Rachelle Ferrell
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In fact, in most cases we can negotiate for
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Rachelle Ferrell Biography
Composer, lyricist, arranger, musician and vocalist Rachelle
Ferrell is a recent arrival on the contemporary jazz scene, but her
visibility on the pop/urban contemporary scene has boosted her
audience's interest in her jazz recordings.
Born and raised in Philadelphia, Ferrell got started singing in the
second grade at age six. 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. In her
mid-teens, her father bought her a piano with the provision that she
learn to play to a professional level. Within six months, Ferrell had
secured her first professional gig as a pianist/singer. She began
performing at 13 as a violinist, and in her mid-teens as a pianist and
vocalist. 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. She
graduated in a year and taught music for awhile with Dizzy Gillespie
for the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Through the 1980s and
into the early '90s, she'd worked with some of the top names in jazz,
including Gillespie, Quincy Jones, George Benson and George Duke.
Ferrell's debut, First Instrument, was released in 1990 in Japan only.
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. 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. 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. 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. For four consecutive years in the
early '90s, 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.
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. 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 translates emotion into words. The singer's job is to
translate the words back into emotion.
Ferrell has made her mark not as a straightahead jazz singer and
pianist, but as a crossover artist who's equally at home with urban
contemporary pop, gospel, classical music and jazz. ~ Richard Skelly,
All Music Guide
Written by Richard Skelly