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Aubrey Parasolle

With her thick, low alto tone and heavy swing rhythm, Aubrey Parasolle’s voice emotes a quality akin to jazz singers who have been singing for decades. However, once one sees her edgy hair, petite stature, and hears her thick Jersey accent, they know that this 24 year-old is not the average jazz performer.

“Jazz, by most standards, is an older genre of music, and I have definitely been inspired by jazz artists of the past,” Aubrey said. “But I think my youth and vitality add a modern edge to the music. I approach it with a different background, and I bring fresh interpretations of classic standards that an older artist just couldn’t illustrate on stage. A lot of times, with their maturity, brings a harsher, more cynical outlook on life and love, and while I have experienced my share of hardships, I’m still relatively unaffected and optimistic. I think that shows through in my performances.”

Though barely into her twenties, Aubrey is hardly an amateur to performing and to jazz. Her family raised Aubrey on a steady diet of jazz greats such as Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Miles Davis, and Clifford Brown. Those complex rhythms and harmonies implanted themselves in Aubrey’s ear and before long, she was taking jazz voice lessons and participating in several high school choirs and musicals. In her four years at Roxbury High School, Aubrey performed in the elite jazz choir, honor choir, madrigal ensemble, and was selected for regional and all-state choirs, as well as snatching the lead, Adelaide, in Guys and Dolls. At Roxbury, she was also given the opportunity to take private lessons and receive clinics from New York Voices members, Kim Nazarian and Darmon Meader.

Those successes in high school brought her to the University of Miami Vocal Jazz program, where she received a half-tuition scholarship to study under noted professors such as Larry Lapin, Whit Sidener, and Kevin Mahogany. While in Miami, Aubrey snagged steady jazz gigs at Books & Books and at Café Luna and continued to work in New Jersey during school breaks, performing at Patricia's in Randolph, Picatinny Arsenal in Dover, Bruschetta’s in Fairfield, Cecil’s Jazz Club in West Orange, and Ken's Trackside Restaurant with bands such as City Rhythm, The Gentle Winds Orchestra, and The Tony Nervine Big Band.

“I love jazz because it is the musical style that can be interpreted most freely,” Aubrey said. “In classical music as well as theater, often interpretation of a song is limited to what can fit into the music or what the composer specified to be done. In jazz anything goes! New arrangements, tunes, and styles are coming out all the time and it is how you put your spin on the standards that makes you unique. That freedom for expression and experimentation is what makes jazz the ever changing and always growing art form that it is.”

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Live Review

The Aubrey Anne Duo at Wine in the Woods

Read "The Aubrey Anne Duo at Wine in the Woods" reviewed by David A. Orthmann


The Aubrey Anne Duo Wine in the Woods West Milford, NJ September 9, 2007

Wine in the Woods is one of a number of Northern New Jersey locales which hosts The Aubrey Anne Duo on a semi-regular basis. The familiarity between artist and venue gave this Sunday afternoon performance an endearingly casual quality. Early in the opening set, singer Aubrey Parasolle, guitarist Patricia Tamburello, and Alan Capalbo, the room's proprietor, entered into brief, impromptu ...

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