MARY MAY - JAZZ SINGER - ProfilesArchive

About Me

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Before I ever heard any jazz I was singing on the club scene annoying the band by improvising on the melody. Finally hearing jazz was like coming home for me, and now I even dream music. I trained as a painter at Leeds Metropolitan University and after a post grad at Scottish College of Textiles worked as a freelance textile designer. I took singing lessons to learn how to breathe and worked hard for many years on my "chops" before finally starting to sing jazz in public. Funnily enough my approach to singing has been the same as my approach to painting - finding a new singer and listening to everything they have recorded, while trying to work out what they were doing. But things sort of clicked into place for me at FDVJWs when I really started to think about the lyric (thanks to Fionna and Sophie). I like to listen to singers who have good communication and have good phrasing instead of just good tone, but mostly I like to listen to horn players to hear good melodic phrasing and inventiveness. Musically, highlights of this year have been the Lemon Tree in Aberdeen, the Corinthian Bar at Glasgow Jazz Festival, the Callander Jazz Festival, the Blue Lamp in December and guesting with the KRLs in March which was a hoot! .... Thanks for visiting! Save The World - One Click At A Time!
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My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 8/24/2006
Band Website: This is it!
Band Members: Mostly Alan King (piano), Bill Kemp (drums) and Ray Leonard (acoustic bass) who are without doubt some of the best players in the country. So far I've been lucky enough to sing with a variety of great musicians and have met many fellow jazz enthusiasts and wonderful musicians. Many thanks to all of you for the support and encouragement, especially Bill Kemp, Dan Knight and Mark Murphy for the encouragement, Jim Brooks for listening and lending me great CDs, Alan King for fixing my charts, Pete Farnham for the theory lessons, my brother John for helping me with the equipment, Paul Harrison for the piano on 'Dear Ruby' , Craig and Lisa for the live recordings at the Lemon Tree.
Influences: Too many to mention and too many I haven't heard yet. But .. Shirley horn, Mark Murphy, Andy Bey, Tina May, Anita Wardell, Carmen McRae, Joe Williams, Tony Bennett, Carol Kidd, Jimmy Scott, Anita O'Day, Annie Ross, Betty Carter .. and all the great singers and musicians on my space. Some favourite musicians are Abdullah Ibrahim, Ethan Iverson (his concert at the Lot in August was phenomenal) .. Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, Chico Hamilton, Jack de Johnette, Horace Silver, Wynton Marsalis, Miles (of course), John Coltrane - I have a scratchy old tape recording I borrowed of somebody of a version of his 'My Favourite things' which I have been listening to for over 20 years and is STILL my favourite piece of music. I like flamenco a lot - Lole y Manuel are on my page -they are fantastic. Lole's singing makes your heart jump to your throat. I saw her singing 'El Brujo' many years ago .. what an experience. Oh, and the absolutely fabulous Nancy Wilson ... I heard her 'Houdini of the Midnight Hour' in 1984 and have been looking for it ever since. I finally got it last month, and it is just as good as I remembered. I could go on and on .... are you still reading this?
Sounds Like: A Scots Lass singing Jazz.

Record Label: Yes, some have sticky labels with my name on
Type of Label: None

My Blog

Favourite sounds just now are ...Mark Murphy's 'Memories of You' (A tribute to Joe Williams).

.Favourite sounds just now are ...Mark Murphy's 'Memories of You' (A tribute to Joe Williams). Shirley Horn's 'You're My Thrill' - Shirley, you must be thrilling the Angels right now.Tina May's ...
Posted by MARY MAY - JAZZ SINGER on Sat, 02 Sep 2006 04:43:00 PST