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Judi Silvano

What Judi Silvano has been able to accomplish thus far gives the appearance of multiple artists' careers strung together—but it's all Judi. In fact, she's always got a new project ready to fly, oftentimes dovetailing and overlapping her previous efforts. Born in Philadelphia, with a degree (in both Music and Dance) from Temple University, Judi made her way to New York City in 1976 where she launched her career as an improviser—of dance at first. But jazz would not be far behind. An alchemist of music and movement, her career as a choreographer and dancer led her straight to NYC's downtown music scene where her improvisational spirit could run free. It also steered her toward what would become a long-term collaboration with saxophonist Joe Lovano that began in 1980 and continues to this day. Throughout the '80s, you could alsofind Judi on any given Monday night at the Village Vanguard where the Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra held forth, soaking in the great charts of Thad Jones. Before long, Judi could sing along with all the lead trumpet parts. You can trace the roots of her unique horn-like approach to vocalizing directly to this experience. To date, Judi Silvano has 8 recordings to her credit, including 1997's "Vocalise" on the Blue Note label and a landmark duo recording with Billie Holiday’s last accompanist, the great pianist Mal Waldron “Riding A Zephyr” on Soul Note Records. She's led multiple vocal groups from Voices of Juniper to Voices Together, won numerous awards and grants (Meet the Composer and New York State Council on the Arts two times), been named one of the Top 10 Vocalists in Down Beat magazine 4 times and has contributed as a jazz journalist/columnist to All About Jazz & Jazz Improv Magazine for several years. Silvano has been the subject of an original composition "Sketches for Silvano" by Lori Dobbins for vibes, percussion and voice (recorded on Capstone Records) and premiered Kenny Werner’s “No Beginning, No Ending” in May 2007, commissioned by MIT and written for her with fellow soloists Joe Lovano and Kenny Werner and Wind Orchestra. As a gifted educator with a great heart (that comment comes straight from her students), Ms. Silvano has passed on her knowledge and experience to a multitude of young musicians both privately and through her Vocal Improv workshops in NYC, and at such esteemed institutions as Banff International Center for the Arts, Manhattan School of Music, Vassar College and Rutgers University.

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Album Review

Judi Silvano: Lessons Learned

Read "Lessons Learned" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


"Preferisco lavorare come parte di un ensemble piuttosto che pormi di fronte al gruppo --diceva Judy Silvano nel 2002 a Down Beat--Da quando ho iniziato a esibirmi nei primi anni ottanta ho avuto difficoltà a percepire i cantanti come una razza diversa dagli strumentisti." Una peculiarità che ritroviamo in Lessons Learned con Judi parte integrante di una band senza pianoforte, con due chitarristi (Kenny Wessel e Bruce Arnold), un sassofonista/clarinetto basso (Adam Kolker) e ritmica. In un paio di occasioni ...

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Album Review

Judi Silvano & The Zephyr Band: Lessons Learned

Read "Lessons Learned" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


Judi Silvano is a vocalist, singer and artist who has been around for some time, long enough to look back over her life and create this set of songs which reflect on her experiences and accumulated knowledge. Her music here contains elements of jazz, rock and other genres with a heavy reliance on guitars, both the straight ahead sound of Kenny Wessel and the more processed and altered work of Bruce Arnold. It's also enhanced by occasional injections of saxophone ...

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Album Review

Judi Silvano: Indigo Moods

Read "Indigo Moods" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


Vocalist Judi Silvano celebrates 20 years of jazz recording with the release of Indigo Moods on the Jazzed Media label. After recording in a variety of formats, with and without husband and tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano, Silvano lands here with a collection of standards that features pianist Peter Tomlinson providing the harmonic guidance and trumpeter Fred Jacobs adding the color. Such an intimate environment provides maximum artistic exposure for vocalists, and only the most experienced singers can not only withstand ...

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Album Review

Judi Silvano: Cleome: Live Takes

Read "Cleome: Live Takes" reviewed by Jim Santella


Judi Silvano’s improvising quartet, Cleome, dares to push with a unique air as her voice melds with the ensemble’s three instrumental sounds in an uproar of motion. Making its flexible journey through space and revealing her extended range, the leader’s voice pierces like a soprano bullet that ricochets through the room in random patterns. Her vocal arrangements make musical sense, however, as she carries each melodic pattern in partnership with saxophonist George Garzone in an outré display that ...

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Album Review

Judi Silvano: Women's Work: Live at Sweet Rhythm

Read "Women's Work: Live at Sweet Rhythm" reviewed by Suzanne Lorge


Each year since 2003 vocalist Judi Silvano has presented a concert featuring the music of female jazz composers during Women's History Month in March. In 2006 she recorded this effort live at New York City's Sweet Rhythm and the result is Women's Work, a collection of eleven inviting songs written by Abbey Lincoln, Blossom Dearie, Sheila Jordan, Bessie Smith and Silvano herself, among others.

Silvano used only female musicians for her band--Janice Friedman (piano), Jennifer Vincent (bass) and Allison Miller ...

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Album Review

Judi Silvano: Women's Work: Live at Sweet Rhythm

Read "Women's Work: Live at Sweet Rhythm" reviewed by Michael P. Gladstone


Jazz singer Judi Silvano is the wife of tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano and she has appeared on some of his Blue Note albums, including Viva Caruso (2002), Celebrating Sinatra (1996) and Universal Language (1992), with a rather operatic vocalese style.

Silvano began recording under her own name on Blue Note with Vocalese (1996) and then with her own JSL Label which has released several albums including Songs I Wrote or Wish I Wrote (2000), Sound Garden: Spirit Music ...

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Extended Analysis

Judi Silvano: Let Yourself Go

Read "Judi Silvano: Let Yourself Go" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Judi Silvano Let Yourself Go Zoho Music 2004

Vocalist Judi Silvano's Let Yourself Go makes me long for the day when jazz was America's popular music. If that were the case today, this disc would sell a million copies and score three or four top ten radio hits. But it's a new pop song millennium, and the jazz recordings are pushed into the back racks--the general listening public's loss; the discerning and ...

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Performance / Tour

Judi Silvano's Women's Work Quartet Wednesday, January 9th Sets 8 PM & 10 PM

Judi Silvano's Women's Work Quartet Wednesday, January 9th Sets 8 PM & 10 PM

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services

Wednesday, January 9, 2008 Judi Silvano's WOMEN'S WORK QUARTET featuring pianist Janice Friedman, bassist Jennifer Vincent drummer Bernice “Boom Boom" Brooks Special Guest Joe Lovano Kitano Jazz Room in the Kitano Hotel 66 Park Avenue (at 38th Street) 212-885-7119 Mezzanine Bar Sets 8 PM & 10 PM No Cover / $15 Min. Silvano leads a vibrant all-female ensemble, in a repertoire including neglected gems ...

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Performance / Tour

Judi Silvano's Women's Work Quartet Wednesday, January 9th Sets 8 PM & 10 PM

Judi Silvano's Women's Work Quartet Wednesday, January 9th Sets 8 PM & 10 PM

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services

Wednesday, January 9, 2008 Judi Silvano's WOMEN'S WORK QUARTET featuring pianist Janice Friedman bassist Jennifer Vincent drummer Bernice “Boom Boom" Brooks Special Guest Joe Lovano Kitano Jazz Room in the Kitano Hotel 66 Park Avenue (at 38th Street) 212-885-7119 Mezzanine Bar Sets 8 PM & 10 PM No Cover / $15 Min. ...

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Performance / Tour

Judi Silvano with the Michael Abene Sextet March 21 at the Jazz Standard Sets 7:30 pm & 9:30 pm

Judi Silvano with the Michael Abene Sextet  March 21 at the Jazz Standard Sets 7:30 pm & 9:30 pm

Source: All About Jazz

March 16, 2005 To: Listings/Critics/Features From: JAZZ PROMO SERVICES Press Contact: JIM EIGO, [email protected] MARCH 21, 2005 Monday Night Singer Series: Judi Silvano with the Michael Abene Sextet Sets 7:30 pm & 9:30 pm Judi Silvano - voice Michael Abene - piano, arranger Ingrid Jensen - trumpet Dan Silverman - trombone Newman Taylor Baker - drums Judi Silvano's 2004 Zoho release Let Yourself Go, arranged for “little big band" by pianist Michael Abene, was her sixth album as a leader ...

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Performance / Tour

Judi Silvano Upcoming Appearances

Judi Silvano Upcoming Appearances

Source: All About Jazz


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Performance / Tour

Joe Lovano/Judi Silvano/Salvatore Bonafede Sound Garden Meditations Sun. Jan. 30th at 5pm

Joe Lovano/Judi Silvano/Salvatore Bonafede Sound Garden Meditations Sun. Jan. 30th at 5pm

Source: All About Jazz

January 28, 2005 To: Listings/Critics/Features From: JAZZ PROMO SERVICES YOU ARE NOT GOING TO WANT TO MISS THIS!!! Hudson View Gardens Performing Arts Group Presents “SUNDAYS at 5" THIS SUNDAY January 30th at 5pm in the “Lounge" A peaceful music journey through soothing East-Indian and jazz-influenced improvisations for varied reed and wind instruments, voice, piano, gongs and percussion featuring one ...

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Performance / Tour

Judi Silvano CD Release Party Let Yourself Go at Birdland Oct. 26 & Sweet Rhythm Nov. 16

Judi Silvano CD Release Party Let Yourself Go at Birdland Oct. 26 & Sweet Rhythm Nov. 16

Source: All About Jazz

CD RELEASE PARTY Judi Silvano's “Let Yourself Go" on Zoho Music TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26 BIRDLAND JAZZ CLUB 315 West 44th Street, NYC phone: 212-581-3080 www.birdlandjazz.com sets at 9 & 11 Michael Abene Ingrid Jensen Dick Oatts Dan Silverman Chip Jackson Newman Taylor-Baker AND TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 16 SWEET RHYTHM, 88 Seventh Avenue South @ Bleecker St., Reservations: ...

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Performance / Tour

Judi Silvano Quintet Celebrates Release Of New CD "Riding A Zephyr"

Judi Silvano Quintet Celebrates Release Of New CD "Riding A Zephyr"

Source: All About Jazz

Blue Note Jazz Club Monday, November 4

In Concert with Janice Friedman, Donny McCaslin, Scott Lee, Newman Taylor-Baker

Judi Silvano celebrates the release of “Riding a Zephyr," her new duo CD with Mal Waldron, in concert with her Quintet at the Blue Note Jazz Club, 131 West 3rd Street, NY, NY. Joining Silvano on this date, which will feature standards and modern songs as well as music from the album, will be Janice Friedman on piano, Donny McCaslin ...

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Lessons Learned

Unit Records
2018

buy

My Dance

JSL Records
2015

buy

Indigo Moods

Jazzed Media
2012

buy

Cleome: Live Takes

JSL Records
2008

buy

Women's Work

JSL Records
2007

buy

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