For certain, Annie Sellick’s best quality as a singer is the joy she exudes from the stage. In earlier years, her influences could easily be detected as Anita O’Day and Carmen McCrae were her first favorites. However, DON HECKMAN of the LOS ANGELES TIMES writes, “her most attractive quality might be the manner in which she has transformed her musical influences into her own immediately identifiable style. [She has] her own utterly unique musical personality.”
Personality is right. Annie’s undeniable stage-presence is what landed her the gig in the first place. Urged to “sit in” with an established trio in her college town, she sang the only jazz song she knew at the time, Peggy Lee’s “Fever”. As she recalls, “I just got up there and gave it all I had. To my surprise, the crowd went bezerk and the band hired me on the spot.” Band Leader Roland Gresham encouraged Annie to learn as many songs as she could and come back and sing them the old-school way – no rehearsal – finding a key and a tempo and create the rest on-the-spot. One year of singing jazz and Annie had found her calling....
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For certain, Annie Sellick’s best quality as a singer is the joy she exudes from the stage. In earlier years, her influences could easily be detected as Anita O’Day and Carmen McCrae were her first favorites. However, DON HECKMAN of the LOS ANGELES TIMES writes, “her most attractive quality might be the manner in which she has transformed her musical influences into her own immediately identifiable style. [She has] her own utterly unique musical personality.”
Personality is right. Annie’s undeniable stage-presence is what landed her the gig in the first place. Urged to “sit in” with an established trio in her college town, she sang the only jazz song she knew at the time, Peggy Lee’s “Fever”. As she recalls, “I just got up there and gave it all I had. To my surprise, the crowd went bezerk and the band hired me on the spot.” Band Leader Roland Gresham encouraged Annie to learn as many songs as she could and come back and sing them the old-school way – no rehearsal – finding a key and a tempo and create the rest on-the-spot. One year of singing jazz and Annie had found her calling.
She moved back to her hometown, Nashville, and studied at the Nashville Jazz Workshop and accepted their first offered work-study position. Ten years later and a gig bag full of experience, she hosts workshops an mini-classes at the school.
In her twenties, Annie went from local celebrity to touring internationally and working with top names in the jazz world including JOEY DEFRANCESCO, THE JEFF HAMILTON TRIO, EDDIE HIGGINS, MARK O’CONNOR, TOMMY EMMANUEL and BELA FLECK. But back to the grassroots beginning: Her infectious spirit and striking appearance with waist-length dread-locks swinging against her evening gown, grabbed the attention of Music City. She was voted “Best Jazz Artist” four years in a row by Scene readers; had the top selling local artist record at Tower Nashville each week for two years; was profiled in every print publication and celebrated a sold-out performance “A Night of Jazz” backed by the Nashville Symphony.
To spread her wings, gain new influences and craft her show, she began playing listening jazz rooms in Atlanta, Hilton Head, Florida, Cincinnati and Cleveland, and then made her way to New York (where she lived and studied for a year), Los Angeles and Montreal. The buzz about Annie at Montreal’s Upstairs Bar landed her two appearances at the Montreal Jazz Festival, where she played for an audience of 10,000. Vice-president of programming of the festival was quoted in an interview, “Annie is for me, all about passion.”
Four years of concentrated gigs in L.A. lead to her collaborations with jazz musicians there such as Shelly Berg, whose arrangements are featured on her fourth album “A Little Piece of Heaven” Live in Santa Monica with the Gerald Clayton Trio. The gigs with Gerald and the encouragement and tutelage of drummer Jeff Hamilton lead to her latest release, a studio album entitled “Street of Dreams” set for release in January of 2010. Hamilton quotes, “She has an energetic, infectious view of life that is projected through her material. If you’re a fuddy-duddy not willing to give in, you will by the end of her set.”
Japanese promoter Yoshi Nishikage grew hip to Annie while visiting L.A. and brought her to Japan for six tours covering twenty cities and set up album distribution there. Annie has also performed in Korea, Peru, Russia, Holland, Poland, Mexico, several times in Germany and all over the U.S.
She plays listening rooms, festivals (jazz and non-jazz) and for jazz societies and arts councils all over including the the GENE HARRIS JAZZ FESTIVAL MAINSTAGE, VAIL JAZZ FESTIVAL, JAZZ ASPEN, THE NEWPORT BEACH AND WEST COAST JAZZ PARTIES, ASHEVILLE AND SAVANNAH JAZZ SOCIEITES.
She has released five albums on her own label.
Her mission is to share love and authenticity through the songs she selects and give her most essential self to the audience. Oh yah, and to swing – hard.
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