Annie Sellick

Artist Information

Biography

For certain, Annie Sellick's best quality as a singer is the joy she exudes from the stage. In earlier years, her influences could easily be detected as Anita O'Day and Carmen McCrae were her first favorites. However, DON HECKMAN of the LOS ANGELES TIMES writes, "her most attractive quality might be the manner in which she has transformed her musical influences into her own immediately identifiable style. [She has] her own utterly unique musical personality."

Personality is right. Annie's undeniable stage-presence is what landed her the gig in the first place. Urged to "sit in" with an established trio in her college town, she sang the only jazz song she knew at the time, Peggy Lee's "Fever". As she recalls, "I just got up there and gave it all I had. To my surprise, the crowd went bezerk and the band hired me on the spot." Band Leader Roland Gresham encouraged Annie to learn as many songs as she could and come back and sing them the old-school way - no rehearsal - finding a key and a tempo and create the rest on-the-spot. One year of singing jazz and Annie had found her calling.

She moved back to her hometown, Nashville, and studied at the Nashville Jazz Workshop and accepted their first offered work-study position. Ten years later and a gig bag full of experience, she hosts workshops an mini-classes at the school.

In her twenties, Annie went from local celebrity to touring internationally and working with top names in the jazz world including JOEY DEFRANCESCO, THE JEFF HAMILTON TRIO, EDDIE HIGGINS, MARK O'CONNOR, TOMMY EMMANUEL and BELA FLECK. But back to the grassroots beginning: Her infectious spirit and striking appearance with waist-length dread-locks swinging against her evening gown, grabbed the attention of Music City. She was voted "Best Jazz Artist" four years in a row by Scene readers; had the top selling local artist record at Tower Nashville each week for two years; was profiled in every print publication and celebrated a sold-out performance "A Night of Jazz" backed by the Nashville Symphony.

To spread her wings, gain new influences and craft her show, she began playing listening jazz rooms in Atlanta, Hilton Head, Florida, Cincinnati and Cleveland, and then made her way to New York (where she lived and studied for a year), Los Angeles and Montreal. The buzz about Annie at Montreal's Upstairs Bar landed her two appearances at the Montreal Jazz Festival, where she played for an audience of 10,000. Vice-president of programming of the festival was quoted in an interview, "Annie is for me, all about passion."

Four years of concentrated gigs in L.A. lead to her collaborations with jazz musicians there such as Shelly Berg, whose arrangements are featured on her fourth album "A Little Piece of Heaven" Live in Santa Monica with the Gerald Clayton Trio. The gigs with Gerald and the encouragement and tutelage of drummer Jeff Hamilton lead to her latest release, a studio album entitled "Street of Dreams" set for release in January of 2010. Hamilton quotes, "She has an energetic, infectious view of life that is projected through her material. If you're a fuddy-duddy not willing to give in, you will by the end of her set."

Japanese promoter Yoshi Nishikage grew hip to Annie while visiting L.A. and brought her to Japan for six tours covering twenty cities and set up album distribution there. Annie has also performed in Korea, Peru, Russia, Holland, Poland, Mexico, several times in Germany and all over the U.S.
She plays listening rooms, festivals (jazz and non-jazz) and for jazz societies and arts councils all over including the the GENE HARRIS JAZZ FESTIVAL MAINSTAGE, VAIL JAZZ FESTIVAL, JAZZ ASPEN, THE NEWPORT BEACH AND WEST COAST JAZZ PARTIES, ASHEVILLE AND SAVANNAH JAZZ SOCIEITES.

She has released five albums on her own label.
Her mission is to share love and authenticity through the songs she selects and give her most essential self to the audience. Oh yah, and to swing - hard.

Instrumentation

Annie Sellick, vocals

Touring Band:
Justin Varnes, drums
Elisa Pruett, upright bass
Kevin Bales, piano

Discography

Annie Sellick's CD "Street of Dreams" goes to radio January 2010 with Groov Marketing.

On Chalice Music Inc.:
Street of Dreams (2010)
Annie and the Hot Club (2008)
A Little Piece of Heaven - Featuring Gerald Clayton Trio and Bruce Forman (2004)
No Greater Thrill - Featuring Joey DeFrancesco (2002)
Stardust on My Sleeve (2000)

As a Guest:
The Nashville Jazz Orchestra: Live at B.B. King's (NJO)
Low Standards (Steve Shapiro and Pat Bergeson)
Backward Compatible (Steve Shapiro and Pat Bergeson)
Street Expressionism (Paradigm Shift)

Official Website

http://www.anniesellick.com

Links

• Facebook
• Annie's Youtube page
• Annie's Website (temporarily)

Audio

• Cloudburst
  Listen  
• Do It Again
  Listen  
• I Know You Oh So Well
  Listen  
• Tristeza
  Listen  
• I Love Paris
  Listen  

Video

Live at the Gene Harris Jazz Festival - Baby Don't Quit Now / No Regrets

Photo Gallery

Press

• Jazz Times [+ Show ]
  

  May 2010 "Plenty of solid vocalists join the jazz sorority every year. But every once in a while a...May 2010
  "Plenty of solid vocalists join the jazz sorority every year. But every once in a while along comes a contender so uniquely gifted that preeminence seems a foregone conclusion. Jackie ryan is one, Madeleine Peyroux another, also Roberta Gambarini and Kat Edmondson. Annie Sellick can be added to their elite circle."
  
  

• Los Angeles Times [+ Show ]
  

  "...her own utterly unique musical personality...sellick concentrates on standards known and lesser ..."...her own utterly unique musical personality...sellick concentrates on standards known and lesser known...finding the gold in each. She sings everything with an ineffable perky enthusiasm. But Sellick's most attractive quality may be the manner in which she has transformed her influences into her own immediately identifiable style. She's a comer."

• Jazz Times [+ Show ]
  

  "Perky vocalist Annie Sellick, an original with her own way of phrasing that allows her tongue-in-ch..."Perky vocalist Annie Sellick, an original with her own way of phrasing that allows her tongue-in-cheek personality to emerge...she tosy with time and takes risks playing catch-up, but never sacrifices ennunciation, breaks up vowels a la Anita O'day and boasts a remarkable range...keep your ears on Annie."

• Downbeat Magazine [+ Show ]
  

  Annie Sellick: Beyond Nashville You could spot Annie Sellick from a mile away, particularly in Na...Annie Sellick: Beyond Nashville
  
  You could spot Annie Sellick from a mile away, particularly in Nashville, her hometown, where her fetching features and tumbling dreadlocks make her stand out from the boot-scoot guitar slingers who prowl the country clubs of Lower Braodway. She's even more striking when you draw closer, as local fans have been able to do for years at her gigs. At the upscale restaurant F.Scott's, the trandy sushi den Virago, or in the Tennessee Performing Arts Center - where she appeared with a rhythm section and symphony orchestra behind her...
  ...But Sellick's sightings have been more frequent in New York, where she made her debut at the Steve Getz Music Hall and studied jazz guitar at the New School. More recently, she's made her way out West where on April 1 she recorded her third CD with the Gerald Clayton Trio in Santa Monica's Jazz At the Vic. Fact is, after spending her life in Music City, this chanteuse has no choice but to move on...

• L.A. Jazz Scene [+ Show ]
  

  "Annie Sellick is very much a jazz singer, who focuses on the music, but she is also a storyteller a..."Annie Sellick is very much a jazz singer, who focuses on the music, but she is also a storyteller and her rendition of emotionally complex songs is masterful...she is also a stunning visual performer."

• Florida Today [+ Show ]
  

  If jazz is your passion, you're going to get hot and heavy listening to Annie Sellick. Sellick ...If jazz is your passion, you're going to get hot and heavy listening to Annie Sellick.
  
  Sellick has been compared to Janis Joplin doing jazz by the Los Angeles Times and recieved praise for being among the best jazz artists by the Nashville, Tenn. media. Her engaging performances and stage presence has wowed reviewers and audiences in major cities such as Atlanta, New York and Montreal...it's easy to see what all the fuss is about.
  
  ...If you wish a jazz artist of this calibur would make her way to the Space Coast, you're in luck.

• Vail Daily [+ Show ]
  

  "...Of special note was their [Trio da Paz] collaboration with Annie Sellick. In a word, she was pe..."...Of special note was their [Trio da Paz] collaboration with Annie Sellick. In a word, she was perfect. Just getting Jobim's Waters of March" in english is a feat. However, Sellick also sang a few of the tunes in Portuguese.
  It won't surpise me if the band asks her to perform regularly in the future."

• Hot House - Winning Spins [+ Show ]
  

  "If you're looking for the next real deal female jazz singer, Nashville is not where you'd be likely..."If you're looking for the next real deal female jazz singer, Nashville is not where you'd be likely to search. But that's where Annie Sellick hails from, and where she solidified her career as a jazz singer, a career that only began a little over a decade ago, when she was barely out of her teens.
  
  'A Little Piece of Heaven, An Evening with Annie Sellick' (Chalice Music) is a remarkable achievement for any jazz singer, no less one who is just into her 30-somethings. It's a live CD done one night at the Vic club in Santa Monica, California done without benefit of edits or overdubs, that is just so good and so enhoyable you feel like you missed out by not having been there. And although Sellick is terrific enough to carry the alubm in a diva-like fashion, she doesn't. Instead she collaborates fully and shares generous space with her trio - pianist Gerald Clayton, bassist Dan Lutz and drummer Kevin Kanner - and guest artist Bruce Forman.

• The Village Voice
  

  "...Annie Sellick has the most pleasing standards voice I've heard in a long time."

• Jazzreview.com [+ Show ]
  

  "I first heard Annie Sellick years ago in a Nashville jazz club. She blew me away as she brabbed th..."I first heard Annie Sellick years ago in a Nashville jazz club. She blew me away as she brabbed the wrods from the page and made them her own. Very few vocalists can harness the spirit of the song and make it come to life. Annie Sellick is special. On stage, she combines the mature sound of a "hundred year old spirit" with the spunk of a young buck sporting a "deal with me" attitude.
  
  Annie Sellick delivers every song as if written just for her. Collaborating with Shelly Berg on many of the arrangements, Ms. Sellick effortlessly 'lives the lyrics'. Whether the tune is the straight ahead standard "As Long as I Live" a sultry ballad "Baby Don't Quit Now" or a juke joint stomp like "Soulful Dress", the listener will be engulfed in the story of the song."

Setlist

Get Happy
You Make Me Feel So Young
I Keep Goin' Back to Joe's
Accentuate the Positive
Rain (original)
Cloudburst
I Know You Oh So Well
Where Is Love?
Mambo Italiano

Some Cat's Know
I Love Paris
Do It Again
Waltz for Debby
It Might As Well Be Spring
Take Me In
On the Street Where You Live

Basic Requirements

Calendar