Nancy j profile picture

Nancy j

About Me

njb: Singer and songwriter based in London. Singing wherever and whenever because, quite simply, she loves it. The lady is becomming highly sought after as writer, arranger, collaborator as well as for her distinctive lead vocals and creative bvs as more and more producers are tapping into her diverse influences which mix Anita O'Day, Bessie Smith, Radiohead, Stevie Wonder, Nick Drake, Jeff Buckley, and the original writing.

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A rich highly nuanced voice able to suit many styles and compliment many voices. With a love of playing around with music, nancy has collaborated on electronica, ambient house, jazz, blues, folk, funk, soul and even african chants. In the story everytime but the story can change.
A performer first and foremost, the jazz songs you can hear were recorded live - the bluesy Black Coffee is from a fabulous gig with a ridiculously amazing band at RADA & the beautiful and heartfelt Come Rain and Come Shine and the funked up bossa version of Cole Porter's Love For Sale were recorded live in the renowned last stop for jazz musicians at the Edinburgh Jazz Festival, Henry's Jazz Bar. New tracks are being produced this year to show a voice that has changed and developed so much that on her last visit to the USA a reviewer sent a simple note to her during the break which simply read 'wow!'.

The other songs are originals written and performed by the Sunharbour Collective for which njb writes and barefootnative for which njb and her brother 'Jack' Morgan write. The chilling blues of 'Mamma' was written in 2004 whilst recovering from an operation. It is a call from a sufferer of domestic abuse who nancy had met whilst teaching. 'Poets..' is a tribute to a friend of Jack's who died too young but had already spoken of his two favourtie poems he wished to be read at his funeral. 'Alone' (2007) was inspired by a documentary on the experiences of women in the Iraq war. Writing about everything and anything these are just three of many. Most come from experience - the good and the bad
Although nancy has always been singing something as she wonders around life and the globe officially she has only been writing for the past 5 years (however, ask her and she is secretly sure she has not been alive for 5 years - where did the time go)
....Every now and then I am singing and I find out who I am. No other experience can even come close enough to measure up to it.--

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 5/12/2006
Band Website: www.nancyjbrown.com
Band Members: Always interested in new projects nancy is currently working with two very different and prolific producers on some original rock/blues and jazz/electronica Recently to be found in a studio writing, recording, scatting, singing and generally collaborating with the 16 piece Sunharbour Collective (myspace.com/sunharbour). Electronica based music with elements of jazz, latin, classical, asian, folk and other genres. Keep an ear open for 'Alone' an amazing new track. Recording in Abbey Road. Playing in festivals throughout the UK this Summer. Don't miss it!

Last seen playing in Asia appearing at the venues in Melbourne Jazz Festival, Sydney, Shanghai & Singapore with a residency playing 'great jazz' in Centro - Beijing's 'Most Popular bar' (Zagat Survey 2008). In the UK she was most recently seen with Neil Angilley, (a guy with a great head of hair and grammy-nominated (ooo!) who has topped jazz charts and played with Dame Shirley Bassey, Vanessa Mae AND Michael Ball!), the lovely finger-lickin' bass and the dazzling Dalston drumming skills of Vortex and Ronnies regulars Chris Dodd and Simon Pearson (respectively and respectably) - Black Coffee which is featured here is taken from the live performance at RADA in 2007
The jazz you can hear are from live recordings from RADA with the Henry's Jazz Cellar, Edinburgh in 2001 with some of the best musicians in Scotland - Paul Harrison (p), Mario Caribe (b), Stu Brown (dr)
njb is also part of the an all female jazz ensemble, Occasional Ladies...which they are...occasionally
The original songs 'Momma' & ''Hometown' are played by barefootnative and 'alone' features njb and is written by njb & Si Kusnierek for the Sunharbour Collective


Influences: Playing with musicians with amazing feel. On gigs you gotta be gettin' paid, learnin' something or havin' fun -preferably all 3. And when it works there is nothing that comes even close to being in the vicinity of being near it.
Sounds Like:
Diversify - As well as working with jazz names like Sheila Jordan, Tina May, Michael Garrick, Jean Toussaint, BBC Jazz Award winners the wonderful Brian Kellock and the kick ass John Rae, njb has worked with producers from Soma and Fenetik, appeared on Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto 3 and has collaborated on tracks for film and tv.
If you want to listen to njb some more please wonder onto barefootnative (www.myspace.com/barefootnative) with whom she writes, arranges and sings and delve into the world of Chairman Kato (www.myspace.com/chairmankato) who sampled her voice on Treading Softly (his current project is 39 Steps, samples on site)
Record Label: a

My Blog

NEWS

NJB NEWS: 2008 has been a busy year for NJB: A residency at Centro in BEIJING, appearing in the MELBOURNE JAZZ FESTIVAL late night sessions, guesting at a dance club in SHANGHAI, spending several ...
Posted by on Sun, 11 Jan 2009 08:03:00 GMT

quote of the day

if it be now, tis not to come;if it be not to come, it will be now;if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all.
Posted by on Sat, 13 May 2006 05:48:00 GMT