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Anita Wardell

Born in Guildford, UK, Anita moved to Australia with her family as a child. Anita's formative years were spent soaking up the Rodgers and Hammerstein and Cole Porter classics. She also explored her father's collection of big band albums by Duke Ellington, Count Basie and many more.

During her teens, she started to get to grips with the complexities of modern Jazz when she discovered Clifford Brown, Cannonball Adderley, Miles Davis and Charlie Parker. At the same time she learned her vocal craft from greats like Ella Fitzgerald, Mark Murphy, Carmen McRae, Betty Carter, Jon Hendricks and Eddie Jefferson.

After attending secondary School she completed her degree in Music at the Adelaide University. In 1990, Anita relocated back to the UK where she studied at the Guildhall school of music and drama.

Anita's recording career began in 1995 with her CD,Why do you Cry? featuring pianist Liam Noble.

In 1998 she released Straight Ahead with international star pianist Jason Rebello. Japan's most popular jazz publication, Swing Journal, gave its endorsement, writing, "she's the real thing who can fluently scat and vocalese!"

Her longstanding musical relationship with pianist Robin Aspland started with the release of Until The Stars Fade in 2001 also featuring the exciting US drummer Gene Calderazzo and Jeremy Brown on bass. Jazzwise Magazine called her “energetic and inventive” while The Guardian proclaimed her “a model of the Jazz singer’s art”, highlighting her clarity, improvisational skills and emotional resonance.

In 2004 she teamed up with tenor saxophonist, Benn Clatworthy, and recorded If You Never Come to Me.

Anita received the prestigious BBC Jazz Award for Best of Jazz category in 2006. In the same year she was signed to Proper Records and recorded Noted (2006) and Kinda Blue (2008).

Her latest album, The Road, was released in summer 2013. In the same year she won the Best Vocalist category iun the British Jazz Awards and in 2014 Anita was nominated in the 2014 British Jazz awards.

Over the past four years, Anita has travelled extensively, performing and leading jazz vocal masterclasses in USA, Europe and Australia.

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355
Album Review

Anita Wardell: Noted

Read "Noted" reviewed by William Grim


The best straight-ahead jazz singer on the scene today is Anita Wardell, the winner of the prestigious BBC Jazz Award last month, and Noted is one of the most impressive displays of vocal jazz and vocalese in many years. Backed up by her usual working trio of pianist Robin Aspland, bassist Jeremy Brown and drummer Steve Brown (along with guest saxophonist Alex Garnett), Wardell delivers knockout performances of well-known jazz classics and less familiar works that she has updated using ...

99
Album Review

Anita Wardell: Until the Stars Fade

Read "Until the Stars Fade" reviewed by William Grim


Anita Wardell is one of England's best-kept secrets, but with talent like hers she won't be a secret for much longer. Possessing a natural swing and scatting ability like Kitty Margolis but with the sensuality of Julie London, Wardell is the complete jazz singer. Her sidemen are extremely gifted soloists in their own rights, and hearing this album should make North American jazz fans with the wherewithal want to hop the next plane to Ronnie Scott's when Wardell's quartet plays ...

139
Album Review

Anita Wardell: Straight Ahead

Read "Straight Ahead" reviewed by Dave Nathan


Great Britain has long been a fertile ground for singers and an awesome lot they are. Among the better known are Norma Winstone (the grande dame of English jazz singers), Carol Kidd, expatriate American Stacey Kent, Clair Martin and Jan Ponsford. Susannah McCorkle's career also blossomed there. Now we have Australian born Anita Wardell cutting her first album in England for the British record company, 33Jazz. I wish I could report that Ms Wardell belongs in this select group. But ...

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102

Festival

Natalie Williams and Anita Wardell Added to Abu Dhabi Jazz Festival 2008

Natalie Williams and Anita Wardell Added to Abu Dhabi Jazz Festival 2008

Source: All About Jazz

Jazz Fans Across the Nation to Witness the Appearance of Two Jazz Divas During Abu Dhabi Jazz Festival 2008! Versatile, vocally strong, and beautiful are all the makings of the superstar Natalie Williams. Natalie has become an essential fixture on the UK soul and jazz scene. With 3 critically acclaimed albums under her belt, Natalie has drawn comparisons to Jill Scott, Aretha Franklin and Amy Winehouse. Graduating in 2001 from the prestigious Guildhall School of Music & Drama, having been ...

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

The Road

Symbol Records
2013

buy

Kinda Blue

Specific Jazz
2008

buy

Noted

Specific Jazz
2006

buy

Until the Stars Fade

Symbol Records
2002

buy

Noted

Specific Jazz
0

buy

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