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Zoe Schwarz
Rob says about the ZOE SCHWARZ BLUE COMMOTION project, “I think there is a big vacancy in the jazz world for the bluesy side of jazz we play, it appeals to a much wider audience, but retains all the jazz qualities that we love. We’ll be playing material by the likes of Ray Charles, Nina Simone, those sultry ‘Billie Holiday ballads’ Zoe is making such a great name for, and an occasional blues by greats such as Koko Taylor and Willie Dixon, and of course one or two of our own”.
Zoë and Rob’s musical partnership has been described as “one of the most engagingly natural partnerships in jazz, Zoë’s unaffected vocal style particularly well suited to the blues, and Rob's flawless guitar skills; their gigs are immediately accessible, enjoyable affairs.”
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Zoe Schwarz: The Blues and I Should have a Party
by C. Michael Bailey
That most durable and indivisible of popular music genres: the blues. Traditionally of an eight-or twelve-bar architecture, if not something more primordial from the pre-Great Depression shellac of Mamie Smith, Tommy Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and Charlie Patton. After years of sepia-toned, nostalgic reportage regarding the Ur-nature of this folk art, most of the cobwebs of legend and myth have since been brushed away, revealing that the blues" became the blues" at the same time they became a commodity being ...
read moreZoe Schwarz: Slow Burn
by C. Michael Bailey
British singer Zoe Schwarz is a blues singer in the same way that the late Gene Harris was a blues pianist. Harris often referred to himself as a blues player with jazz chops." Even his jazziest performances are steeped in the vernacular. For an example, see his famous performance from Ray Brown's Bam Bam Bam (Concord, 1988). Schwarz can belt the blues out with the best of them, but she is also a more than competent jazz singer, one who ...
read moreThe London Blues of Zoë Schwarz
by C. Michael Bailey
The American music genres blues and jazz are the subatomic particles of every note played since their commission to media in the early part of the last century. While one did not beget the other, were this a Venn diagram, there would exist an overlapping of blues and jazz in that place behind the roadhouse on an unfiltered whiskey Friday night - all urgent zippers and hiked skirts against the fence. It is the blues that gives ...
read more“This eagerly awaited follow up to what was one of my favourite vocal CDs of 2004, Dancing For Miles … one of the most outstanding voices on the current circuit.” by Nick Lea Jazz Views (Devil Or Dove)
“ Zoë Schwarz has a great and very interesting voice: kind of Julie London crossed with June Christy in the lower register but then there is the startling upper register that is completely her own.” by Jack Kenny Jazz Views
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Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson
Give Me The Key To Your Heart
From: ChameleonBy Zoe Schwarz
Detour Ahead
From: Slow BurnBy Zoe Schwarz