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Hilary Gardner
Vocalist Hilary Gardner, described by The New Yorker as “a singer with a beguilingly subtle wit,” grew up a New Yorker at heart in the jazz hinterland of Wasilla, Alaska. Following stints in Italy and Seattle, WA, she moved to New York City in 2003. Hilary has released four recordings as a leader, receiving critical acclaim from the jazz world’s major publications; DownBeat Magazine declared her “an artist to watch” and named her a Rising Star Female Vocalist four years in a row.
With her newest recording, On the Trail with The Lonesome Pines, Gardner returns to her rustic roots, delving into repertoire from the “singing cowboy” era of the 1930s-40s, songs described by The Times as “Manhattan-meets-moonshine gems.” Featuring Justin Poindexter (guitars, vocals), Noah Garabedian (bass), Aaron Thurston (drums), and Sasha Papernik (accordion), the album evokes the expansiveness and romantic allure of the American West–replete with purple hills, silver stars, and the freedom to roam, unhurried and unworried, under endless western skies. The Wall Street Journal deemed the album “something new and wondrous.”
Hilary is a founding member of Duchess, a Boswell Sisters-inspired vocal trio with Amy Cervini and Melissa Stylianou. Duchess has released three full-length recordings and a holiday EP on Anzic Records. The trio won Vocal Group of the Year in the 2021 and 2022 Jazz Journalists Association Awards and was named Best Vocal Group in the 2021 Jazz Times Critics’ Poll. Duchess has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Israel, and Europe on festival stages and in intimate clubs. Duchess has collaborated with the Paul Taylor Dance Company, performing the music of the Andrews Sisters live onstage at Lincoln Center for Taylor’s seminal piece, Company B.In 2010, the Frank Sinatra estate chose Hilary to appear as the live, onstage singer in Tony-award winner Twyla Tharp’s Broadway hit, COME FLY AWAY. Backed by a 19-piece big band, Hilary sang solos and duets with Frank Sinatra in a performance hailed by critics as “wonderful” (Huffington Post), “elegant” (USA Today), and “terrific” (New York Observer).
Hilary performed with Jeff Goldblum and his band on Goldblum’s opening night at Café Carlyle, prompting New York Magazine to call hers "a voice worth seeking out." In the wake of her appearance with Goldblum, Michael Feinstein invited Hilary to be his guest on NPR's Song Travels with Michael Feinstein. She was also a guest on Judy Carmichael’s SiriusXM program, Jazz Inspired. Hilary appears as a jazz singer in Oscar-winning documentarian Errol Morris’s 2017 Netflix miniseries, WORMWOOD.
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Hilary Gardner: On the Trail With the Lonesome Pines
by Dan Bilawsky
How does an Alaskan-reared, New York-based singer of Great America Songbook virtue come to explore trail songs from the '30s and '40s? The answer is quite simple: A pandemic-produced mixture of curiosity and yearning for open pastures. While cooped up in her Brooklyn apartment during early quarantine days, Hilary Gardner began to research the rich if oft-neglected history of this sub-genre, both as it lives and breathes in its own space and connects directly to first-rate jazz and tin pan ...
read moreHilary Gardner: On the Trail With the Lonesome Pines
by John Chacona
It might be hard for the young'uns to believe, but there was a time when movie houses and television screens were filled with westerns. Tales of cowpokes and their trusty horses, outlaws, dogies and tumblin' tumbleweeds were so popular that various sub-genres of westerns flourished as brand extensions. One of these featured the singing cowboy trope, and elevated such figures as Roy Rogers, Tex Ritter and most notably, Gene Autry, to stardom. The songs they sang were western-ish, ...
read moreGeorge Gee Swing Orchestra: Winter Wonderland
by Jack Bowers
After an absence of several years the New York City-based George Gee Swing Orchestra is back in a recording studio, doing what it does best--swinging merrily through a Winter Wonderland chock-full of holiday favorites that kids of all ages can relate to and appreciate. Gee formed his first band while still in college at Carnegie Mellon University, one day after interviewing Count Basie on the campus radio station. After moving back to New York City, where he ...
read moreDUCHESS: Live At Jazz Standard
by Dan Bilawsky
There are a fair number of vocal groups blending harmoniously and swinging through the jazz set today, but none are as charmingly sassy as DUCHESS. With two studio albums already under a collective belt—actually three, if you include an under-the-radar Christmas set—it only made sense for vocalists Amy Cervini, Hilary Gardner and Melissa Stylianou to finally show the greater listening community what Duchess does on the stage. Joining up with its regular rhythm section—pianist Michael Cabe, guitarist ...
read moreHilary Gardner/Ehud Asherie: The Late Set
by Dan Bilawsky
If you're looking for the definition of a class act, look no more. This is most certainly it. With The Late Set, kindred spirits Hilary Gardner and Ehud Asherie make us simultaneously pine for an era long gone and appreciate what's right in front of us. If you've followed either one of these artists, their simpatico sensibilities should come as no shock. Gardner delivered one of the most meaningful paeans to New York in recent memory with ...
read moreHilary Gardner and Ehud Asherie at Caffè Vivaldi
by Dan Bilawsky
Hilary Gardner and Ehud Asherie Caffè Vivaldi New York, NY October 1, 2016 Visitors, curious natives, and jazz neophytes will often ask the same question when they come looking for the music in New York: Where's the best place to see and hear jazz? The answer, of course, is not so simple. One line of responses might simply involve playing favorites or citing specific acts to check out; another might point toward soft and ...
read moreHilary Gardner: The Great City
by Angelo Leonardi
Nel traboccante panorama delle nuove jazz singers, Hilary Gardner ha saputo emergere già con questo debutto, che spicca per la sentita adesione al jazz anni quaranta/cinquanta senza timore d'apparire demodé. La Gardner è una suadente interprete di ballads che disegna con profonda musicalità, purezza espressiva ed elegante chiarore timbrico secondo i modelli di Julie London, Peggy Lee e June Christy. È cresciuta a Wasilla -una cittadina dell'Alaska -e da qualche anno ha realizzato il sogno di lavorare ...
read moreThree Swinging Singers - Amy Cervini, Hilary Gardner & Melissa Stylianou - Make Their Trio Debut As Duchess
Source:
Jason Byrne, Red Cat Publicity
The new jazz vocal trio - whose first album arrives from Anzic Records on Feb. 17, 2015 - bottles an irresistibly fizzing style, inspired by the pioneering harmonies of the Boswell Sisters Duchess - backed by an ace band including drummer Matt Wilson - plays its album release show at New York City's Jazz Standard on March 3, 2015 “This threesome devises original arrangements of mostly vintage songs, both familiar and offbeat. They understand that swinging music goes hand in ...
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Vocalist Hilary Gardner Exhibits Effortless Vocal Brilliance & Sophistication On Her Debut Recording - The Great City
Source:
Jason Byrne, Red Cat Publicity
Vocalist Hilary Gardner Exhibits Effortless Vocal Brilliance & Sophistication on Her Debut Recording - The Great City Available September 30, 2014 on Anzic Records Featuring Ehud Asherie (piano), Randy Napoleon (guitar), Elias Bailey (bass), Jerome Jennings (drums), with special guests Jason Marshall (saxophone), Tatum Greenblatt (trumpet) & Jon Cowherd (organ) “...an absolutely first-class singer. She swings effortlessly without making a big deal of it, and she has a knack for hunting down off-center tunes . . . Yet she's just ...
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Soprano Hilary Gardner joins "Monday Off"
Source:
All About Jazz
November 9, 2004: Monday Off, the jazz vocal quartet hailed by Skitch Henderson as having “exquisite taste, rich creativity, fresh ideas, spread over a palate of standard repertoire" is welcoming a new member to their group, Hilary Gardner. The group has already begun recording their second album for release in 2005. Classically trained vocalist Hilary Gardner began her musical training at age twelve in her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska. While living in Seattle, Washington, Hilary was much in demand as ...
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“A singer with a beguilingly subtle wit.” -The New Yorker
"Gardner evokes memories of another time and place." -NPR
"...an uninhibited answer to the young Doris Day." -New York Times
”Guitarist Justin Poindexter…plays in a style that combines the Nashville virtuosity of Chet Atkins with the postmodern jazz Americana soundscapes of Bill Frisell. Likewise, Ms. Gardner has a sweet voice and a spare style that works equally well for jazz and country music; she knows exactly what to sing and what not to sing, and doesn’t try to fill up every open space. The result is a sound suggestive of the vast expanses of the open plains, a huge empty canvas that paints an internal picture—a surreal, extraplanetary prairie of the mind….They have taken a subgenre that no one quite realized actually even existed and made something new and wondrous with it.” -Will Friedwald, The Wall Street Journal
Ella Fitzgerald
vocals
Peggy Lee
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Carmen McRae
vocals
Joni Mitchell
vocals
Tom Waits
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Beverly Kenney
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Music
Cow Cow Boogie
From: On the Trail With the Lonesome...By Hilary Gardner
Hilary Gardner
Location: New York City
Instrument: Vocals
Born: August 22
Publicist: DL Media
