*Special Guest vocalist Frankye Kelly
One of the San Francisco Bay area's top jazz vocalists, Frankye Kelly puts a lot of honest feeling into her singing. It was obvious from an early age that Frankye Kelly would be a singer. Living in Jackson, Mississippi for a few years with her grandparents, she remembers performing in a play when she was just three. Since her father was in the Air Force, her childhood was spent living in many different locations including California, Minnesota, Germany and Delaware and back to California. She heard the music of Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Sarah Vaughan along the way as well as Fats Domino and Little Richard. She experienced most of her early singing in church choirs and acapella groups....
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*Special Guest vocalist Frankye Kelly
One of the San Francisco Bay area's top jazz vocalists, Frankye Kelly puts a lot of honest feeling into her singing. It was obvious from an early age that Frankye Kelly would be a singer. Living in Jackson, Mississippi for a few years with her grandparents, she remembers performing in a play when she was just three. Since her father was in the Air Force, her childhood was spent living in many different locations including California, Minnesota, Germany and Delaware and back to California. She heard the music of Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Sarah Vaughan along the way as well as Fats Domino and Little Richard. She experienced most of her early singing in church choirs and acapella groups.
Frankye married at an early age, moved to Detroit and became a professional singer. She mostly sang R&B during this period and had a local hit with her recording of Johnnie Mae Matthews' "I Have No Choice". She did backup singing for Marlena Shaw and for Roslyn Ashford formerly of Martha Reeves and the Vandellas. She led her own group, Flyght, which matched her voice with that of four male singers. But then she chose to drop out of music for a time to raise her family.
After moving to San Francisco, in the 1980s, she gradually returned to singing, but this time performing jazz. Frankye received important guidance from her cousin, the late great blues master Albert Collins. At a family reunion, we talked about me wanting to sing jazz. The main thing that Albert told me is that it is up to me to please and reach my audience, and he told me to always sing what I feel.
Since 1989, Frankye has pursued her dream of being a jazz singer. I was greatly influenced by Miles Davis and the way that he played and phrased. He would take his time, not rushing into it, always with a lot of feeling."
Frankye Kelly has performed in national and international venues including the Netherlands, France, Mexico, Japan, China and Thailand where she did a command performance for her majesty the Queen of Thailand.
Thus far Frankye has recorded four CDs. The Night is Young was recorded at Kimball's West and showed those at the time who were unfamiliar with her just how talented a jazz singer she is, serving as a strong introduction. My Life, More Than It Is: Not Just the Blues is an appealing mixture of pop, blues, R&B and jazz, displaying a great deal of variety but staying consistently rewarding. Her cd, Live at Yoshi's, Frankye Kelly Sings Songs for My Father, was recorded on several occasions at Yoshi's Jazz House, and is a collection of some of her favorite jazz songs. It is dedicated to her father who was at all of the sessions and has since passed away. Her most recent recording is A Tribute to Shirley Horn.
When Frankye performs, she always bring enjoyment, warmth and smiles to her growing audience. ñ Biography written by Scott Yanow
ìFrankye Kelly has discovered the essence of Jazz: finding a tune and making it your own. Whether it's blues, Latin, or a standard, the gracious,affable Kelly wraps her velvety voice around a melody the way you wrap aluminum foil around a baked potato-tightly and neatly.î ñ Elizabeth Goodwin ñ ìJazz Nowî - The World Jazz Magazine,
ìMs. Frankye Kelly, a jazz vocalist, craves new interpretations of standards every night at the Townhouse, making her somewhat of a standard herself. Her pianist, Mark Little, says she's following in the tradition of Sarah Vaughn and Ella Fitzgerald.î ñ The Oakland Tribune ñ Thursday Best
Being a Buddhist, she has high aspirations for the future. "I want to continue to sing and teach and work for world peace through music.
Tonight's trio features:
Chuck Bennett,
Curt Moore
Denny Berthiaume
DENNY BERTHIAUME,
piano, grew up outside Washington D.C. and Chicago. He is the only non-California native in the group although San Francisco is his home. He has performed with Bobby McFerrin, Diane Schuur, Joe Williams, Ed Thigpen, Stan Getz, k.d.lang, and Joan Rivers. He recorded 4 albums as co-leader of the successful fusion group Solar Plexus. He has appeared at jazz festivals in Monterey, the Russian River, San Jose, and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. He was professor in literature and music at Foothill College in Los Altos, California (1970-2004) and a published playwright.
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