Just Jazz by Toni Jannotta

Toni Jannotta

Just Jazz

Format: CD
Label: TCB The Montreux Jazz Label
UPC: 0723723541123
Catnr: TCB 99052
Release date: 05 April 1999

1 CD

Label
TCB The Montreux Jazz Label

UPC
0723723541123

Catalogue number
TCB 99052

Release date
05 April 1999

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

About the album

Citing Annie Ross as her idol and Jon Hendricks, Al Jarreau, and Bobby McFerrin as major influences, Toni Jannotta devotes a good part of her first album to the vocalese style as well as showcasing her lyric writing skills. Vocalese preferences like Horace Silver's "Doodlin'" and Hampton Hawe's "Jackie," with Annie Ross' lyrics, all are offered with the stream-of-consciousness vocalizing that characterizes vocalese. There's a rare vocal version of Thelonious Monk's "Well You Needn't," subtitled "It's All Over Now," with Mike Ferro's lyrics. Jannotta's light, melodic voice is well-suited to this style, except when she tries to reach higher notes, she tends to screech a bit. Her preference for vocalese notwithstanding, Ms. Jannotta realizes a steady diet of that genre wears quickly. To provide some diversity of style, she shows her ballad skills on "You've Changed" and on a haunting "Our Lonely Hearts" backed by Ernie Watts' soulful tenor saxophone. There's some backbeat stuff such as "The Man Who Has to Roam" and on Chick Corea's "500 Miles High" with David Crozier's flute playing a prominent role. Jannotta bops on "A Night in Tunisia" and on "Round Midnight." Her writing skills are put on exhibit with "Wish I Could Say," "Our Lonely Hearts," and "The Man Who Has to Roam." For this session, Jannotta has recruited players from musical genres other than straight jazz. Pianist David Scottand bassist Mike Elizondo come from fusion and rock. Gene Burkert has been on several albums with Poncho Sanchez. Drummer Kendall Kay has graced several rock albums. Robert Kyle on sax and flute has a blues background. All of this adds a variety of musical diversity within a jazz framework to this session. The first album of this young artist hopefully will lead to more and better sessions in the future. One complaint: The purchaser of this album is shortchanged by the less than 40 minutes of music on this album.

Artist(s)

Toni Jannotta (vocals)

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...

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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