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Lisa Kelly

Lisa Kelly’s truly sings from the jazz tradition, classic to modern: it's great vocalists, horn players and bands, with influences that include Ella, Sarah Vaughan, Peggy Lee, Carmen McCrae, Diana Krall, Dianne Reeves, Satchmo, Freddy Hubbard, Clark Terry, the Count Basie Band to Maria Schneider. Lisa's signature sound and seasoned style has earned her many ardent listeners, drawn to her rich vocal timbre and impeccable phrasing in a relaxed, inviting style, and sophisticated stage presence. She conveys am intimate depth of lyric with a horn-like approach to improvisation and a solid ‘in the pocket’ swing feel, artfully creating superb musical lines much noticed by the instrumentalists. From jazz clubs to major festivals, small groups to big bands, the Classic American Songbook to Modern Jazz, Lisa Kelly has established herself among the continued legacy of true jazz vocal song stylists.

With both B.M. and M.M. Degrees in Jazz Studies from the University of North Florida School of Music, Lisa studied with legendary jazz artist/educators, including saxophonist Bunky Green and guitarist Jack Petersen. As vocalist with the UNF JE 1 big band, she was featured on 4 highly recognized UNF CD recordings. She won an unprecedented 8 “DownBeat Magazine Student Awards” (6 vocal, 1 original composition, 1 small group arrangement) and was the 2000 vocal winning member of the esteemed “IAJE Sisters In Jazz Combo,” performing at the IAJE Convention in New Orleans, the Mary Lou William's Jazz Festival at the Kennedy Center, “Festival Vien,” and the Vienna State Opera House. Lisa has been featured with many ensembles, including the famed Larry Elgart Orchestra, the St. Johns River City Band, and the Chris Riddle Orchestra, and has performed with such jazz luminaries as Bunky Green, Jack Petersen, Bill Prince, Bill Allred, Arturo Sandoval, Ed Calle, Don Menza, Slide Hampton, Dave Brubeck, Eddie Metz, Lynne Arriale, Danny Gottlieb, John Lee, Yotam Silberstein, Terry Myers, Bob Draga and many others. She has performed for numerous national and international festivals, clubs and jazz societies as a guest solo artist and as a co-leader of several small groups and big bands with her husband, renowned trumpeter, JB Scott.

Lisa is a frequent guest artist/clinician and an adjudicator for both vocal and instrumental competitions and festivals, teaches voice, music theory and combo for jazz camps, and has taught formally at the middle school, high school and collegiate levels. Well known for her mentoring, Lisa has presented vocal jazz clinics for various schools and in-service teacher’s conferences, for Jazz Educators Network (JEN) National Conferences, for Florida Jazz Educators (FJE), and since 2007, for the Florida Music Educators Association (FMEA) Convention in Tampa, Florida, where her Lisa Kelly Quartet received a standing ovation for their performance at the prestigious 2012 FMEA Opening Session. Since 2000, she has been the featured vocalist with the FMEA/FBA Band Directors Reading Band Session, and in 2012, served as the mentor for the first student vocalist to ever perform with the FMEA All-State High School Jazz Ensemble. In 2013 (through 2015) Lisa initiated the first state-wide high school “High School Jazz Vocal Soloist Competition,” coaching 3 student vocalists to perform at the annual FMEA music conference in Tampa, Florida, with one also singing with the 2013 All-State Jazz Band, directed by Dr. Bill Prince.

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103
Album Review

Lisa Kelly & the J.B. Scott 5-Tet: Memories of Tomorrow

Read "Memories of Tomorrow" reviewed by Jack Bowers


To paraphrase the claim once made by a well–known airline, Lisa Kelly loves to sing — and it shows. She’s clearly a Jazz singer too, altering melody, phrasing and tempo and scatting occasionally on Memories of Tomorrow to lend each song an invigorating new slant. Much as Kelly loves to sing, however, she graciously steps aside on four numbers to let hubby J.B. Scott and his colleagues have their say. Scott even does some scatting of his own (with a ...

126
Album Review

Lisa Kelly: By Request

Read "By Request" reviewed by Jack Bowers


For every Diana Krall, Cassandra Wilson or Dee Dee Bridgewater there are a hundred or more young women plugging away in relative obscurity, singing whenever and wherever the opportunity arises and hoping that sooner or later their talents will be more widely recognized and appreciated. In Chicago there's Hinda Hoffman, one of the best “unknown" Jazz vocalists I?ve heard, and in Jacksonville there's Lisa Kelly, another splendid singer who is perhaps best known (so far) for her work with the ...

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Performance / Tour

Jazz mastery on parade

Jazz mastery on parade

Source: Ken Franckling's Jazz Notes

Classic jazz from New Orleans is essential to performances by singer Lisa Kelly and trumpeter JB Scott but the couple showed once again what a wide net they cast when digging into material from the jazz canon, Great American Songbook and vintage popular standards. In the Charlotte County Jazz Society's 2081-19 season opener on Monday, October 8, their sextet mixed in a lot of fresh material with six of their concert staples, five of them rooted in New Orleans. This ...

Performance / Tour

New Orleans on parade - and other surprises

New Orleans on parade - and other surprises

Source: Ken Franckling's Jazz Notes

Singer Lisa Kelly and trumpeter JB Scott had a few surprises up their sleeves for their return performance at the Charlotte County Jazz Society on Monday, February 13. The Jacksonville-based musicians spent about one-third of their two-hour concert digging deep into music associated with New Orleans. They also.brought a larger band than anticipated and featured Scott on several vocal numbers in addition to his solid trumpet artistry. The Crescent City connection was a natural. Scott spent three years as musical ...

“Lisa Kelly gets my vote for one of the few singers that understands how to handle a ballad with tenderness, grace, and warmth. I gladly fell into the mystical mood she created…thanks for sharing the gift!” John Clayton, world renowned bassist, composer, arranger

“Well jazz lovers, are you ready? Because Lisa Kelly is! This beautiful vocalist is very focused and passionate about this great American Art form we call Jazz. I have no doubt about what contribution towards the perpetuation and preservation of Jazz that Lisa will make. Great phrasing, color, and pitch! Pitch! Pitch! Swing Baby! Carmen Bradford, World renowned jazz vocalist the Count Basie Band

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