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| Singer Kelley Johnson's Home Debuts Seattle jazz vocalist Kelley Johnson connects with her audience. Twice selected to be a Jazz Ambassador abroad, her quartet auditioned live and was chosen by Wynton Marsalis and Lincoln Center in 2007, and the Kennedy Center in 2004 for lengthy tours for the U.S. State Department. The Kelley Johnson Jazz Quartet has performed in concerts and festivals all over the world including Uzbekistan, Croatia, Nicaragua, Honduras, Azerbaijan, Dominican Republic, Suriname, Japan, China, Turkey, Panama, Russia and more. Speaking to the heart, singing the blues, Johnson's new disc, Home (August 19 release), invites us in--enchanting and haunting us with thoughtful arrangements by Geoffrey Keezer, Ingrid Jensen, John Hansen and many by the singer herself. Identified as a unique arranger and admired lyricist whose work is recorded by her peers, Kelley has long been known as a jazz singer with a “band concept." Functioning as a seamless unit, the ensemble takes us inside the songs--making classic jazz by pairing “Wouldn't It Be Loverly" with Abbey Lincoln's “Living Room," hypnotizing us with groove on “The Sweetest Sounds" and seducing us with longing in the Gil Evans-like “Moon River." James Knapp's abstract blues “Home," with Johnson's own lyric, is an homage to the homeless and a prayer for compassion that reminds us of the relationship of social justice and modern jazz and their parallel in the 60's and beyond. Kelley is a bearer of this flame, a jazz artist with a message. write your comments about the article :: © 2008 Jazz News :: home page |