Tag: jazz vocalist

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 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 Lori Williams, air date Dec. 30, 2019

On By Charles BinghamIn Actor/Actress, educator, Featured guest, Producer, Songwriter, VocalsLeave a comment

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.

After Hours featuring Peter Eldridge, air date Sept. 30, 2019

On By Charles BinghamIn Arranger, Featured guest, Piano, SongwriterLeave a comment

Join me for the Sept. 30, 2019, edition of After Hours on KCAW Raven Radio in Sitka, Alaska, when I was joined in conversation with Peter Eldridge.

Peter has remained at the forefront of both the singer-songwriter and jazz realms as a vocalist, pianist, composer and arranger. He has five critically acclaimed albums: “Fool No More,” “Stranger in Town,” “Decorum,” “Mad Heaven” and “Disappearing Day” which was released in July 2016 on Sunnyside Records and called “an out and out masterpiece” by allaboutjazz. “Disappearing Day” made many ‘best of the year’ lists, including Downbeat, Jazziz and NPR.

Most recently, Peter and iconic jazz pianist and composer Kenny Werner joined forces on 2019 “Somewhere,” a collection of lush ballads for voice, string orchestra and jazz trio. Peter is also a founding member of internationally acclaimed vocal group, “New York Voices.”

Click this link to listen to the After Hours show featuring Peter Eldridge, originally broadcast on Sept. 30, 2019. Click here to visit Peter’s personal website.