CABARET VILLE MAGAZINE. P169. CONT'D FROM P168

JAZZ CELEBRITIES AND GUESTS OF THE MONTH

CONNIE EVINGSON

CONNIE EVINGSON. Connie Evingson's latest CD, "Gypsy In My Soul", brings her cool, swinging alto vocals to the Hot Club style made famous by Django Reinhardt. Her recent tours to Seattle, Sweden and Japan have transformed each venue into a Parisian café scene right out of the 1930's. Gypsy spent several weeks in the Top 20 of the jazz radio charts, increasing her already huge fan base. This Twin Cities-based singer has been a guest soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra conducted by Doc Severinsen, and the Plymouth Music Series with Bobby McFerrin. Connie's 2003 release, "Let it Be Jazz", received fab accolades for beautifully shedding new light on classic Beatle’s tunes. Her stellar 2000 release, "Some Cats Know", includes guest artists Al Grey, Ray Brown, Toots Thielemans, Jack McDuff and Doc Severinsen. Tributes to Peggy Lee, membership in Moore by Four – the fan favorites go on and on.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY: Gypsy In My Soul — "This is a thoroughly enjoyable CD by a singer with a sinuously attractive vocal sound and one that I unhesitatingly recommend to the Friends of Good Songs and also to those who have a hankering for this timeless musical style. " Jazz Journal International,  Bruce Crowther. "I like being musically surprised. Connie's albums are always surprisingly different and expectedly delightful., Michael Bourne, "Singers Unlimited" (WBGO, Newark. "Her delivery is refreshingly straightforward and sexy. Her performances carry the aroma of red wine and filterless cigarettes, sensual, slightly decadent, and thoroughly wonderful." , All About Jazz, C. Michael Bailey.

CONNIE EVINGSON is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She has appeared in clubs and concert halls across the U.S., in Europe and Japan, and has been a guest soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra and the Toronto Symphony conducted by Doc Severinsen, and the Vocalessence Music Series with Bobby McFerrin.
 

 

She is the creator of the original stage production, Fever, A Tribute to Peggy Lee, which she has performed at theatres across the country and excerpted at New York's Town Hall. She has been featured on the Smithsonian's "Jazz Singers" radio series, and on numerous compilation discs including Jazziz Magazine's Vocals on Fire CD and Sharper Image's New Sirens of Song along with Diana Krall, Norah Jones, Stacy Kent and others. Connie has released six CDs on Minnehaha Music: I Have Dreamed; Fever - A Tribute to Peggy Lee; Some Cats Know; Let it Be Jazz - Connie Evingson Sings the Beatles; The Secret of Christmas; and Gypsy In My Soul. Some Cats Know (with guest artists Al Grey, Ray Brown, Toots Thielemanns, Jack McDuff and Doc Severinsen) and Let it Be Jazz - Connie Evingson Sings the Beatles, both charted in the Top 50 for 8 weeks in the U.S. and Canada. Her latest release, Gypsy in My Soul charted in the Top 50 for 10 weeks and the Top 20 for 4, reaching #8. Evingson has been a member of the vocal jazz ensemble Moore By Four since 1986, with whom she has toured the U.S., Europe and Japan, appeared on Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion, and opened for Harry Connick, Jr., Joe Williams, Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae and Dizzy Gillespie. She was among the top 15 contestants in the 1998 Thelonius Monk Vocal Competition and is the winner of the 2000-2001 and 2005-2006 McKnight Artist Fellowship Award for Performing Musicians administered by MacPhail Center for Music.

ANDRES PRADO

ANDRES PRADO. Andrés Prado, guitarist, composer and educator, was born in Lima, Perú in 1971. He studied classical guitar at the National Conservatoire of Music in Lima, jazz and Latin American guitar at the Avellaneda School of Popular Music in Buenos Aires and post-graduate studies in jazz guitar at Trinity College of Music in London. His music owes much however, to the rich and vibrant cultural mix, which is his homeland. Andean melodies, Creole waltzes, Afro-Peruvian rhythms are never far beneath the surface of his contemporary musical language. In 1996 he was invited to present his work as a composer in series of filmed conferences entitled “The Leading Contemporary Composers of Perú”. In 2002 he received three prestigious awards from Trinity College of Music in London, “The Isabel Bond Gold Medal Award” for best performer of the year, “The Montagu Cleeve guitar Prize” for best guitarist and the “Founders Prize” for excellence. He has performed in international music festivals like Cheltenham International Jazz Festival, Windsor Fringe Festival, Teignmouth Jazz Festival (England), First and Second International Jazz Festival of Arequipa, XIII International Jazz Festival of Lima, III Peruvian Jazz Festival and the XV International Guitar Festival in Lima (Perú). He has played and collaborated with musicians like Julian Arguelles, Steve Waterman, Phil Robson, Tony Roberts, Martin Joseph, David Miles (UK), John Butler, Jimmy Hamilton, Ingrid Jensen, Kevin Washington, Pete Whitman, Jeff Bailey, Spyro Gyra, Edward Perez (USA), Enrique Luna, Manongo Mujica, José Luis Madueño, Julio “Chocolate” Algendones (Perú) and many others. As an educator he has taught guitar and conducted Jazz and Latin American music workshops in schools and universities worldwide including The National Conservatoire of Music (Perú), Trinity College of Music, Eastleigh College, Blackheath Conservatoire of Music and the Arts and Brunel University (England).  CONTINUES NEXT