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Gina Panizales

Music and singing has always been a part of her for as long as she can remember. Gina was exposed to all kinds of music at a tender age and was active in choirs, solo performances and drama/musical theater productions in school. Although she has a degree in business, she chose her passion and started doing Top 40’s and popular songs to earn a living but was listening to Jazz, blues, gospel and broadway music during her spare time. She believes that the key to a successful singer is the ability to listen to others and to yourself.

Her performance has taken her to many parts of Asia while based in Kuala Lumpur, and has traveled to South America, Australia, Europe and the US. One of her cherished moments was performing live at the Cotton Club in New York with their in-house swing band.

Based in Malaysia, she’s performed with some of the top notch musicians. She was the vocalist for Asiabeat (with Lewis Pragasam), Face First (with Greg Lyons), Aztec Jam (with Stuart Henderson), Jungle Jazz (with Dodong Jumawan), the Solianos, and Face First, Mezanotte band with Greg Lyons, Eye2eyejazzmix, the Solianos and Franciscos based in KL, Mike Veerapen, Patrick Terbrack of Chicago, WVC Trio with Tay Cher Siang, Broery Marantika, violinist Ryo, and Harvey Malaiholo of Indonesia, Stu MacAskie, and currently with her own GP Jazz Quartet performming around the region. She also frequents performances for visiting foreign dignitaries and has perform 3 times for His Majesty, The King of Malaysia, once for the duke of Argyle, a few occasions for the Sultans of different states and recently the FIP Royal Polo World Cup 2011 with the Prime Minister in attendance. She also performs as a vocalist for the Malaysia Airlines Jazz band, KL City Orchestra and Mosaic Music with violinist Dennis Lau.

She went to Sabah, East Malaysia in 1999, and met Sabah’s finger style guitarist Roger Wang. In August 2000, both did a special performance at Shangri-la Tanjung Aru Resort. A year she later joined the JV Quartet and has been active in the Sabah, Borneo music scene. In August 15, 2004 she performed once again with highly acclaimed Roger Wang and Friends Concert held at the Sabah Trade Center .

Her influences include Aretha Franklin, Ella Fitgerald, Patti Austin, Anita Baker, Dinah Washington, Diane Schuur, Diane Reeves, Etta James, Sarah Vaughn, BB King, Porter, Gershwin, vocal groups and Big Bands. Having Spanish as part of her heritage, Brazilian and Latin music forms a big part of her repertoire as well like the music of Antonio Carlos Jobim, Tania Maria, Flora Purim, Elaine Elias and Celia Cruz.

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"She might be new to the game, but Gina certainly knows how to entice potential fans to her melodic brand of jazz, and "Finally" is her bait. Listen to it, and you could just be hooked." -Rama Lohan, Star Newspaper

"Gina Panizales and her Jazz quartet put on a magnificent show, a fine finale to the already wonderful KK Jazz Festival 2010" - Joanna Funk, SabahSongs Music Blog, 19 June 2010

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Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Finally

Multinum Entertainment
2008

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