Primary Instrument: Vocal
Raised to the sounds of Ella, Billie, Frank and Peggy Lee singing the Great American Songbook, the Berlin born Parisian vocalist Susanna Bartilla always knew she would be a jazz singer.
She inherited an unconditional love for the genre from her father, a crooner and sax player, who regularly took her out to see live music from an early age on, and it has often been said that she owes her sure sense of timing and swing to her gypsy grandfather.
All through her childhood she sang the alto voice in a choir and after moving to Paris aged 18, quite naturally studied to be an opera singer. After spending some years touring and recording with a vocal baroque group and gaining valuable stage experience, she found her way back to her roots and studied vocal jazz at renowned EDIM Jazz school with some of the best vocalists.
For some years now, audiences in clubs and festivals have enjoyed Susanna’s performing of the most beautiful standards of all times, the ones that have the right words to tell the stories we’ve all lived through, in 32 bars.
After releasing a first CD of German Jazz “So Viel Glück” for Sergent Major in 2007, she dedicated the year 2009/2010 to celebrating the centennial of lyricist Johnny Mercer with a well chosen program of his finest lyrics, culminating in her critically acclaimed Mercer tribute CD “Live at the Sunside”.
Susanna’s current project is a tribute to the wonderful Miss Peggy Lee that she will be introducing at festivals during the summer and fall.
Her tribute album “I Love Lee” is due for release in early 2013, including Lee’s best and also lesser known tunes as well as some standards written by Peggy Lee, featuring Alain Jean-Marie on piano and Aldo Romano on drums, as well as Sean Gourley on guitar and Claude Mouton on the double bass.
