(Vocal Jazz) Nancy Kelly - B That Way - 2014, MP3, 320

Nancy Kelly’s vocal style is a study in phrasing, style and swing. She’s both old school and new. She’s experienced, yet her delivery and ideas are fresh. She can take a song and turn it up or down, and leave you believing that it was meant to be exactly that way. It takes great jazz chops to do that, and Kelly’s are superb. She has earned many awards and enlisted fans from around the globe. She began her musical career at age four in her hometown of Rochester, New York, with piano lessons. She continued her music studies to include clarinet, drama and dance. When she enrolled at the Eastman School of Music, she decided to concentrate on voice. At sixteen, she formed a combo and performed at clubs around Rochester. In the early 70s, she joined a rock band as lead singer and went on tour of the East Coast and the Midwest. Enjoying the freedom to improvise, she gravitated to jazz, forming her own group. As a jazz artist, she's performed on the West Coast, in the Far East and Europe. She performs regularly in New York City at the most prestigious clubs: The Blue Note, Birdland, and Dizzy’s Coca Cola club at Lincoln Center. She has appeared at numerous jazz festivals and has sung with various symphony orchestras around the country. Nancy was twice named “Best Female Jazz Vocalist” in the Down Beat Readers’ Poll. She has recorded four CDs, the most recent being “Well Alright” with guest tenor saxophonist Houston Person.
Nancy Kelly continues to dazzle audiences with her take-no-prisoners, back-to-the-roots swinging style. In a market place where wispy voices and shallow emotions abound, Ms. Kelly is a breath of fresh air…or should we say, smoky air; she takes us back to the time when jazz -- and that includes vocal jazz -- was an authentic expression of real emotion.

"The result is a spectacular compact disc of great music, ... notably one of the most impressive vocal jazz albums I've heard this year. Here is a true jazz singer for your listening pleasure." Dee Dee McNeil LA Jazz
"If swing was gold, Nancy Kelly would be the richest woman on earth" John Gilbert, EJazz news
“You're the real thing, and in an age of too many jazz-vocal poseurs, that's pretty damned refreshing.”- Neil Tesser
“Kelly creates her own universe of swing, executed with nuclear cool.”
- C Michael Bailey, All About Jazz
Nancy’s live performances are legendary. She has earned many awards and enlisted
fans from around the globe. In a market place where wispy voices and shallow
emotions abound.Nancy was twice named “Best Female Jazz Vocalist” in the Down Beat Readers’
Poll. She has recorded four critically acclaimed CDs, Her first cd “Live Jazz”
reached #11 on the Billboard charts. “Born to Swing” and her latest cd “Well
Alright" feature guest tenor saxophonist Houston Person.
The Hammond B-3 organ has been in my life from the very early days of my career. It was there throughout my musical evolution from Rock to R&B and on to jazz.
In the early Eighties, I moved to Philly and began singing at the “salt and mostly pepper” jazz club Jewel’s on Broad St., where for 4 years I was the house singer with an organ trio made up of local Philly cats. At the time I didn’t know it, but I was at B-3 jazz ground zero. Jewel’s was host to headliners such as Groove Holmes, Jack McDuff, Jimmy McGriff, Shirley Scott, local favorite Trudy Pitts and a very young Joey DeFrancesco. I was in heaven. The organ trio sound had now become a major part of my musical fiber. We had a good long run at Jewel’s. Sadly, years later the club closed and, for various reasons, I moved back to upstate New York.
I spent the next era with piano. One day on a trio gig, Dino Losito used the organ sound on his keyboard and we both knew where we were headed. We loved it and dove into the sound, working solely as an organ trio for the past 6 years, and it led to this recording.

Nancy Kelly - Vocal
Dino Lostio - Hammond Organ
Peter Bernstein - Guitar
Jerry Weldon - Tenor Sax
Carmen Intorre - Drums