Robin Mckelle | Impressions Of Ella at Jazzfest Budapest at Eiffel Műhelyház

From country music to rhythm and blues, Robin McKelle has had a career of discovering the richness of American music. With the album Impressions of Ella, McKelle returns to his traditional jazz roots, a genre in which he is truly at home.

Introducing Robin McKelle, his 2006 debut album, offers a dozen lifelong standards from the swing era ("Come Rain or Come Shine," "Night and Day," "On the Sunny Side of the Street"). For his latest project, McKelle draws from a single source and perhaps his greatest artistic influence, Ella Fitzgerald.

"The concept of Ella's music came about because she was the first to introduce me to vocal jazz. I learned so much from her singing - the swing feel and style of her singing resonates with me"....

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From country music to rhythm and blues, Robin McKelle has had a career of discovering the richness of American music. With the album Impressions of Ella, McKelle returns to his traditional jazz roots, a genre in which he is truly at home.

Introducing Robin McKelle, his 2006 debut album, offers a dozen lifelong standards from the swing era ("Come Rain or Come Shine," "Night and Day," "On the Sunny Side of the Street"). For his latest project, McKelle draws from a single source and perhaps his greatest artistic influence, Ella Fitzgerald.

"The concept of Ella's music came about because she was the first to introduce me to vocal jazz. I learned so much from her singing - the swing feel and style of her singing resonates with me".

Impressions of Ella presents a slightly older and much wiser McKelle. 18 years after her first album, she finally feels ready to tackle the emotional weight behind jazz standards.

"My voice has matured and I've grown as a woman. I felt like I was at a point in my life where the lyrics resonated with me and I could sing these stories because I had lived them. Not like a 20-year-old singer who wouldn't really understand, maybe because I hadn't experienced the loss of love or true love at that point in my life. I felt that at my age now and with my maturity, I was ready to return to this music and this repertoire."

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