Charmaine Clamor

Charmaine Clamor is the first Filipina jazz singer to find success on American radio. Her debut album, Searching for the Soul (2005), “announced the arrival of an impressive new vocal artist. When Charmaine Clamor's warm, luscious contralto slips into a seductive rhythm or purrs through tender lyrics, there's no doubt that a first-rate jazz talent is present” (LOS ANGELES TIMES). Critics and disc jockeys have compared her “bedroom eyes voice” (ALL ABOUT JAZZ) to legendary vocalists like Sarah Vaughan and Cassandra Wilson, all the while recognizing her individual style and sound.

Charmaine Clamor is the first Filipina jazz singer to find success on American radio. Her debut album, Searching for the Soul (2005), “announced the arrival of an impressive new vocal artist. When Charmaine Clamor's warm, luscious contralto slips into a seductive rhythm or purrs through tender lyrics, there's no doubt that a first-rate jazz talent is present” (LOS ANGELES TIMES). Critics and disc jockeys have compared her “bedroom eyes voice” (ALL ABOUT JAZZ) to legendary vocalists like Sarah Vaughan and Cassandra Wilson, all the while recognizing her individual style and sound.

Charmaine's second album, Flippin' Out (2007), synthesizes American jazz, blues and soul with traditional Filipino folk music, instantly creating a new hybrid genre she calls jazzipino. The album debuted on the JazzWeek World Music Charts, a first for a Filipino-born artist. Flippin' Out introduces an imaginative singer daring to create a category all her own.

Originally from the provincial town of Subic-Zambales, Charmaine Clamor began her singing career at age 3, entertaining passengers (whether they liked it or not!) in the back of buses traveling to Manila. As she grew, she began providing piano accompaniment while her mother sang kundiman (Filipino torch songs) and English language classics. From these early memories comes her love of the Great American Songbook.

Charmaine is also the first Filipina to headline the world-famous Catalina Bar & Grill jazz club, in Hollywood, which presented Charmaine at their sold-out 2005 & 2006 Filipino-American Jazz Festival. In 2006, she headlined the First Manila International Jazz Festival in her birth country, the Philippines.

One of the founding members of JazzPhil-USA, a non-profit organization which promotes Filipino-American jazz artists in the United States, Charmaine has been credited with introducing the Filipino culture to mainstream audiences, delighting music lovers with her “very honest stage presence” and vocal artistry that listeners describe as “a spiritual experience” and “utterly mesmerizing” (LA WEEKLY).