With
rich and sumptuous vocals, award winning jazz vocalist Shirley Crabbe fronts a
band of stellar musicians. The music is swinging, sophisticated, always up
lifting, and overflowing with soul on her current CD “Home”. Featuring Crabbe
with Donald Vega, Jim West, John Burr, Alvester Garnett, Brandon Lee, Dave
Glasser, Matt Haviland and Special Guest Houston Person.
New York
City ~ Shirley Crabbe’s debut album “Home” announces the arrival of a major new
artist who invests love and conviction in every note as someone deeply grateful
to be pursuing her calling. Being given
a ‘second chance’ at her first love after a bout with surgery on her vocal
chords she considers herself blessed receiving a series of awards that placed
her in the top five at the 2010 Jazz Mobile “Best of The Best” vocal
competition.
“I love
the American Songbook,” Crabbe says. “It’s so hard to find things that
everybody hasn’t done already, but there are treasures out there if you look
beyond the usual jazz sources.”
Possessing a voice as rich and plush as any singer on the scene
concentrating on rendering each melody with precision and care adding some
skilled ‘scat lines’ in her performances.
Crabbe
casts a wide net when it comes to undiscovered treasures. From the album’s
title track “The Wi” to McCoy Tyner’s “You Taught My Heart to Sing,” and Roland
Hanna’s “Seasons,” a tune he wrote for Sarah Vaughan’s classic 1982 album
“Crazy And Mixed Up.” Turning Carole
King’s “So Far Away” into an ache-filled lament while making Stephen Sondheim’s
“Not While I’m Around” a tender jazz interpretation that would be chilling in
its original “Sweeny Todd” context. She
isn’t afraid to tackle some well-worn standards. She effortlessly navigates
trombonist Matt Haviland’s brisk and sassy arrangement of “Detour Ahead,” while
transforming the lullaby “Summertime” into a rousing, wake-the-baby West
African polyrhythmic celebration.
While “I
always feel I’m just a singer that likes to sing jazz, more than a jazz
vocalist,” Crabbe says. “I love singing classical music, when my whole body is
resonating. Intellectually I love it, but with jazz I just feel like I’m free.
I can rely on some technique, but I can forget it too, so it’s more about
color, flexibility and musical ideas.”
“The
Jazz Network Worldwide is happy to feature Shirley’s artistry to the jazz
community and beyond. You can feel her
musicality, her style is clearly a strong force honoring the epic stylists of
our time yet a unique originality embroiders her delivery in song” says Jaijai
Jackson, creator of The Jazz Network Worldwide social network.
Finding
the right accompanists has been an essential part of Crabbe’s creative
process. Pianist Donald Vega, Crabbe’s
musical director and co-producer on “Home”
offered a steady stream of wise musical and career council throughout
the project. “He is a generous musician
and a great advisor,” Crabbe says.
Drummer Alvester Garnett and veteran bassist John Burr provided the
sophisticated and sensitive support in the rhythm section.
No doubt
growing up in a Caribbean family surrounded by music and dance is what gave
Shirley the musical heartbeat she exudes today. From being intrigued by Ella
Fitzgerald as a teenager to exploring classic recordings by Carmen, Billie and
Sarah, she attended workshops produced by Cobi Narita where she performed with
Harold Mabern and Jamil Nasser and got positive encouragement and advice from
Etta Jones and Dakota Staton.
Crabbe’s
formal training focused on operatic technique and repertoire, but once she
started studying voice at Northwestern University she joined a band with a
jazzy R&B feel influenced by Steely Dan. Since regaining her voice, she
appeared in “Coming to the Mercy Seat” at Shetler Studio’s Theater 54 and
“Ain’t Misbehavin’” at the Elmwood Theater.
Always
honing her craft and developing her approach, her debut CD “Home” makes a clear
statement that Crabbe is one of today’s contemporaries. She’s an artist
overflowing with soul who has found the ideal repertoire for expressing her
gift.
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