Just a quick recap, then: Sara Gazarek, due at Jazz Alley next Monday and Tuesday, started out (oddly enough) as a child, abosorbing sounds from the Seattle streets; attended Roosevelt High School where she signed up to the school’s illustrious jazz program and traveled to NYC with the Roosevelt Jazz Band. She earned the first-ever Ella Fitzgerald Outstanding Vocalist Award and took herself to L.A. to seek her fortune.
Her first album Yours, from 2005, captured her out of the gate with imaginative arrangements of Joni Mitchell (who herself owes more to jazz than many realize); a smattering of original tunes; and of all things, a song many of our mothers sang to many of us as starting-out children. Gazarek realized “You Are My Sunshine” was at its core a sad song. But she boldly sung sweetly through sadness. Her voice, simple on the surface, threw out more facets with each listen.
Her second studio album Return To You, two years later, brought back some Joni, threw in some Billy Joel, and re-affirmed that she could (co-) write some tunes deserving of standard-status through everybody else. She also cut “Hallelujah,” in danger of becoming a worn-out shoe, but once again distinctive and deceptively-simple arrangement, helped along of course by her band, spun her into the clear.
She’ll appear at Jazz Alley with second singer Johnaye Kendrick; pianist John Hanson; drummer Sean Hutchinson; and bassist David Dawda. Her old record label sank, alas (try buying her stuff from her directly), but she’s inked a new deal with Palmetto Records and a new studio album should hit shelves in the spring of 2012. She recently became a professor through the Thornton School of Music, University of Southern California. She won’t reveal her exact set list, but she promises “old tunes, new tunes and a splash of holiday magic.” I do hope to see you there.
