| 1 CD |
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| Label TCB The Montreux Jazz Label |
UPC 0725095211826 |
Catalogue number TCB 21182 |
Release date 28 November 2002 |
With the Santa Monica Mountains as a backdrop and ghost of the legends guarding this sacred place for Native Americans, singer Toni Jannotta and her quartet got together for more than an hour's worth of vocal jazz. Jannotta applies her expressive and highly personal approach to a play list of ten tunes that cover a wide swath of musical jazz fashions, from songs by Chick Corea, Annie Ross, and Van Morrison to classic standards, as well as an original by the singer. This play list follows a similar path as her first album for the TCB label, Just Jazz, as she is determined not to be typecast by just focusing on one aspect of vocal jazz. There are several tracks that merit mention. Corea's "Time's Lie" is not an easy song to sing, but Jannotta takes on its intricate phrasing needs with ease. A medium-tempo "The Very Thought of You," competes with "Midnight Sun" as one of the prime cuts on the album. Jannotta's passionate and earnest interpretations get plenty of sympathetic support from her quartet, with particular nods to Chuck Manning's tenor and Ken Rosser's resonant guitar. Rosser swings mightily and Manning's soulful on the album's coda, Morrison's "Moondance." This album goes a long way to enhancing Jannotta's status as an up-and-coming jazz singer of note. Recommended.
TONI JANNOTTA , a native of Los Angeles, has been performing locally and abroad for the past 18 years. She has three vocal jazz CD's to her credit: Just Jazz, Jazz at the Ranch, and Is It Magic? A composer as well as a singer, her CDs are produced and recorded under her label, Aerie Records, with the first two projects distributed worldwide by TCB Music, The Montreux Jazz Label, in Montreux, Switzerland, and her third CD, Is It Magic? distributed on the web via CD Baby. Is It Magic? was partially funded by a Cultural Arts Fellowship Grant from the City of Ventura, where she now resides.
Until recently, Toni was a purist with a repertoire consisting of Theloneous Monk, Bill Evans, and Horace Silver to name a few, singing the lyrics of Jon Hendricks and her idol Annie Ross. Now, on her latest CD, Is It Magic? Toni has switched gears and recorded an album consisting mostly of her original jazz tunes.
Toni's attraction to the performing arts came early. She was dancing at age 4, scratching out sounds on her violin at age 9, and performing in musical theater by the age of 15. Her first acting role came at age 18 on the soap opera drama, "Days of Our Lives." Toni has studied music theory at Los Angeles Valley Jr. College, private voice lessons with Lee and Sally Sweetland, drama with Gordon Hunt, and has attended every known ballet and jazz school in Los Angeles. For most of her life, Toni has either been acting, singing or dancing in television, theater or jazz clubs. She has taught both ballet and jazz dance, has conducted vocal improvisation workshops overseas at jazz festivals, and currently teaches private voice lessions at home.
As a producer, Toni presented the Back to Blues & Jazz Festival in the Santa Monica Mountains as a benefit for the environment, as well as continuing to produce and record via her label, Aerie Records. As a singer, she has also appeared vocally on the soundtrack of small films using her improvisational skills.
Toni has been seen in L.A. nightclubs such as the Baked Potato, Le Cafe, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, throughout Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, and in our National Parks at the Peter Strauss Ranch in Malibu. Internationally, Toni has played the Wigan Jazz Festival and Feast of Jazz in Preston, Northern England, the Ocho Rios Jazz Festival in Jamaica, and has toured the Netherlands, Southern Germany, Switzerland and Italy.
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