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Patti Wicks

In a jazz marketplace saturated with singer/pianists, Patti Wicks stands apart. She is the real thing - a pianist with a highly personal style of playing and a singer with an instantly recognizable voice. Her superior musicianship, impeccable taste and singular ability to dig deep inside the meaning of a lyric have earned her the respect of her fellow jazz musicians, the unqualified praise of jazz critics, and the admiration of a constantly expanding audience of devoted fans. Despite the inherent difficulties of a career in jazz, Wicks has remained steadfast in her commitment to the music and in her determination to find success on her own terms. Patti Wicks learned to overcome challenges at a very early age. The former Patricia Ellen Chappell was born two months premature, a medical crisis that left her visually impaired. Fortunately, her hearing more than compensated for her limited eyesight. At the age of three, Patti sat listening to her mother play the piano. She then walked over to the piano and played note for note the song her mother had just finished. Her stunned parents realized that Patti had a special gift and decided to find her a piano teacher. However, all the teachers they spoke with had the same question - How do you teach the piano to a three-year-old who can't see the sheet music? It wasn't until Patti's parents met Pat Kleinmeyer that a they found a solution. A Julliard graduate, Kleinmeyer developed an innovative teaching method that would allow Patti to learn to play the piano by ear. In addition to the traditional classical piano training, she also encouraged Patti's natural interest in composing and improvising and taught her basic music theory. Patti developed her passion for jazz while attending the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam. At Crane, Patti studied with James Ball, an accomplished classical and jazz pianist. He introduced her to the music of many jazz greats, including pianist Bill Evans who would have a major influence on Patti's style as a jazz pianist. She quickly immersed herself in the music, listening to jazz recordings, playing at jam sessions and playing week-end gigs at clubs. By the time she graduated college she was ready to embark on a career as a professional jazz musician. Over the next thirty years, Patti Wicks honed her craft playing New York City jazz clubs as well as clubs and concerts up and down the East Coast jazz circuit from Maine to Florida.

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409
Album Review

Patti Wicks Trio: Dedicated To...

Read "Dedicated To..." reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


Pianist/singer Patti Wicks started out in New York City, moved to Florida and then each year or so since 2004 has rendezvoused with her Italian rhythm section of bassist Giovanni Sanguineti and drummer Giovanni Guillino in Italy to record successful trio sessions supplemented with a horn, typically a saxophone. For 2005's Basic Feeling (Studiottanta-Fortuna), Wicks was joined by alto saxophonist Claudio Chiara, while The Italian Sessions (2007, Studiottanta-Fortuna) joined Wicks with tenor saxophonist Gianni Basso and, in 2008, she went ...

315
Album Review

Patti Wicks Trio: It's A Good Day

Read "It's A Good Day" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


It's A Good Day is pianist/vocalist Patti Wicks' follow-up to her 2007 The Italian Sessions and her 2005 Basic Feeling. On both of these recordings, Wicks employs the Italian rhythm section of bassist Giovanni Sanguineti and drummer Giovanni Guillino. If three times is a charm, then It's A Good Day has much to live up to.

Happily, this disc fares well in comparison to the two earlier releases. Wicks if found in very good voice, plunging her deep alto deeper ...

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Album Review

Patti Wicks Trio: The Italian Sessions

Read "The Italian Sessions" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


Patti Wicks represents the historical apex of female jazz pianists/vocalists, with Nina Simone and Shirley Horn on one side and Patricia Barber and Dena DeRose on the other. Wicks has loads of talent and the unique ability to take the simplest cocktail jazz trifle and make it sound like Shakespeare. Her previous recordings, Room at the Top, Love Locked Out and Basic Feeling, all tastefully revealed a vast, understated talent worthy of ample acreage in the field of jazz vocals. ...

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Album Review

Patti Wicks/JazzGuests: Basic Feeling

Read "Basic Feeling" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


Patti Wicks has a single malt voice and a Basie brevity in her pianism. Slipping under the MaxJazz radar, Wicks traveled to Italy to record with a native rhythm section of bassist Giovanni Sanguineti and drummer Giovanni Gullino. She was joined by the fine alto saxophonist Claudio Chiara, who provided tasty obbligato, comping, and solos to the swinging mainstream of the eight pieces on this release.

Wicks' previous recording, Love Locked Out, featured the pianist/vocalist in a trio ...

213
Album Review

Patti Wicks: Love Locked Out

Read "Love Locked Out" reviewed by Jack Bowers


The term “torch singer” isn’t heard much nowadays but it’s an apt description of Patti Wicks, who sings from the heart, not the ego—and plays great piano too. She’s at her best on this album of sad-eyed ballads that, in her words, “expresses the driving force of all humanity, the need and desire to love and be loved.” The moods of love vary from euphoria to heartbreak, and it is the latter emotion on which most of these songs are ...

193
Album Review

Patti Wicks: Love Locked Out

Read "Love Locked Out" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


Shirley Horn, Diana Krall, Patricia Barber, Norah Jones. The piano chanteuse is swinging into vogue in a major way. A smart move that the newest series in the MAXJAZZ arsenal is the vocal- piano series, and even smarter that the label elected Patti Wicks for its inaugural outing. Patti Wicks demonstrated an acute musical aptitude at an early age, nurtured by her tenure at the Crane School of Music, where she studied classical piano and composition. There, she ...

140
Album Review

The Patti Wicks Trio: Room at the Top

Read "Room at the Top" reviewed by Jack Bowers


If there were more “room at the top --for Jazz artists, that is--here's one pianist who'd be knocking loudly on that elusive door known as fame. Patti Wicks, who's several light""years away from household name status even in south Florida, where she lives and performs, not only plays piano with as much warmth, elegance and charm as most of her more celebrated peers, she sings almost as well as she plays.According to the liner notes, Wicks does have ...

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Obituary

Vocalist/Pianist Patty Wicks: 1945-2014

Vocalist/Pianist Patty Wicks: 1945-2014

Source: All About Jazz

Vocalist and pianist Patti Wicks, who divided her jazz life between New York and Florida for the past 40 years, recording several well-considered albums since the turn of the new century, died from heart failure March 7 in West Palm Beach, Fla. She was 69-years old. Wicks belonged to that rarefied group of performers that include Shirley Horn, Nina Simone and Blossom Dearie—vocalists who play piano. Her piano playing was informed by Bill Evans and her singing by Horn. Her ...

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Performance / Tour

Patti Wicks's Jazzy Turn at the Metropolitan Room

Patti Wicks's Jazzy Turn at the Metropolitan Room

Source: Michael Ricci

The jazz singer and pianist Patti Wicks is all about rhythmic deconstruction. Like the much-missed Carmen McRae, Ms. Wicks, who appeared at the Metropolitan Room on Monday evening with the bassist Linc Milliman, scrutinizes songs with a raised eyebrow. Words and phrases are dismantled with a wry deliberation and an improvisatory boldness that put a question mark at the end of songs, especially when the lyrics are sentimental. Her attitude suggests a certain disbelief: “Oh, really?" she seems to imply. ...

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Radio

The Jazz Session #106: Patti Wicks

The Jazz Session #106: Patti Wicks

Source: Michael Ricci


207

Music Industry

A Quick Chat with Patti Wicks

A Quick Chat with Patti Wicks

Source: Seattle Jazz Scene

By Katy Bourne

Patti Wicks is a highly regarded jazz pianist and vocalist and international recording artist. She spent over three decades playing in jazz clubs in New York City and also working the East Coast jazz circuit. She has several recordings in her discography and her CD It’s a Good Day received an Italian jazz award for the best jazz album in 2008.

Patti currently resides in Florida and will be appearing at Bake’s Place this weekend with Seattle’s ...

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Performance / Tour

Patti Wicks Returns to Italy for May Tour

Patti Wicks Returns to Italy for May Tour

Source: All About Jazz

Jazz pianist/vocalist Patti Wicks will perform with her regular Italian rhythm section - bassist Giovanni Sanguineti and drummer Giovanni Gullino on a multi-city performance tour which will include selections from their latest CD, Italian Sessions, with special guest, Italy's legendary jazz tenor player Gianni Basso.

“Patti Wicks Trio returns with Italian Sessions, one small pearl of a CD" --All About Jazz Italia

“Italian Sessions replicates the serendipitous combination that contributed so much to the success of Basic Feeling. --Il Cittadino ...

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Performance / Tour

Patti Wicks Performs At The Metropolitan Room at Gotham, 6/15/06

Patti Wicks Performs At The Metropolitan Room at Gotham,  6/15/06

Source: All About Jazz

THE METROPOLITAN ROOM AT GOTHAM NEW YORK 34 West 22 St. (between 5th & 6th Ave.) New York, NY presents PATTI WICKS With LINC MILLIMAN, bass

ONE NIGHT ONLY JUNE 15 8PM

Jazz pianist/vocalist PATTI WICKS' superior musicianship, impeccable taste and warm personality have earned her -both nationally and internationally - the respect of her fellow jazz musicians, the unqualified praise of jazz critics, and the ...

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Performance / Tour

Jazz Pianist/Vocalist Patti Wicks Makes First SF Bay Area Concert Appearance

Jazz Pianist/Vocalist Patti Wicks Makes First SF Bay Area Concert Appearance

Source: All About Jazz

Saturday evening, April 22 at 7:30pm, The Pacifica Performing Arts Center will present jazz pianist/vocalist Patti Wicks in her first concert appearance in the San Francisco Bay area at the beautiful Sanchez Concert Hall, 1220A Linda Mar Blvd., Pacifica, California, with bassist Ruth Davies. For more information: http://www.pacificaperformances.org/

On Sunday afternoon, April 23, at 4pm, she will also be performing in concert at Jazz Chez Hanny, 145 Filmore, San Francisco, with bassist Jeff Chambers. For more information: http://home.earthlink.net/~fchanny/jazz.html

Although she ...

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Performance / Tour

Jazz Pianist/Vocalist Patti Wicks Returns to Italy for Tour & New CD Recording Project

Jazz Pianist/Vocalist Patti Wicks Returns to Italy for Tour & New CD Recording Project

Source: All About Jazz

Jazz Pianist/Vocalist Patti Wicks returns to Italy for a concert tour with her Italian rhythm section for a series of performances featuring selections from her latest CD “Basic Feeling" on the Italian label “Jazz Guests" (dis. EGEA). The CD was recorded with her fine Italian “JazzMates"-- bassist and drummer, Giovanni Sanguineti and Giovanni Gullino,& featured the superb alto sax of Claudio Chiara (who regularly tours & records with singer Paolo Conte). Since its January 2005 release, “Basic Feeling" has received ...

149

Performance / Tour

Jazz Pianist/Vocalist Patti Wicks Featured w/Don Payne Quartet in concert: "A Tribute to Classic Jazz & the Great American Songbook"

Jazz Pianist/Vocalist Patti Wicks Featured w/Don Payne Quartet in concert: "A Tribute to Classic Jazz & the Great American Songbook"

Source: All About Jazz

Wednesday evening, September 14, 2005 at 7:45pm, The Goldcoast Jazz Society presents The Don Payne Quartet, featuring Patti Wicks, with Dave Hubbard, tenor sax, Don Payne, bass and drummer Danny Burger in concert at the Amaturo Theater of the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 SW 5th Ave., Fort Lauderdale, Florida. A “Meet The Artists" Reception will follow the concert where the artists' CD will available for purchase. For further information please visit the Goldcoast Jazz Society's website at: ...

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Performance / Tour

Patti Wicks Trio performing at The Jazz Standard in NYC

Patti Wicks Trio performing at The Jazz Standard in NYC

Source: All About Jazz


"Like the much-missed Carmen McRae, Ms. Wicks...scrutinizes songs with a raised eyebrow. Words and phrases are dismantled with a wry deliberation and an improvisatory boldness..." — Stephen Holden, NY Times "It should be noted that Patti has the rare ability to excel as a singer, And as an instrumentalist, which talents place her in a very select category." —Mort Fega "Patti Wicks is an exquisite singer-pianist whose MAXJAZZ release Love Locked Out is one of the finest ballad albums in recent times." — Scott Yanow

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