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MP3 Sandra Locklear - Girl Gone Jazz
15 MP3 Songs
JAZZ: Jazz Vocals, JAZZ: Smooth Jazz
Details:
ARTISTIC BIOGRAPHY of SANDRA LOCKLEAR
Sandra Locklear is one of those musicians who defiantly eludes classification. With a technical proficiency honed since she took her first piano lesson at age 7, the Seattle-based Canadian singer-pianist glides with ease between musical genres, including jazz, blues, bossa nova, folk and rock. On her latest release, "Girl Gone Jazz", Sandra returns to her jazz roots to present an elegant collection of standards and three more of her original songs that dance and shine from track to track.
Sandra pairs a rich alto voice with jazz piano stylings refined over many years of playing venues in Europe, Canada, the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. After the successful release of her all-original debut CD, Goddess Rising, she wanted to pay tribute to her some of her favorite jazz songs.
From playfully feisty to intensely passionate, listeners are treated to clean arrangements that allow Sandra to give standards like “My Baby Just Cares for Me, ” “Here’s To Life” and “Sentimental Journey” a fresh perspective. Her best, however, may be unleashed by the ballad “House of The Rising Sun.” With stunning emotion pouring through her voice, Sandra does a breathtaking version of this folk song about the ruination of a young woman who feels cut off from love and contact with others who can never really understand her life.
In typical fashion, Sandra’s original music on "Girl Gone Jazz" is a balanced marriage of lyric and melody. As a songwriter she wraps her jazz like harmonic and melodic sensibilities around tender and forthright feminine observations on life. “In Your Dreams” is a mystical exploration of the role of dreaming in our lives and ventures into the Latin-jazz realm, while her sensual ballad “Rainy Afternoon” suggests an irresistible eroticism. “Let Me Love You” is a swinging foray into progressive jazz but with controlled vitality.
Sandra began jazz and classical keyboard training with her lifelong music mentor, Hollywood B-3 jazz organist Margo Beecher. The music of Ellington, Jobim and Bach was standard fare for her weekly lessons. By middle school she was performing at parties, weddings, fashion shows and church, where she secretly got a kick out of playing “The Impossible Dream” during church. In high school, Sandra won Yamaha’s Young Artists regional organ in Seattle and was sent on to compete in Carmel, CA.
Afterward, a year studying jazz organ in San Francisco inspired her to enroll in a college music program back in Washington State. Bored and unable to resist the lure of the road, she soon accepted an offer to tour with a dance quartet. “And that’s when I really started singing. The band leader stuck a microphone in front of my mouth and ordered me to sing!” she recounts.
Between performing with bands, and then solo regionally and overseas, Sandra continued jazz studies at Cornish College of the Arts and the University of Washington. She eventually earned two music degrees Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude. As a single parent, she often took her son her son on the road and financed her own college education. To satisfy her soul, Sandra went to Africa to study the roots of jazz with the internationally acclaimed Sierra Leone National Dance Troupe, who are still currently housed in a Guinean refugee camp seeking U.S. asylum.
At Cornish College of the Arts, notables such as NPR jazz producer Jim Wilke, bassist Gary Peacock, horn players Julian Priester and Jim Knapp, pianists Art Lande, Peggy Stern and pianist-singer Joni Metcalf, all influenced Sandra’s distinctive sound and understanding of the art of jazz. At the University of Washington, clarinetist William O. Smith guided her composition efforts while pianist Marc Seales continued to shape her playing. Along the way, Sandra studied with pianist Jerome Gray and upon hearing that singers Judy Collins and Anne and Nancy Wilson’s vocal coach lived in Seattle, sought training from George Peckham.
Like Nina Simone and Shirley Horne, two of her inspirations, Sandra is both musician and singer with a natural gift for connecting with her audiences. In October 2005, she paid homage to Nina Simone in two special shows held at the Oak Room Cabaret in Seattle. Joined by Portland bassist Ken Anoe (who played bass with Shirley Horne in Washington, D.C.)the duo came together in an effortless synergy that bolstered Sandra’s fluid interpretations of Simone’s work.
Reaching into her stylistic tool bag to express the spirit of each song she’s moved to perform, the unconventional road this artist travels only makes her vibrant music more resonant with the times. Ms. Locklear is available for bookings either as a solo singer-pianist or with her jazz group.
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REVIEWS
“Sandra Locklear sings and plays with a shimmering sensuality and the voice of experience.”
– Maggie Larrick, Capitol Hill Times
“The songs are all original scenes of her life, and I can tell that she has populated each song with her heart.” - Jon Sorenson, Pell Mell Band
“I felt like I was in her music, floating with the sound … it entered my soul.” - Mary Houghtaling, R.N.
“Sandra brings class, spirit, and artistic inspiration .... “ - David Syre, CEO
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