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CATEGORIES: SPECIAL OCCASION;TRAVEL;APPOINTMENT
STATUS:NEEDS ACTION
DTSTART:20090306T000000
DTEND:20090307T000000
SUMMARY:Rachelle Ferrell
DESCRIPTION;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:Event Name: Rachelle Ferrell=0D=0AEvent Url: http://www.artsboston.org/event/detail/41003=0D=0AEvent Date Begin: 2009-03-06=0D=0AEvent Date End: 2009-03-07=0D=0A=0D=0ABorn and raised in Philadelphia, Ferrell got started singing in the second grade at age six.=0D=0A=This no doubt contributed to the eventual development of her startling six-and-change octave range. She decided early on, after classical training on violin, that she wanted to try to make her mark musically as an instrumentalist and songwriter.=0D=0A=In her mid-teens, her father bought her a piano with the provision that she learn to play to a professional level.=0D=0A=Within six months, Ferrell had secured her first professional gig as a pianist / singer.=0D=0A=She began performing at 13 as a violinist, and in her mid-teens as a pianist and vocalist.=0D=0A=At 18, she enrolled in the Berklee College of Music in Boston to study composition and arranging, where her classmates included Branford Marsalis, Kevin Eubanks, Donald Harrison and Jeff Watts.=0D=0A=She graduated in a year and taught music for awhile with Dizzy Gillespie for the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.=0D=0A=Through the 1980's and into the early '90's, she'd worked with some of the top names in jazz, including Dizzy Gillespie, Quincy Jones, George Benson and George Duke.=0D=0A=Ferrell's debut, 'First Instrument', was released in 1990 in Japan only.=0D=0A=Recorded with bassist Tyrone Brown, pianist Eddie Green and drummer Doug Nally, an all-star cast of accompanists also leave their mark on her record.=0D=0A=They include trumpeter Terrence Blanchard, pianists Gil Goldstein and Michel Petrucciani, bassists Kenny Davis and Stanley Clarke, tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter and keyboardist Pete Levin.=0D=0A=Her unique take on now-standards like Sam Cooke's 'You Send Me,' Cole Porter's 'What Is This Thing Called Love,' and Rodgers & Hart's 'My Funny Valentine,' captured the hearts and souls of the Japanese jazz-buying public.=0D=0A=In 1995, Blue Note / Capitol released her Japanese debut for U.S. audiences, and the response was similarly positive. Her 1992 self-titled U.S. debut, a more urban pop/contemporary album, was released on Capitol Records. Ferrell was signed to a unique two-label contract, recording pop and urban contemporary for Capitol Records and jazz music for Blue Note Records.=0D=0A=For four consecutive years in the early '90's, Ferrell put in festival stopping performances at the Montreaux Jazz Festival. Although Ferrell has captured the jazz public's attention as a vocalist, she continues to compose and write songs on piano and violin.=0D=0A=Ferrell's work ethic has paid off, and Gillespie's predictions about her becoming a 'major force' in the jazz industry came true. Her prolific songwriting abilities and ability to accompany herself on piano seem only to further her natural talent as a vocalist. 'Some people sing songs like they wear clothing, they put it on and take it off,' she explains in the biographical notes accompanying 'First Instrument'.=0D=0A='But when one performs four sets a night, six nights a week, that experience affords you the opportunity to present the song from the inside out, to express its essence. In this way, a singer expresses the song in the spirit in which it was written, the songwriter then translates emotion into words, the singer's job is to translate the words back into emotion.'=0D=0A=Rachelle Ferrell has made her mark not as a straight ahead jazz singer and pianist, but as a crossover artist who's equally at home with urban contemporary pop, gospel, classical music and jazz.=0D=0A=0D=0AStart time:8pm & 10pm=0D=0A==0D=0A=If you have any special needs requiring further assistance, please call our box office at 617-562-4111.
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PRIORITY:3
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