raven Radio as I’m joined in conversation with the fabulously gifted Italian-French multi-lingual jazz vocalist Caterina Zapponi, who also is an actress.

Caterina was born and raised in Rome, the daughter of celebrated Italian screenwriter Bernardino Zapponi, a collaborator and longtime friend of Federico Fellini. Her mother was a French-born chanteuse and instilled in Caterina her love of the French repertoire. Caterina is married to veteran jazz pianist Monty Alexander, who was interviewed for the After Hours show that aired on Jan. 13, 2020.

The film High Society helped introduce Caterina to jazz while fueling a desire to move to the United States, which she did upon receiving a scholarship from Berklee College of Music. She graduated in two years and won the Berklee Cleo Laine Award for vocal achievement and performance.

Caterina was a finalist in the Thelonious Monk International Vocal Jazz Competition and has since performed at prestigious venues including New York’s Birdland, and The Blue Note, and internationally at the Verbier and Saint Barthelemy festivals. She has also performed internationally with pianist Monty Alexander at numerous venues including London’s Ronnie Scott’s, Marseille Jazz Festival, Paris’New Morning and Theatre des Champs Elysees, Tokyo’s Blue Note and Cotton Club, Switzerland’s Cully and Bern Festivals, Russia’s Moscow International House of Music, and at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City.

Click this link to listen to the After Hours show featuring Caterina Zapponil, originally broadcast on March 9, 2020. Click here to visit Caterina’s personal website.

After Hours featuring Benny Benack III, air date March 2, 2020

On By Charles BinghamIn Featured guest, Piano, Trumpet, VocalsLeave a comment

Join me for the March 2, 2020, edition of After Hours on KCAW Raven Radio as I’m joined in conversation with with Benny Benack lll.

Benny has proven to be a rare talent: not only a fiery trumpet player with a stirring command of the post-bop trumpet vernacular in the vein of Kenny Dorham and Blue Mitchell, but also a singer with a sly, mature, naturally expressive delivery in the post-Sinatra mold, performing standards and his own astute songs with a thrilling sense of showmanship. His superb intonation and bracing virtuosity enable him to handle astounding feats of originally composed vocalese (complex solos with written lyrics). And he’s a highly capable pianist as well.

Benny performs widely as a frontman for Postmodern Jukebox, the vintage music collective famed for canny old-school covers of modern pop.

Click this link to listen to the After Hours show featuring Benny Benack III, originally broadcast on March 2, 2020. Click here to visit Benny’s personal website.

After Hours featuring Matt King, air date Feb. 24, 2020

On By Charles BinghamIn Arranger, Featured guest, Organ, Piano, Producer, Songwriter, VocalsLeave a comment

Join me for the Feb. 24, 2020, edition of After Hours on KCAW Raven Radio as I’m joined for an uplifting and stirring conversation with pianist, organist, vocalist, composer, arranger and producer based in the NYC area Matt King.

His latest recording as a leader, “Monk In Brazil,” features the iconic compositions of jazz legend Thelonious Monk, arranged by King in various Brazilian genres. This trailblazing music is earning rave reviews from notable artists in both the American and Brazilian jazz worlds:


“A brilliant triumph, melding the wittiness of Monk’s melodies and the infectiousness of Brazilian rhythms. Matt King’s piano playing is always stellar; his solos sparkle with such clarity and solid creative ideas. If you love Monk and Brazilian music, get ready to party! BRAVO!” (Rufus Reid)

Click this link to listen to the After Hours show featuring Matt King, originally broadcast on Feb. 24, 2020. Click here to visit Matt’s personal website.