About Jen

Food, Music, Variety & Jazz

I never know how to answer the question "What's your favorite song" or "What's your favorite musical artist". How can I possibly choose just one when there's so much great music in the world with endless variety? I feel the same way about great food - king crab legs with butter, cheeseburgers & avocado, dumplings, macarons, hot fudge sundaes, lemon mochi, fluffy naan dipped in spicy curry, thai basil fried rice, freshly made pasta (and don't get me started on all the variations of red wine). Who wants to have to decide between any of those? Best to just take the lot.

Similarly, my musical influences range from OGs like Nat King Cole, Chet Baker, Mose Allison, Carmen McRae, Blossom Dearie, to the vocal jazzers of my teen years Harry Connick, Jr., Diana Krall, then on to Jamie Cullum, Norah Jones, Corinne Bailey Rae, from James Taylor, Billy Joel, Sting, U2, countless pop songs of the 70s & 80s that were the soundtrack of my youth to current artists like H.E.R., Post Malone, Surfaces, The Chainsmokers...the list goes on and on.

That being said, I'm finicky about my singing. My dear friend Nicole's favorite catchphrase is "Let's make a MESS!". My version would probably be something closer to "Let us go forth and execute a flawlessly orchestrated plan to the highest levels of quality!" I love that both approaches are necessary in life, which may be why I'm so drawn to jazz. Great jazz takes discipline, complexity, depth, the head and the heart...without fun, spontaneity, chemistry and teamwork, it simply falls flat. I love when a tune is swinging your face off, or when a groove is so tight, everyone in the room is feeling it.

All of that infuses and inspires my live music. I want to bring an experience that offers variety for the ears with different tempos, genres, grooves, emotions. It will always be surrounded and supported by the jazz influences by which my heart beats. But, at the end of the day, I really want to sing great songs, with great people and do so in a way that connects with you, the listener, leaving you touched and feeling we have come together for a moment in our  shared human experience.

There are endless songs I want to sing and never enough time to get them all charted for the band and bring musicians on board with tunes off the beaten path. My core, though, will always be rooted in the rich heritage of jazz classics that stand the test of time. As a wise piano player once said to me,

"There's nothin' wrong with just killing a standard."