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Madeline Eastman

DOWNBEAT MAGAZINE: Twice voted one of the Top Female Jazz Vocalists DOWNBEAT INTERNATIONAL CRITICS POLL: Voted Talent Deserving Wider Recognition A fearless improviser who seeks out equally intrepid collaborators, San Francisco jazz singer Madeline Eastman strips a lyric bare to reveal unspoken secrets and unanticipated meanings. With the intensity of a torch singer and the chops of a post-bop saxophonist, she’s forged a singular approach unlike any other vocalist on the scene, in what the Los Angeles Times describes as “a consummate, inventive, endlessly entertaining artist at work…a prime example of what jazz singing in the 21st century can be.” Her new collection of ballads, A Quiet Thing, a ravishing duo album with pianist Randy Porter, captures an artist rising to new heights, offering a master class in the art of improvisational storytelling. Eastman possesses an uncanny gift for communicating emotional insights with sophisticated, truthful phrasing that mainlines straight to the heart. She combines an alluringly lustrous sound with an in-the-moment ethos that turns every song into an uncharted journey prompting JazzTimes Magazine to describe her as “an inveterately unpredictable traveler who never fails to take us to magical places.” Exploring a delightfully diverse array of material, including haunting movie themes, unaccountably overlooked standards, and transformative interpretations of Sondheim, the Beach Boys, Chick Corea, Randy Newman, Alec Wilder, and Laura Nyro, A Quiet Thing captures Eastman’s startlingly intimate musical partnership with Porter. It’s a high-wire collaboration between equally fearless improvisers who treat songs less as launching pads than as living texts ripe for reinvention. Eastman’s confidence stems from a lifetime devoted to jazz. Born in San Francisco, Eastman became enamored with the music at 18, first fascinated by Billie Holiday. She spent the next decade tracking down a series of pianistic mentors, working extensively with Bay Area jazz stalwarts Flip Nunez, Smith Dobson and Paul Poyten. She listened deeply to Miles Davis, particularly his mid-'60s quintet. Among vocalists, her prime inspiration is Carmen McRae, one of jazz's most incisive lyric interpreters. “There's the holy trinity – Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Carmen McRae – and for me, Carmen was it. Her singing was so truthful and it landed right in my heart,” Eastman says. Inspired by jazz vocal legend Betty Carter’s Bet-Car Records, Eastman and fellow Bay Area jazz singer Kitty Margolis launched their own record label, Mad-Kat Records in the late 1980s, a time when only a handful of jazz artists were producing themselves.

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Album Review

Madeline Eastman + Randy Porter: A Quiet Thing

Read "A Quiet Thing" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello


Recently one of the sports channels delivered a segment about a deep sea diver who plummets into and ascends from ocean depths unaided by air tanks. He does it all on his own breath. In that documentary, the diver speaks about the peak life experience he encounters with each daredevil dive. The metaphors of adventure, heightened experience and certainly depth and breath, of course--are quite apropos applied to Madeline Eastman as A Quiet Thing is a terrific recording and an ...

2
Album Review

Madeline Eastman + Randy Porter: A Quiet Thing

Read "A Quiet Thing" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


When Bay Area vocalist Madeline Eastman released Bare: A Collection Of Ballads (Mad-Kat, 2001), it was a bit of a departure from her previous recorded work. By that point, she was a decade into a critically acclaimed recording career and she had established herself as an adventurous, risk-taking, creative artist with albums like Point Of Departure (Madkat, 1990), featuring trumpeter Tom Harrell, and Mad About Madeline! (Madkat, 1991), with pianist Cedar Walton, saxophonist Phil Woods and guest vocalist Mark Murphy. ...

2
Album Review

Madeline Eastman + Randy Porter: A Quiet Thing: A Collection of Ballads

Read "A Quiet Thing: A Collection of Ballads" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


The beauty of vocalist Madeline Eastman is that she is an undaunted improviser who remains conservative in her improvising. In this context, the word conservative harbors no negative connotations. Eastman has an abiding respect for the melody that is reflected in her thoughtful interpretations of the fourteen ballads making up A Quiet Thing. The piano-voice format also reflects this careful conservative approach to the material. The repertoire for this recording is what is truly provocative. Reading the ...

148
Album Review

Madeline Eastman: The Speed of Life

Read "The Speed of Life" reviewed by Michael P. Gladstone


My suggestion for the cover of jazz vocalist Madeline Eastman's next album is a shot of her poised to dive into an uncharted body of water. This is one lady who is not afraid to take chances with existing material and even from note to note. The San Francisco singer has recorded five albums for her own Mad-Kat label—and although I haven't heard all of them, I would venture an opinion that she hasn't lost a step since 1990.

177
Album Review

Madeline Eastman: The Speed of Life

Read "The Speed of Life" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Have you ever been in a club, or sat listening to a live recording, when a tenor saxophonist blows a solo in the middle of a standard, and it stays pretty much faithful to the theme for a bit, then stretches out into some unexpected – beautifully so – variations of theme, while still hanging onto it? A small, gorgeous musical surprise that makes someone in the audience moan: “Oh!" And a beat latter he sighs: “yeah..." ...

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San Francisco Jazz Vocalist Madeline Eastman to Appear at Kitano NYC Sept. 22

San Francisco Jazz Vocalist Madeline Eastman to Appear at Kitano NYC Sept. 22

Source: Terri Hinte Publicity

Madeline Eastman will be making an all-too-rare New York appearance on Wednesday, September 22, when she takes to the stage with her trio at the Kitano for one night only. Eastman will perform two sets, at 8 and 10pm, with pianist Randy Porter, bassist Rufus Reid, and drummer Ross Peterson. “I am thrilled to finally be back in New York, especially with this band," says Eastman, a well-traveled singer who's appeared in New York on only one previous occasion. She'll ...

LA TIMES A consummate, inventive, endlessly entertaining artist at work. STEREOPHILE MAGAZINE She’s hitting from beginning to end, sizzling and snapping with electricity, sliding across bar lines, scatting choruses, slowing to a whisper, bending melody line to her will. She is IN CHARGE. LA TIMES A prime example of what jazz singing in the 21st century can be. JazzTimes Magazine Eastman follows a delightfully twisted path. She's an inveterately unpredictable traveler who never fails to take us to magical places. CD REVIEW Eastman doesn’t tinker aimlessly, she recon¬structs with purpose

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