Grace Kelly

A respected veteran Boston jazz musician recently joked that everyone in that city’s rich music scene hates saxophone player and singer Grace Kelly because she’s so good at so many things so young.

Told this, with extra stress given on the tongue-in-cheek nature of the remark, Kelly giggled.

Well, she is barely out of her teens — that whole “so young” part. But the Boston native is poised on the threshold of becoming a bona fide big deal, already mentioned in the same breath with such genre-crossing young stars as Esperanza Spalding and Robert Glasper, leaders of a new jazz generation — that whole “so good at so many things” part.

“It really flatters me!” says the musician, who’s appearing Monday at the tiny Coffee Gallery Backstage in Altadena, perhaps a last chance to see her in such an intimate setting. “It makes me giggle.”

She pauses.

“I hope nobody really hates me!”

Well, no, they don’t. But it’s completely understandable that there might be some envy among her home-town colleagues. Though just 20 and graduated from Berklee College of Music just a year ago, she’s already had a remarkable career.

She counts not one but two post-bop sax titans as mentors and collaborators: Lee Konitz, her teacher since she was 13, teamed with her for the 2008 album GraceFullLee, while Phil Woods and Lee co-fronted an all-star band for the 2011 album Man With the Hat and a European tour. (A video below shows Woods impressed with Kelly when she was just 14.) In 2007 she was a special guest artist with conductor Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops, performing her own “Every Road I Walked” in her own arrangement for the orchestra. At 16 she had a three-night stand as featured guest with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, impressing musical director Wynton Marsalis to the extent that he brought her along with the ensemble to play at Barack Obama’s first Inauguration Celebration.

She’s performed with Harry Connick Jr., Dave Brubeck, Jamie Cullum, Dee Dee Bridgewater and Esperanza Spalding, among other stars, and of late has done regular jazz-gospel collaborations with pianist George Russell Jr. (see video below). And her accolades include being voted Boston’s best jazz artist for four straight years in the FNX/Phoenix Music Poll, getting the ASCAP Foundation’s Young Jazz Composers Award in 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2011, taking Jazz Artist of the Year honors at the Boston Music Awards in 2008 and 2010, and being the youngest person ever named in the Downbeat Critics Poll when she was named one of the magazine’s Alto Saxophone Rising Stars in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012.

And she’s made eight — yes eight — albums, one a year since she was 12, two years after she’d settled on sax following less-satisfactory flirtations with piano (starting when she was 6) and clarinet. And, oh yeah, she’s got that marquee-ready name. (It’s real. She was born Grace Chung; Kelly came from her stepfather.)

“But I don’t really think of myself like that,” she says, musing about being the object of envy. “I just think of myself as a really passionate person who’s fallen into music.”

Okay, see, saying you just fell into all of that is not really going to help with that resentment thing, joking or otherwise, that might come from others.

The latest album, Live at Scullers, which comes out Feb. 5, serves as a solid summary of what she’s accomplished thus far, showcasing not just her sax prowess, but her vocal and growing songwriting skills in the club where she first encountered jazz as a grade-schooler accompanying her parents.

The album also sounds like a pause, a palate-cleanser, before a launch into a new phase — one that holds high promise for full-fledged stardom. She cites the opening song on her album as a mission statement for where she goes from here. The title: “Please Don’t Box Me In.”

“That’s where I am now, constantly working on new things, trying to find a voice,” she says. “The most interesting thing for a future is thinking about how jazz is going to cross over to a younger generation for me. I’ve been playing for a lot of older audiences, which is great. but where’s my peer group?”

Her jazz, she says, is informed by her love for distinctive pop artists, from the Beatles to Stevie Wonder and Earth, Wind and Fire to Maroon 5 and John Mayer. And she’s encouraged by the great success, both artistically and commercially, of the genre-busting Spalding (“She’s a friend and what she’s doing is fantastic”) and Glasper.

“That’s the new wave of things,” she says. “Not that I’m trying to follow a wave. It’s just honestly where my heart lies. I listen to the radio. I like what’s on the radio. And at the same time I love jazz.”

The Altadena show not only previews her next musical moves, but also location move, as she’s getting ready to call L.A. home. She’s fallen in love with the area from previous visits, and two producers here — Stewart Levine (Lionel Richie, Joe Cocker, B.B. King) and David Was (Rickie Lee Jones, k.d. lang, Roy Orbison) of the band Was (Not Was) — are planning to work with her.

Meanwhile, she’s also gaining some serious world experience that will help expand her horizons as a writer and artist. She spent much of December on a trip sponsored by the U.S. State Department that sent her to Madagascar and the nearby Comoros Islands. That was followed by a stop in San Francisco to be in a documentary about another iconic mentor, Frank Morgan, with a side trip to perform at San Quentin prison.

The visit to the Comoros Islands, off the east coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean, made a particular impression.

“They didn’t know anything about jazz there,” she says. “They know who Adele and Katy Perry are, but no one knows Louis Armstrong. I worked with musicians there, got to go to orphanages and schools and play for kids. A lot of these young kids had never seen a saxophone. I’d play the low notes and they giggled.”

See? It’s catching.

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- Without A Net

Ever try to elevate peoples’ game, listeningwise? You have to choose your moments. Usually this kind of persuasion works best on older people who only know the most popular, poppiest artists in a particular style. You like that Adele song? Just wait til you hear Sharon Jones. What’s that, the Eagles’ Greatest Hits? Um…you might like Mumford & Sons. A small step for humankind; a quantum leap for your friend.
Likewise, if Norah Jones works for you in theory but not in practice, you’ll love Grace Kelly. Like Jones when she first got started, a lot of what Kelly is doing lately is a more lively take on countrypolitan, a Nashville sound that was popular in the late 50s and 60s. Producer Owen Bradley and others would take standard-issue country songs, add lush strings and often elements of jazz. Willie Nelson got his start that way; Patsy Cline and Skeeter Davis achieved crossover success with songs like Crazy and The End of the World. Kelly comes to this music from the opposite direction. A saxophonist by trade, she’s protegee of bop jazz legend Phil Woods, and she also sings.
On her new album Live at Scullers, there’s some straight-up jazz – an animated, swinging take on the Jerome Kern standard The Way You Look Tonight, and an original, Autumn Song, which moves gracefully from a lush intro to an exuberant romp featuring the whole band. On the funk side, the concert ends with a sprawling, goodnatured cover of Summertime that brings to mind Brooklyn psychedelic funkmeisters Otis. In between is the vocal stuff and most of it is very good.
The show opens with Please Don’t Box Me In, an elegant, artsy bossa pop tune that Kelly uses to air out her upper register, vocalwise, and follows later on with a carefree but terse alto sax solo. The arrangements here are a lot closer to jazz than country: the big swells can be lush, but more often than not the playing is spare and smart…like the way Pete McCann gently tremolopicks his guitar chords and then smacks them right on the beat as the song winds out. Trumpeter Jason Palmer keeps the energy high; bassist Zach Brown bows a couple of wry country fiddle solos, cellist Eric Law taking over the basslines when he does that, drummer Mark Walker hanging back with a steady purist groove.
Kelly wrote the lyrics to the mutedly frustrated, bouncily syncopated country tune Eggshells in a hotel room in Germany and the music on the plane home to Boston. She leads the band back into bossa-tinged jazz-funk on Night Time Star, then goes into boudoir country-bluesy territory with the nonchalantly seductive Ready, Set, Stay. The longest track here is the funky instrumental Searching for Peace, lit up by high-energy solos from Palmer and then Kelly on soprano sax. The band’s cool, low-key approach on the country waltz Kiss Away Your Tears matches the tenderness of the lyrics; then they pick up the pace with a ukulele tune.
Kelly is relatively young (early 20s), and most of her band, other than the guys who serve as Paquito D’Rivera’s rhythm section, seem around that age as well, so there are some rookie mistakes. A numbing bagpipe-metal guitar solo destroys the coy mood on one of the country songs – and why they’d want to have somebody whistling off-key where Kelly could have played the tune on soprano and nailed it is anybody’s guess. But that’s nitpicking. Kelly is smart, writes her own songs and is somebody to keep your eye on – and the album makes a great nudge gift for someone you know who would embrace good music if they just had the time or the energy to go looking for it. That’s where you come in.
- New York Music Daily

Top 10 College Women: The Musician
Grace Kelly, 19
Berklee College of Music
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Grace Kelly
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Her dream: “To collaborate with Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder and Sting. And to win a Grammy!”

Why she’s amazing: How many saxophonists can say they’ve played for a presidential inauguration? Kelly did when she was just 17, on the eve of Obama’s taking oath. She first sat at the piano at age six, gave the clarinet a whirl at age eight, and at 10 she found her real love, the sax. “The first time I played, it just felt right,” she says. There was just one problem: “I was too small to hold it, so I’d have to sit on my case and put a pillow out in front of me to cushion it.” Fast-forward to 2011, and the professional-music major has released seven records under her own label, performed with her local symphony (that would be the Boston Pops), received praise from Wynton Marsalis and been featured on NPR. Her jazz quintet has played 600-plus shows in 20 countries.

How she unwinds: “I hang out with my soft, fluffy dog, Asher. When I play abroad, I have to visit a local puppy store to get my fix.”

Read More http://www.glamour.com/magazine/2011/09/top-10-college-women-the-musician#ixzz277fUUbqX

- Glamour Magazine

Newport, Rhode Island (CNN) -- It's a balmy summer night at the Newport Jazz Festival, and saxophonist Grace Kelly is welcoming an audience of about 500 at the Harbor Stage.

"Hello, Newport!" she calls, launching into "The Way You Look Tonight," all silky runs and warm phrasing.

As her band members take solos, she smiles, humming along with their playing, a tic reminiscent of jazz pianist Oscar Peterson. She dances little jigs. She sings. She basks in the thrill of the music.

Kelly is all of 19.

Sometimes her youth is obvious. Her on-stage patter can have a girlish quality, and at times she appears gangly and uncertain, like a filly finding its legs. And the sight of her with a saxophone -- an instrument that appears so appropriate when clutched by a Junior Walker or John Coltrane but awkward in the hands of an attractive young woman -- summons the unfortunate scene of a flight attendant in "Airplane!" honking Dixieland jazz in the cockpit.

But when she plays, all that becomes meaningless. She's jammed with jazz legends, notably fellow sax player Phil Woods, who bestowed one of his trademark hats on her as a sign of appreciation. She's won several DownBeat Student Music Awards and a pair of ASCAP Young Composer Foundation Awards. In interviews, she's poised and thoughtful beyond her years.

"I've heard the future of jazz and it is Grace Kelly," musician and NPR contributor David Was once said, echoing critic Jon Landau's famous line about Bruce Springsteen and rock.

Her talent still mystifies her father and manager, Bob Kelly.

"I don't know where that comes from," he said. "With the saxophone, once she picked that up, after the first couple of months, she could play songs. She was in fourth grade." She was so entranced by the instrument, Bob Kelly recalls, "we had to tell her to go to sleep."

'They are precious resources'

It's a blessing from the gods, this kind of talent, and when we see it in someone young, we marvel at the contrast: a child with the outsize abilities of an adult. The very word "prodigy" evokes otherworldliness, from "prodigium," which means "sign" or "portent" in Latin.
Grace Kelly, here with Phil Woods, brings an infectious joy to performing. She has been dazzling listeners since she was 9.
Grace Kelly, here with Phil Woods, brings an infectious joy to performing. She has been dazzling listeners since she was 9.

"If you look at people who are creative geniuses, and look back, a lot of them are prodigies," said Boston College psychology professor Ellen Winner, who has researched gifted children and the arts.

"You can say that prodigies are our best hope. They are our future. They are precious resources."

Early on, a prodigy's talent is more for mimicry. But at some point, mimicry gives way to genuine creativity -- an ability to combine talent and knowledge to make something novel.

Kelly's sax playing has been dazzling listeners since she was 9. Although she wasn't named for the actress -- her mother Irene married Bob Kelly when Grace was a small child -- she already had a creative bent. Before she ever picked up an instrument, her father recalls, she could entertain herself for hours by acting in front of a mirror. Grace recalls singing along with Broadway tunes. But there was something about the saxophone that fulfilled her in ways other instruments she tried, including the piano and clarinet, did not.

Six weeks after her first notes, she was performing for an audience. Her father has a video of it: a slip of a girl sitting on her instrument case, the saxophone precarious on a pillow in front of her, the whole apparatus threatening to topple over -- and yet the tone is clear and rich, Grace Kelly nimbly working her way through "Besame Mucho" and "My Funny Valentine."

A bolt of lightning? Perhaps. Neither Bob nor Irene had much of a musical background. However, young Grace did have relatives on her mother's side with musical talent, including an aunt who played violin professionally. Moreover, she grew up with music: Her parents played jazz tunes and standards frequently in their suburban Boston home, songs she grew to love.

But talent only goes so far unless it's combined with hard work and motivation. Fortunately for us, many prodigies have a passion for their interests, often going on to become famous: Mozart, for example, wrote melodies at age 4; Pablo Picasso painted his first oil painting, "The Picador," at 8; mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss could do equations in his head as a child.

Winner says prodigal talents often come with determination.

"Usually when you can learn really easily in some area, you're very motivated -- you have this intrinsic drive," she says. "You can't take a kid with no passion for something and make them work 10 or four hours a day."

In fact, Bob Kelly says Grace has resisted the "prodigy" label. "She looks at it as the fact she has an intense love and passion for what she does, has loads of fun and puts in a lot of hard work without being told to."

'Natural talent only takes you so far'

The trick is sustaining that passion.

Josh Waitzkin, the chess prodigy whose story was made into the movie "Searching for Bobby Fischer," gave up competition for several years.

"I realized that even if I became the world champion, it wasn't going to make me happy," he told People magazine in 2003. He's since plowed his energies into martial arts and education, though he still is a spokesman for computer chess games.

Trombone Shorty faced a similar crossroads. He started playing at 4. Now 26, he fronts his own band, Orleans Avenue, and was nominated for a Grammy last year. He's scheduled to play the White House next week as part of a Black History Month celebration.
Talent will only take you so far, says Trombone Shorty, adding that it\'s the work ethic that really matters.
Talent will only take you so far, says Trombone Shorty, adding that it's the work ethic that really matters.

Born Troy Andrews, the New Orleans horn player and singer -- yes, he's from the Treme neighborhood -- is part of an accomplished musical family: His brother, James, is a bandleader and trumpet player known as the "Satchmo of the Ghetto," and his grandfather, Jessie Hill, was a New Orleans music scene mainstay who had a national hit with "Ooh Poo Pah Doo."

And Troy? There's a picture of him on Wikipedia fronting a group of musicians from Denmark's Carlsbad Brass Band. He was 5 at the time.

James liked to put his young brother front and center. In the early years, Troy says, the joy of playing with family was enough.

"As long as my brother was on stage, I was OK," he said. His brother was a father figure; Andrews' parents trusted James to raise young Troy correctly, even in the middle of the music scene.

But looking back, he says, he realizes there was a time in his teens when he needed to refocus. He was celebrated and talented, but he knew he was still raw.

"When you start playing as young as me, and you've been in front of audiences your entire life, this is literally what I grew up doing," he says.

Shelley Carson, author of "Your Creative Brain" and a lecturer at Harvard University, says such situations aren't unusual.

"A lot of prodigies tend to burn out, or sometimes they just get discouraged when, during the ordinary process of development, other people catch up with them and they're no longer special," she says.

What reinvigorated Troy Andrews was his entry into the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, the city's student arts program, where instructors such as Clyde Kerr and Kent Jordan insisted on the importance of fundamentals.

"They wanted me to get the theory of everything I'm playing, so I didn't have to guess and play by ear," he says.

Learning those details deepened his appreciation for music, he says. It's also strengthened his work ethic: Besides a steady schedule of live appearances, the band rehearses constantly -- not just music, but showmanship.

"When we're ready to do the dress rehearsal, we'll rehearse in the dark. No lights. The reason why I do that is because I don't want the band to rely on me for anything," he says. " 'Cause anything can happen -- I might stop singing or unplug the mic, just so everybody knows: Keep going, no matter what."

At one Newport show in August, Andrews led his band through funky instrumentals laced with hard rock, then segued into a Louis Armstrong-esque version of "On the Sunny Side of the Street." He demonstrated outstanding breath control, holding a note for what seemed like minutes on end as the audience whooped louder with every beat. And then he finished with James Brown's "I Got the Feelin'," doing the Godfather of Soul proud with some slick, razor-sharp dance moves.

"One thing I've learned in life," Andrews says, "is that natural talent only takes you so far, and I've always wanted to grow."

'She's driving this train'

Nature vs. nurture arguments still rage over how much of being a prodigy is owed to pure talent, and how much is the product of enthusiasm and hard work -- and certainly, genetics is no guarantee of creative genius.

There's a classic story involving the playwright George Bernard Shaw and the dancer Isadora Duncan. According to legend, Duncan wrote Shaw a letter that suggested she and the playwright should have a child together.

"You have the greatest brain in the world, and I have the most beautiful body, so we ought to produce the most perfect child," she wrote.

"Yes," replied Shaw, "but what if it had my body and your brains?"

Carson says parents can be their talented offspring's biggest influences -- but they have to know when to push and when to hold back.

"I definitely think that overbearing parents in many cases affect the child's interest or continued motivation," she says. "The best way to parent a child like that is, if you notice their interest and enthusiasm, encourage it -- but then get out of the way."
If you notice their interest and enthusiasm, encourage it -- but then get out of the way.
"Your Creative Brain" author Shelley Carson on parenting a prodigy

Some parents push too hard. Todd Marinovich was called "Robo QB" for his quarterbacking abilities and drilled relentlessly by his father, a former college football star. But after an outstanding high school career, followed by solid numbers at the University of Southern California, Marinovich faltered in the NFL. A college drug problem turned into a full-blown addiction, and he washed out of the league after three failed drug tests. It's only recently, after several arrests and some jail time, that Marinovich has found himself -- as an artist.

Psychology professor Winner points out that the scale tilts the other way as well: Prodigies often don't have the kind of support system that struggling children do.

"These kids are very vulnerable," she says. "People assume they're not -- 'They're gifted, why should we throw any resources at them?' -- but these kids have a huge amount of potential and are very vulnerable to being very bored in school and tuning out." Alternately, having been "groomed as the best," they might discover others are better and then "tune out because they think they can't compete."

So how do you keep the flame burning?

Be supportive, say the experts. Advocate for the child. Find a mentor to expand the prodigy's horizons. And hang on for the ride.

Kelly's life is a strong illustration of what works. Her parents found challenging teachers for her early on. They didn't push, but encouraged her to grow. As her career took off, she redoubled her efforts in high school -- graduating two years early -- so she could focus on her art.

She entered Boston's prestigious Berklee College of Music at 16. She regrets none of the acceleration, noting that she has friends of all ages and that she's energized by being around such passionate people.

"I feel lucky that I found something that I love, and that it's started to snowball in a good way," Kelly said.

Adds her father: "I always told Grace, the day that it's not fun, do something else. She's driving this train."

It must still be fun. Kelly obviously enjoys the spotlight. But more indicative is her creative growth: more songwriting, more arranging, more curiosity, more hard work. Even when she has an off night, she says, there's but one thing to do.

"I want to go back," she says, "and start practicing again." - CNN.com

Teenage Brookline saxophonist Grace Kelly won our Boston Jazz category four years running. And last year, the votes she garnered dominated not only the local jazz category, but the entire field of Best Music Poll local and national nominees. That’s right: LCD Soundsystem, Lady Gaga, Amanda Palmer, Dropkick Murphys — beat ’em all. That says something for Kelly’s loyal fan base as well as her genuine talent. So it seemed high time that we promote Kelly to the nationals — even though her work is still released on her family’s Pazz label. Two of those albums set her own alto sax with two masters — Lee Konitz and Phil Woods — with whom she held her own. Albums with her own band — like 2008’s Mood Changes and the new album Grace, dedicated to spirituals and hymns — show the kind of maturity she seems to have had from the beginning. Something Woods noticed when he first heard her: “It’s not any one thing. She’s got the whole kit.”

Runners-up: Esperanza Spalding, Hiromi, Jason Moran

_Jon Garelick - The Phoenix

When I caught up with saxophonist Grace Kelly, she had just returned from a European tour in support of her new album, "Man With The Hat." The man referred to is jazz legend Phil Woods, who collaborated on the album and joined her on the tour.

Kelly, who just turned 19, has already worked with some of the greatest players in jazz, including Lee Konitz, Dave Brubeck, and Wynton Marsalis.

"There are not many days that I sit back and think about what's happened, but when I do, it's pretty surreal," says Kelly. "Playing with the people I've listened to on recordings since I was little is like - wow! They're my heroes, and I never thought that I would get a chance to work with them, and even more, have a relationship with them."

Born Grace Chung, Kelly's name changed when she was adopted by her mother's second husband, Bob Kelly. What might seem like a brilliantly calculated stage name is simply a coincidence. Strangely, she had identified with movie star, and later princess, Grace Kelly long before her name changed.

Kelly started piano lessons at 6, but she was drawn to the sound of Stan Getz, the saxophonist whose albums her parents often played. "I would be walking around the house singing his solos."

In fourth grade her school let her pick an instrument. Saxophones were not offered, so she picked clarinet. "I was actually horrible," says Kelly. "It was a lot of squeaking and not very pleasant." She decided to try Getz's instrument and, at the age of 10, her family rented her first saxophone.

"Sax was completely different," says Kelly. "The first time I blew into it I got a great sound. It was easy. It just clicked." Her piano teacher, James Merenda, was also a saxophonist. So, she started doing half an hour of piano and half an hour of sax, which quickly turned into an hour of sax.

Six weeks later she played her first public recital at a Borders store. Too small to hold up the instrument, she sat on the case while the sax rested on a pillow. She played "B?same Mucho" and "My Funny Valentine" by ear.

Before long the entire world of jazz saxophone opened to Kelly. She discovered Paul Desmond, Lee Konitz, Cannonball Adderley, and many other greats. When it came to solos, she favored the more melodic players. "My playing can get intense. I like to use that as contrast - build a solo to the point where it gets very intense," says Kelly. "But, in my heart, I think melody is an important factor. I like to be able to sing the lines in my head."

Because Kelly still has one foot in the teenage world I couldn't resist asking what she thought about bassist/singer Esperanza Spalding snatching the Grammy Award for Best New Artist away from Justin Bieber earlier this year.

"We were ecstatic. She's a friend of mine and she so deserves it," says Kelly. "I think it means things are changing. There is good taste out there. I think there's a point where people want to see the really genuine things. Artists like Esperanza are giving exactly that. I hope there are younger people looking for something substantial too."

But that doesn't mean Kelly will be a jazz purist. She plays tunes by Stevie Wonder, Bill Withers, and The Beatles. One of her primary role models is jazz-great-turned-pop-star George Benson. "George Benson's career is one that I highly admire and would love to shape mine around," says Kelly. "I think everybody wanted him to be the next Wes Montgomery, and obviously he could have done that. But he had so much to offer and he's done everything with such quality."

Benson's career blossomed in a decade full of music Kelly identifies with, created by the likes of Carole King, James Taylor, and Earth Wind & Fire. "Maybe part of me was a 1970's person in a past life," she says.

Kelly just finished her junior year at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she is taking a class taught by singer/songwriter Livingston Taylor. She's also working in a side band with some of her Berklee classmates on her "singer-songwriter stuff." "It's a folky, Norah Jones kind of vibe," she says.

As for the legendary company she's been keeping, "Phil [Woods] is a real storyteller. He has an edge to him. If he doesn't like something, he'll tell you. There's also a very sweet side to him. Learning from him on stage musically is so valuable. I can hear myself soar and pick up things I've never heard before," Kelly says.

"When I'm at his house, he has a giant stereo system and TV and we'll just watch performances together. I'm a huge fan of bossa nova and we'll be watching DVDs for hours and I'm thinking, Am I really hanging out with Phil on his couch watching jazz DVDs?"

If one legend is not enough, she has established a close relationship with Lee Konitz. "He's become a close friend of my family," Kelly says. "He's got the most sarcastic sense of humor. He's one of the most spontaneous people I've ever known. He's just like his music, he likes to keep everything in the moment and you will never know what he's thinking or wants to do in the next second, so it really keeps me on my toes."

Kelly believes knowing these musicians on a personal level gives their music another dimension. "All of a sudden the music makes more sense to me, because I can hear them as a person inside of it," she says.

One thing she seems to have absorbed from the masters is a spirit of adventure. "Just about every night that we play I do something that I haven't done before," says Kelly. "I would prefer to do something that I hear in my head and fall flat on my face than play something that I know. The most special performances have been the ones where the band and I go off to some foreign land where we've never been before." - Rochester City Newspaper

“The 2010 set drew more visceral excitement than jazz music usually gets, but Kelly’s return this year for a ticketed concert actually upped the ante: she brought fellow alto sax player and bona fide legend Phil Woods, her band sounded even better and the hushed Gesu allowed every note to be heard… The most exciting moments in Kelly’s Saturday night concert were the ones in which she and trumpet player Jason Palmer egged each other on. Cheers, of course, ensued… It was a treat to hear Woods, six decades older than Kelly, trading solos with her on Man With the Hat, the playful title track of their CD collaboration. The bebop icon blew lyrical phrases and Kelly responded in kind…. Brought back by standing ovation for the inevitable encore, Kelly, accompanied only by Johnson, played a soulful, velvety version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow, reclaiming it for a few minutes from the unfortunate diva vehicle it has become. The line-up for the merch table snaked all through the Gesu lobby. So…a couple of years from now, maybe sooner, at Theatre Maisonneuve?” - Bernard Peruse, Montreal Gazette

“One fact is undeniable - the passage of time. As jazz veterans die off, the festival is trying to build a following for next-generation stars like saxophonist Grace Kelly (July 2 at the Gesù), and Grammy award winning bassist-vocalist Esperanza Spalding (June 27 at Théâtre Maisonneuve).”
- Peter Hadekel, Montreal Gazette

“Grace Kelly is a bandleader at 19. A highly acclaimed one. She’s been praised by – and has collaborated with – jazz giants like Wynton Marsalis, Lee Konitz and Phil Woods (and performs with the latter Saturday night at the Gesù)… Anyone who has seen Kelly and her band will have remarked that the smooth, lyrical quality of her playing might, at times, evoke her early idols, but her stylistic ambitions are wide-reaching: solid bop, New Orleans syncopation, bossa nova, funk and a rock-like backbeat have all been ingredients in her live sets… Even though much in her music can’t help but delight jazz hardliners, Kelly herself is not a purist. “I’m a very strong believer that jazz is about improvisation and about creating and spontaneity,” she said. “That’s what really drew me to it, but I think there’s plenty of music that can fuse elements of jazz with its own type of sound, whether it’s rock or pop. I’m not into ‘No, this isn’t jazz.’ I like everything that’s good and I encourage people to think that way.”…Kelly said her own tastes are very broad, and that her iTunes library includes artists as varied as Charlie Parker, the Beatles, George Benson, John Mayer and Earth Wind and Fire. “The songs I create all come out of things I listen to,” she said. “I’m working on brand new tracks of singer-songwriter material, but I just released a CD of hymns and spiritual music. I’m really searching and trying to find out what really resonates.” - Bernard Peruse, Montreal Gazette

“Alto sax player Grace Kelly built on the success of her free outdoor show last year by playing to a sold-out Gesù…Those who wring their hands with worry over rock and pop taking over the jazz festival must have been reassured as Kelly and trumpet player Jason Palmer wailed away in call-and-response abandon during Kelly’s own composition Filosophical Flying Fish…But really, where is the artistic line between those horn exchanges and the equally intense guitar trade-offs between Peter Frampton and his second guitarist Adam Lester during (I’ll Give You) Money? Excellence is excellence, genre be damned. You’re either at the top of your game or you’re not.”
- Bernard Peruse, Montreal Gazette
- Montreal Gazette

MONTREAL - Grace Kelly is a bandleader at 19. A highly acclaimed one. She’s been praised by – and has collaborated with – jazz giants like Wynton Marsalis, Lee Konitz and Phil Woods (and performs with the latter Saturday night at the Gesù). It would seem fair to wonder how the young alto sax player got where she is so quickly.

Well, there’s a false assumption right there. “Quickly” is relative at best: Kelly has been living and breathing jazz for almost half her life. At 10, she was the youngest member and only girl in the New England Conservatory Prep School, studying theory and jazz history, among other things, and putting in the hours on private lessons and ensemble practice. She was already transcribing Miles Davis pieces.

At that same age, she also played her first gig. It was at a Borders store at the Atrium Mall in Chestnut Hill, Mass. “I had been playing for six weeks,” she remembered during a recent telephone interview. “I performed with my teacher. I couldn’t even hold the horn, so I sat on my saxophone case, put a pillow out and rested it.”

Since then, her days have been filled with music, she said. If she’s not practising, she’s writing music, singing, performing or handling business email. With luck, she might squeeze in some dancing, yoga, fiction writing, time with her puppy or socializing with friends.

Kelly got the jazz bug, she said, by simply singing along to her mother’s Stan Getz albums, which were played constantly around the house. “It was almost a subconscious thing, because the television was never on. It was always some type of music,” she said. Having started to study classical piano at age 6, Kelly realized within a couple of years that she didn’t enjoy practising written music. “It’s all kind of caged and in the box,” she said.

Once she found the sax, she decided to let go of her earliest childhood ambition: becoming a Broadway actress. But she found common ground with the strong melodies of Broadway musicals and the tuneful jazz players she was rapidly getting familiar with, like Getz.

“His actual tone on the horn is so gorgeous,” Kelly said. “To me, it sounds like the human voice – so melodic and so expressive. When I started playing, that’s what I was really drawn to, people like Paul Desmond and Stan Getz, a lot of these lyrical players.”

By 12, Kelly had released her first CD, Dreaming. It was at the launch of the disc that she discovered an affinity for live performance. “I knew I would have to go on and introduce the musicians and songs. When they introduced me, I didn’t think I could go up. My whole body was shaking,” she said. “Once I was on stage, I felt very much at home.”

Her live act was noticed here by the lucky few who got to see her two free outdoor shows at last year’s Montreal International Jazz Festival. “Montreal was one of the highlights of live performance for me,” she said. “I felt we were treated like mini-rock stars. I couldn’t believe the energy that was coming from the people, and that translates into music. The great thing about live performance for me is being able to take chances. You can really go anywhere.”

Anyone who has seen Kelly and her band will have remarked that the smooth, lyrical quality of her playing might, at times, evoke her early idols, but her stylistic ambitions are wide-reaching: solid bop, New Orleans syncopation, bossa nova, funk and a rock-like backbeat have all been ingredients in her live sets.

Even though much in her music can’t help but delight jazz hardliners, Kelly herself is not a purist. “I’m a very strong believer that jazz is about improvisation and about creating and spontaneity,” she said. “That’s what really drew me to it, but I think there’s plenty of music that can fuse elements of jazz with its own type of sound, whether it’s rock or pop. I’m not into ‘No, this isn’t jazz.’ I like everything that’s good and I encourage people to think that way.”

Kelly said her own tastes are very broad, and that her iTunes library includes artists as varied as Charlie Parker, the Beatles, George Benson, John Mayer and Earth Wind and Fire. “The songs I create all come out of things I listen to,” she said. “I’m working on brand new tracks of singer-songwriter material, but I just released a CD of hymns and spiritual music. I’m really searching and trying to find out what really resonates.”

There aren’t many Downbeat darlings who always knew such things as iTunes, Twitter or Facebook. Kelly is one. And as labels struggle to stay afloat, the musician, whose releases are issued on her own label, Pazz Productions, says she sees social media and SoundClouds as the future – even for jazz.

“To get my music out there, it’s important to stay current, even though it’s jazz and the genre might not be as big as pop,” she said. “There’s an audience on the Internet in young people who are searching.”

Grace Kelly performs with special guest Phil Woods Saturday at 6 p.m. at Gesù – Centre de créativité. The show is sold out.
- Montreal Gazette

MONTREAL- Struggling to find the right words to convey her delight, Grace Kelly told fans at a sold-out Gesu that they had topped their reaction to her free show at last year’s festival.

Echoing what she told the Gazette in a recent interview, the 19-year-old alto sax player and bandleader said she and her group had been treated like “mini rock stars” at last year’s fest.

And she was correct on both counts. The 2010 set drew more visceral excitement than jazz music usually gets, but Kelly’s return this year for a ticketed concert actually upped the ante: she brought fellow alto sax player and bona fide legend Phil Woods, her band sounded even better and the hushed Gesu allowed every note to be heard. No beer, cigarettes, hot dogs or casual chatting to weaken the focus this year.

The most exciting moments in Kelly’s Saturday night concert – not to detract from the overall inspiration of her excellent quintet – were the ones in which she and trumpet player Jason Palmer egged each other on. Their call-and-response moments in Kelly’s own composition Filosophical Flying Fish, bolstered by a second-line groove from drummer Jordan Perlson, eventually came together in a glorious cacophony of horn madness. Cheers, of course, ensued.

And it was a treat to hear Woods, six decades older than Kelly, trading solos with her on Man With the Hat, the playful title track of their CD collaboration. The bebop icon blew lyrical phrases and Kelly responded in kind. On the haunting, melancholy People Time – the Benny Carter composition with lyrics added – Kelly sang in a warm, natural voice with Woods shadowing her on sax.

Perlson and bassist Evan Gregor steered the group through subtle rhythmic shifts (how did that tango take a turn to straight common time?), while pianist Doug Johnson added much of the melodic shading – aggressive or tender, as needed. The ensemble was at its most combustible as its members – and Woods – furiously traded solos on a lethally-swinging version of Bud Powell’s Webb City.

Brought back by standing ovation for the inevitable encore, Kelly, accompanied only by Johnson, played a soulful, velvety version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow, reclaiming it for a few minutes from the unfortunate diva vehicle it has become.

The line-up for the merch table snaked all through the Gesu lobby. So … a couple of years from now, maybe sooner, at Theatre Maisonneuve?


- Montreal Gazette

Brookline teen teams with jazz star Phil Woods
By Bob Young | Wednesday, January 19, 2011 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Music News

The little horn player from Brookline with the grown-up sound may be a teenager now, but don’t expect to find her at such typical teen hangouts as the local mall.

“I don’t really like shopping,” Grace Kelly, 18, said with a laugh on the phone from her Boston apartment.

Instead, Kelly still spends much of her free time where she always has — in jazz clubs around town. They’re where her parents began taking her when she was in elementary school, and where she started earning the well-deserved moniker of child prodigy — wowing fans and players alike as the amazing 10-year-old Korean-American girl who could play Charlie Parker tunes.

The difference these days is that the alto saxophonist and singer is leading her own ensembles, not just sitting in as a guest with such stars as Dave Brubeck, Wynton Marsalis or Harry Connick Jr. Now she takes a giant step forward by teaming with a revered veteran in a project sure to boost her reputation among jazz cognoscenti. This Friday at Scullers, she marks the release of a new album, “Man With the Hat,” recorded with one of her heroes, 79-year-old alto saxophonist Phil Woods, who will join her at Scullers and also in several cities in Europe during an upcoming tour. It not only finds her going toe-to-toe on sax with the formidable Woods, but showcases her startling growth as a singer.

A student at Berklee College of Music — which she entered at age 16, after leaving Brookline High School and earning her (GED) — Kelly is the first to admit that her career has been a wild ride.

“It’s kind of crazy when I think about it because I never had any idea that I wanted to be a musician,” she said.

But she got the music bug early. “My parents played Stan Getz in the house, and I totally fell in love with his sound,” she said.

It was local reedman and teacher James Merenda who helped Kelly land her first gig — at a Borders bookstore when she was 10 years old. “We were playing and James said to me, ‘There are no wrong notes, play whatever you want!’ And I was like, ‘Awesome!’??” Woods saw Kelly perform during a college residency in California four years ago and later asked her to join him onstage at one of his shows in western Mass-achusetts. The two hit it off so well that the bebop master even put his trademark leather brim on her head and told her to keep it.

“He’s one of my inspirations,” Kelly said. “There’s so much to learn from him.”

Even with hundreds of live shows under her belt, Kelly admits that she still has plenty to learn. At Berklee she is immersing herself in both jazz and nonjazz courses, including world music and rock.

She has never aimed low, so it’s no surprise that Kelly has set lofty goals for the years ahead.

“I would like to continue working with more and more different people,” she said. “I love jazz, but one of my dreams is to learn from people like Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder, and jazz people, too. I hope to someday make a sound that bridges jazz and contemporary music, and bridges the gap between the older crowd and the younger people of my generation.” - Boston Herald

Jazz saxophonist and vocalist Grace Kelly recorded her debut album Dreamin' in 2004 at the remarkably young age of twelve. Now eighteen, Kelly has released her sixth album, Man With the Hat, sharing billing with veteran sax man Phil Woods. The album's title was inspired by the first time Kelly played with Woods. The elder musician was so taken by the young musician's playing, he literally took his hat off and presented it to her. The album opens with the title track, composed by Kelly as a tribute to the 80 year old alto player.


The alto duo harmonize on the head of that swinging title tune, setting up a relaxed but authoritative forty minutes of straight-ahead jazz. Woods' own "Love Song" allows he and Kelly to stretch out on a serene Latin ballad. Woods is particularly expressive during his darkly romantic solo. Kelly gives her horn a rest, instead singing "People Time," Benny Carter's melody with lyrics by Deborah Pearl. Her unaffected vocal is ably supported by Woods' rich accompaniment. The third and final pairing of the two altos is another slow, sultry number, Billy Strayhorn's "Ballad For Very Tired and Very Sad Lotus-Eaters."


A trio of expressive musicians support Kelly and Woods. Monty Alexander handles piano duties, while the rhythm section is Evan Gregor on bass and Bill Goodwin on drums. Cole Porter's classic "Every Time We Say Goodbye" is singled out for a sparse arrangement, played as a duet between Kelly's alto and Gregor's sympathetic bass. It's a nice feature for Gregor, expertly employing a bow for his upright. The result, though the album's briefest track, is a distinctively hypnotic bit of introspection.


The remaining two tunes are features primarily for Kelly, without participation from Woods. "Gone" is a collaborative composition by Kelly and David Greenberg. It's the second of Kelly's vocal features, unfortunately lacking an especially strong melody. Pianist Alexander adds some tasty Rhodes and melodica noodling to the mix, which adds a distinctive quality to what is otherwise a weaker spot. Thankfully the closer, a jaunty arrangement of "The Way You Look Tonight," is an album highlight. Alexander again deserves special recognition for his inventive piano work.


Man With the Horn is a low-intensity display of tasteful jazz, featuring both a new voice and an old one. Much more a showcase for the still developing talents of Grace Kelly, the album presents her as an accomplished player with an exciting future. The presence of Phil Woods on four of the seven tracks adds the touch of a seasoned veteran. It adds up to an album worth hearing.

View the original article on blogcritics.org

© 1998-2011 Seattle Post-Intelligencer - Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Although she’s only 18, Grace Kelly has been releasing CDs for half a decade, playing mainly alto sax as well as singing. So the Korean-American musician can no longer be assessed, or hailed, as a child prodigy, but more as a particularly well-seasoned, well-traveled young jazz player. And one, as Dan Morgenstern points out in his liner notes, who “does not … reveal any obvious stylistic models.” However, Phil Woods is definitely one of her alto sax heroes and the three tracks on which they play together reveal an ability to blend their individual sounds so that it is hard to differentiate them in tandem/harmony passages. Kelly also sings, but does not play, on the fourth track featuring Woods, Benny Carter’s “People Time”, doing newly minted lyrics by Deborah Pearl with Woods providing his patented, lushly lyrical obbligati behind her as well as an opening solo. The rhythm section features drummer Bill Goodwin from Woods’ band, bassist Evan Gregor from Kelly’s and pianist Monty Alexander, an inspired choice who brings his festive spirit to the proceedings.
The title tune, by Kelly, opens the CD on a swinging note and reveals she has developed as much as a composer as a player - note especially the creatively developed, rather than usual throwaway, bridge. Kelly shares with Woods a keen sense of melody and attention to tone and timbre, shaping solos as much melodically as harmonically, so hearing them together weaving through the themes of Woods’ “Love Song from Brazilian Suite” and Billy Strayhorn’s “Ballad for Very Tired and Very Sad Lotus-Eaters” is a delight, as are their equally tuneful solos. The two trading exuberant fours on the title track is another highlight.
Kelly sings lyrics she co-penned on a bossa inflected original, “Gone”, featuring Alexander on melodica (behind the vocal) and Rhodes keyboard, comping and in a solo. Rounding out the CD are a languorous altobass duet on Cole Porter’s “Every Time We Say Goodbye” and a jaunty Kelly arrangement (for acoustic quartet) of “The Way You Look Tonight”, her alto negotiating the rapid changes with élan.

For more information, visit pazzmusic.com. Woods is at
Saint Peter’s Mar. 13th as part of Prez Fest. See Calendar.
- New York City Jazz Record

Jazz music has certainly had its history of jazz prodigies. That famous black-and-white photo of
11-year-old Herbie Hancock performing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 5 with the Chicago
Symphony is forever etched in my brain. Tony Williams as a kid playing drums with Miles Davis
is another classic example. When it comes to saxophone, though, I'm hard pressed to come up
with anyone in the history of jazz who achieved a level of greatness, or even notoriety, while still
a teenager. Charlie Parker? Not until his early twenties. John Coltrane? Not until his mid-to-late
twenties. With the possible exception of Sonny Rollins at age 19, it's near impossible to come up
with a sax player who was even approaching greatness before 20. But perhaps history has finally
been made with the emergence of the phenomenal Grace Kelly.
Alto sax player Grace Kelly (born May 15, 1992 and originally, Grace Chung, until adopted by her
stepfather) recorded her first CD, Dreaming, at the tender age of 12. She recorded her second
CD, Times Too (2-CDs), when she was 13 and her third when she was 14. In 2008, at the wise
old age of 15, GracefulLee was recorded with some of the top musicians in jazz: Russell Malone
(guitar), Rufus Reid (bass) and Matt Wilson (drums), plus living legend Lee Konitz (alto sax). It
received a glorious review and a 4.5 star (5 stars is considered a masterpiece) rating in
Downbeat magazine –unprecedented for someone of her age. Without prior knowledge, you'd
never pick out the teenager.
GracefulLee was recorded with little planning. The majority of songs were chosen at the last
minute and three tracks ended up being free improvisations (created on the spot-just start
playing!). Despite these apparent restrictions, the results were miraculous and all 10 tracks are
The phenomenal Grace Kelly 2/5/11 2:33 AM
http://www.martinezgazette.com/print/2129 Page 3 of 3
first takes. Lee Konitz was only scheduled for two songs, “Subconsious Lee” and “Thinging,” but
stayed for the entire session. Afterwards, he described Grace as a “fearless improviser.”
In 2009, Grace Kelly's fifth CD, recorded at 17, was truly a tour-de-force performance. Mood
Changes featured Grace on tenor, alto and soprano sax, as well as vocals. Four of the ten tracks
were original compositions with the remainder including an arrangement of “I Want to be Happy”
in 7/4. Well, let's see now … she's playing three different saxophones, writing original
compositions with lyrics, arranging and singing. What's next, classical guitar and nose flute?
Absolutely astonishing!
Even considering the incredible effort, Mood Changes still doesn't quite measure up to its
predecessor. It did, however, live up to its name with a variety of styles. Grace played it straight,
played it funky, sang a little, and even covers two pop tunes. But both the Bill Wither's classic,
“Ain't no Sunshine” and The Beatles' “Here, There and Everywhere,” travel a little too close to
smooth territories than I prefer. Grace's instrumental performances are impressive, and while her
vocals aren't exactly cringe worthy, I just want to hear her blow!
Grace Kelly became the youngest alto sax player ever to be named in the Downbeat Annual
Critic's Poll in 2009 and was named again in 2010. Previously, she had also won 12 Downbeat
Student Awards. I know the word amazing has become cliché, but her tone (gorgeous, but not
too sweet), phrasing, and chops combined with a knowledge of melody, harmony and the history
of jazz, and the ability to adapt to any situation, fulfills the true meaning of that word. Miss Kelly
can improvise in any situation, plays with passion and feeling, and most important … she can
swing. Her playing is original and fresh.
It's those abilities that enabled a fearless 13-year-old to walk on the stage of a New York City
nightclub and sit in with some major jazz players. She has been invited to do this quite often and
has no trouble improvising with the best and holding her own. In addition to the aforementioned
musicians, Grace has performed live and/or recorded with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln
Center Jazz Orchestra, Phil Woods, Dave Brubeck, Hank Jones, Kenny Barron, Harry Connick
Jr., Cedar Walton, Jack DeJohnette, Diana Reeves and Chris Potter, to name a few. Her three
nights as guest sax player with the Jazz at the Lincoln Center Orchestra so impressed Wynton
Marsalis, he invited her to join them in Washington, D. C. to play at a special Martin Luther King,
Jr. Day concert.
So here we are at the start of 2011. Grace Kelly is 18. She leads her own band and tours
frequently. What's next for the saxophonist, singer, and composer? Is she on the verge of
greatness or is she already there? Only time and Grace can answer those questions. On her
website she says her goal is to “outstrip her talent.” That will be fun to see, or better said, hear.
Grace may not revolutionize the future of jazz like Bird or Trane, but as the legendary Phil
Woods once said, “I gave her my hat. That's how good she sounded.”
I was going to stop there, but recently read Grace Kelly's next CD will be in collaboration with Mr.
Woods, titled Man with the Hat. How appropriate.
[2]
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all original content is copyright © 2010 Gibson Publications - The Martinez News Gazette

Legendary 79-year-old alto-saxophonist Phil Woods laughs indignantly when I ask him how he knew 18-year-old alto-saxophonist Grace Kelly was special. "Come on, when you hear it, you know what it is! I've been doing this for 65 years!" Pressed for particulars, he at first says, "Her maturity." Then he demurs. "It's not any one thing. She's got the whole kit."

Woods is the title character on Kelly's latest album, Man with the Hat, and the two come into Scullers Friday night as part of a short tour. This is Kelly's second outing with a venerable jazz master — the first was GRACEfulLEE with Lee Konitz. The freakish thing about these two CDs is that sometimes it's difficult to tell the master from the student. The warmth and weight of the introductory statement on the medium-uptempo title track from the new album, the spontaneous burst of filigreed ornaments, seem to say Woods. But it's Kelly, as is the assured, inventive solo that comes in after the theme.

"That happened to me!" says Woods about my confusion. "I did a showcase with Grace a couple of days ago, and I went back to check the CD, and I said, 'Oh yeah, that's me.' And it wasn't me!"

This isn't just a case of empty mimicry. It's natural for players in a section to blend. "It used to happen to me and Gene Quill," Woods recalls of his old section mate in the Woody Herman Big Band. For that matter, think of the cat-and-mouse Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane play on "Tenor Madness."

But I digress. The point is that Brookline resident Kelly is the real deal, and has been since she started turning the heads of her teachers and performing in public at the age of 10. In fact, for Boston audiences, the Grace Kelly story is even a little bit old. Man with the Hat is her sixth album on her own Pazz label, and she's been appearing at Scullers regularly since her first show there in March 2006 — a sellout. At every turn, people have been impressed with a child — and then a young woman — whose artistry is anything but rote.

The dirty little secret about child prodigies is that they work their butts off — you need only see the manuscript pages of the counterpoint exercises a five-year-old Wolfgang Mozart wrote for his exacting teacher, his father, Leopold. But when I visit Kelly at her family's store, the gift shop the Wild Goose, in Coolidge Corner, there is little sign of anxious stage parents or a stressed genius. Wiry, gray-haired, baseball-capped, her adoptive father, Bob Kelly, leads me down to the Pazz section of the basement offices. Glamorous on stage, Grace — on winter break from her junior year at Berklee — looks every bit the laid-back, bespectacled college student.


“I just played what I thought sounded good. That’s the biggest reason I had such a fascination with this music — there’s so much freedom to express anything at any time.”

"When I got that horn," she tells me about her first alto, "the first week, I would open it every day and stare at it." When her lesson came, her teacher, James Merenda, showed her how to assemble it. "It's not hard," she says, "it's only two pieces!" But she was a bit in awe. She'd started taking classical piano lessons at six but had a tendency to go off the lesson plan, improvising her own tunes almost immediately. She loved saxophone — her jazz-fan parents played a lot of Stan Getz around the house. "He was the one who made me want to play." The Brookline public schools didn't have saxophone lessons, but they did have clarinet. "Clarinet was not easy at all. I squeaked." That lasted a year. Finally she began private lessons with Merenda, a ferocious improviser in his own right, and a mainstay of Boston's avant-garde scene.

"The first time, I got a really nice sound," says Kelly. Six weeks later, age 10, she had her first performance, at Borders Books and Music in Newton. "I played 'Bésame Mucho' and 'My Funny Valentine.' I learned all these songs by ear. I knew the songs. I listened to Sinatra a lot, he was always playing in the house, and lots of Broadway music. So I just needed to figure it out. And James helped me with the fingerings. We never played 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.' "

She continues, "I remember when James told me for the first time, 'Okay, now improvise. There's no wrong note, just play whatever you hear.' And he'd play the chords on the piano. It's what I did from the beginning, I just played what I thought sounded good. And then I started to learn scales. But that's the biggest reason I had such a fascination with this music — there's so much freedom to express anything at any time."

Kelly went on to study with a string of teachers, often several simultaneously. At New England Conservatory Prep, she and tenor-saxophonist Jason Hunter worked on articulation and technique as well as ear training. "He really pushed me. I worked on the song 'Donna Lee' for six months." When Hunter left town, she began studying with another NEC grad, Jeremy Udden, and another legend, Jerry Bergonzi. "Bergonzi would give me seven pages of exercises. 'Do this in every key.' It took a lot more discipline."

Other great teachers followed — Udden's teacher Allan Chase and the Fringe's George Garzone. But she retains a special affection for Udden (now living in New York), who ended every lesson with the two just playing together. "I would always leave the lesson feeling, like, 'Wow!' "

And, of course, there was Konitz, with his reputation for "pure" improvisation. "The biggest thing he stressed was, 'Don't have anything planned, don't learn any licks, just play from what you hear on the bandstand.' "

Bob Kelly says that it was Grace's winning of third place in the Fish Middleton Jazz Scholarship competition in Washington, DC — against music-school undergraduates — that put her "on the road to being a professional. That's when we started getting inquiries." She was 13. She met Phil Woods at a Stanford Jazz Residency in 2006. The two crossed paths again a few months later at a festival in Pittsfield, where Woods invited her on stage. When they finished playing, he took off his trademark leather cap and put it on her head — to keep.

Udden, emailing me from New York, says that he recalls seeing Kelly record at the age of 13 or 14. "I was able to hear her do a few takes of a ballad. What amazed me was that she started each solo from a completely different angle, and was truly listening to the rhythm section and reacting rather than playing the same material over and over as other young (or old) players might." He adds, "Her ears are huge and she has the maturity to just let go and play. And the fact that she can sound so good over more pop-oriented stuff, then completely hang with Lee Konitz and [drummer] Matt Wilson over freer material, is amazing — and rare for musicians of any age."

You can hear what Udden is talking about on any number of tracks from Kelly's past few CDs. On her tune "101," from 2008's Mood Changes, where she switches to soprano sax, the ideas just about explode out of her horn across keys and bar lines. "NY at Noon" shows her in fearless freefall with Konitz. And her writing continues to mature, not only in her fiendishly tricky arrangement of "I Want To Be Happy" with trumpeter Jason Palmer and distinguished Berklee trombone sage Hal Crook, but in pop-flavored vocal features like "Gone" (with lyrics by David Greenberg), from Man with the Hat. Writing, she says, is still her biggest challenge — though she was undaunted in presenting her own orchestration of an original with Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops.

One of the highlights of the new disc is her arrangement of Cole Porter's "Every Time We Say Goodbye." It's an instrumental — just a duo for alto and Evan Gregor's bass — but you can hear Kelly's sensitivity to the lyrics in her playing, her willingness to respond, to let a phrase drop with a Konitz-like dying fall. There's no trickery, no gimmicks, no "licks."

"She needs smoothing out," Woods says wryly over the phone. "Another 50 years on the bandstand." But, recalling his confusion over recognizing his own solo, he adds, "That's pretty strange, that she can fool me. Get out of here! Give back the hat — you're too good!"

GRACE KELLY & PHIL WOODS | Scullers, DoubleTree Guest Suites Hotel, 400 Soldiers Field Rd, Boston | January 21 at 8 + 10 pm | $25 | 617.562.4111 or scullersjazz.com - THE BOSTON PHOENIX

This Grace Kelly is a 17-year-old Korean-American who plays the alto saxophone. Lee Konitz is 82 and does the same. In terms of accomplishment, there's little to choose between them. Ms Kelly is a remarkable musician, not because she's a brilliant player - that's taken for granted - but because she has the judicious poise of a veteran. She obviously loves playing with Konitz, but the best tracks are the ones where she is alone with just one accompanist. That's when her melodic gifts have a chance to shine. She really is something. - London Observer

Young Grace Kelly uses her considerable talents as a saxophonist,
arranger, composer, and appealing vocalist in this offering
with many mood changes but an overall effervescent quality. Kelly,
trumpeter Jason Palmer, and pianist Doug Johnson are strong
soloists throughout this program of four Kelly compositions, four
standards, a Lennon and McCartney hit, and a soulful version of Bill
Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine.” Highlights are Kelly’s breathy tenor
in “Tender Madness,” spritely alto in “I’ll Remember April” and
“Happy Theme Song,” and lively and expressive vocals on “It Might
As Well Be Spring” and “But Life Goes On.” - Cadence by Don Lerman

It felt weird stopping only briefly to hear great local musicians including James Harvey, Nick Cassarino and Bryan McNamara totally wailing at a free show in front of City Hall tonight (talk about an embarrassment of riches during jazz fest). But I had to hear Grace Kelly, the royally-named sax phenom who just turned 17 and was about to take the stage in front of a standing-room-only crowd at FlynnSpace.

"It's packed in here," the Massachusetts teen said upon coming on stage. "It's a lovely Burlington welcome, so thank you very much." She was shining, literally (as you can see in this great photo by Free Press staffer Alison Redlich), in a sparkling black sleeveless top and spangly green headband and necklace. Then she let her music and her amazing poise do the shining.

As a sax player, Grace Kelly has impressive amounts of stamina and feel. Her personality is similarly expressive, as she swayed and half-danced her way through her opening tune, "I'll Remember April." She's also a sweet-voiced, nuanced singer who sounded great on "It Might As Well Be Spring."

She came off as friendly, personable, confident and professional. It's tempting to think maybe she's playing adult-jazz-musician-dress-up until you realize this isn't play-acting - she has the talent. Watching her at FlynnSpace tonight was a little like seeing a young Esperanza Spalding there a couple of years ago. You have to wonder, once she gains a little more power in her playing and learns more improvisational communication with her capable band members, just how much better Grace Kelly will get.

Her second set was highlighted by an intensely soulful version of Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine" (the best her sax sounded all night) and a brand-new song she just presented to her quintet today, a slow and slinky number titled "The Nighttime" that the 17-going-on-40 musician said was "dedicated to all the lovers out there."

She ended the set with Thelonious Monk's "'Round Midnight," which built to a dramatic crescendo. During that tune, a woman near the rear of the crowd collapsed, and in a few minutes a Burlington Fire Department ambulance crew came to help the woman, who left with them under her own power. As Grace's sax wailed toward the end, a woman near the stage called out "Grace, you're on fire!" as she was about to nail the last few notes.

I found myself in the first set wondering when we'd see how much better Grace Kelly could get. I found out much earlier than I expected - in the second set. - By Brent Hallenbeck

GRACE KELLY – That’s right, you heard me. What’s more, she’s just released her fourth CD as a leader, “Mood Changes” (Pazz)…and she’s 16 years old! (For some reason, I’m reminded of the opening lines of Billie Holiday’s ghostwritten autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues, something along the lines of: “Mom and Dad were 16 when they got married. I was three.”)
Now, in all truthiness, Ms. Kelly is a singer secondarily. Her primary voice is the alto saxophone (she plays tenor and flute as well), but she sings extremely well. It’s just that, as a remarkably mature saxophone soloist, she doesn’t necessarily sound 16; as a singer, it’s somewhat unavoidable (and a bit jarring at times when singing the world weary lyrics of, say, a Cole Porter or Lorenz Hart). But what a refreshing talent. - by Bo Leibowitz

Grace Kelly July 1, Scéne CBC The 18-year-old
Ms. Kelly plays a searing hot blues-drenched alto saxophone in the vein of Cannonball Adderley and his successor Vincent Herring. (Not so incidentally. one of
her teachers was Lee Konitz, co-leader of Kelly’s 2008
album Graceful-Lee.) Despite a few audio problems,
her quintet served up some crackling, bracing, un-
reactionary hard bop. Kelly is not merely “good for her
age”—she’s excellent, period.
- Jazz Inside Magazine - Mark Keresman

“Grace Kelly plays with intelligence, wit and feeling. She has a great amount of natural ability and the ability to adapt. That is the hallmark of a first-class jazz musician.” ….Wynton Marsalis


“I first met Grace Kelly at the 2006 summer jazz program at Stanford University. I was amazed at her precocity and talent. Recently she sat in with me and the Jazz Ambassadors Jazz Band at the Pittsfield Jazz Fest. and we jammed together through "I'll Remember April." How did she sound? I gave her my hat! That is how good she sounded! She is the first alto player to get one. Hooray for the future of jazz and the alto sax!”
“Ten years ago I was asked by someone where the new Bird was going to come from. I said, half-jokingly, that it might be a dwarf, Albino woman from Africa. Jazz seems to be floundering right now, and we don’t have a clear-cut leader. Maybe Grace Kelly is the one. You just never know.”
… Phil Woods


Ms. Kelly is a phenomenon -- not a precociously talented child, but a complete improvising musician. With Konitz, one of the great individualists in jazz, she is a peer.
……Doug Ramsey- Rifftides


"Grace is one of the most gifted, deeply musical, charismatic, and delightful musicians I have ever known in all my years in the world of Jazz--and she is truly humble. She is not an artist for Jazz lovers only but one for the whole world. She's in her own special category, one that contains joy and sunshine. It was a true pleasure to record with her on this album and to experience Grace's meticulous dedication every step of the way. I am looking forward to enjoying her talent in the coming years.
….Monty Alexander"

“Grace had invited me to play a few tunes on her new CD but once we got into the studio there were many inspired moments and it turned out to be a whole Cd on its own. I gave her permission to play better than I, if she just couldn’t stand it anymore. Grace is a fearless young improviser, and besides that she is fun to be around. …..Lee Konitz

"The future of our music is in good hands." …..Jimmy Heath
Well after reading the glowing reviews from many of my peers on your CD jacket I expected something special, but words can only do so much justice toward introducing your talents and obvious dedication to music. It simply has to be heard...you know how to get to the essence of swing, sound, and true improvisation and whether you are playing or singing or composing this essence shines through and is the sign of a true artist at work. It also goes without saying, that you have a maturity far beyond your years. I look forward to following your career. I really think you will have a big impact on the music world.” ….. Randy Brecker
"Grace Kelly is a unique and genuine talent.
Great young performers are nothing new, but someone who possesses such ease of expression and musical personality at such an early stage of her career is a find, indeed. I can't wait to see what her future holds!"
…Keith Lockhart
- Various Notable Artists

“What if I told you that the future of jazz, which many have pronounced dead or dying in the last two decades, rested in the hands of a 16-year-old Korean American saxophonist named Grace Kelly? ….I’ve heard the future of jazz and it is Grace Kelly.”
- David Was, NPR’s Day to Day


“Jazz has had its share of prodigies over the years, as well as players -- Miles Davis was one -- who established their creative credentials while they were barely out of their teens …..few teenage horn players, and even fewer who are female, have drawn much attention in recent years. With the exception, that is, of Grace Kelly, a 15-year-old alto saxophonist and singer Grace Kelly. Grace plays with stunning maturity and an extraordinary command of her instrument.”
-Don Heckman, Special to The LA Times


“I love this record…This young lady has bags of talent.
- Michael Jackson, Downbeat

abundantly clear that she can hold her own with any of the “big boys.”??and vocal delivery exuded a timeless quality. ---The Saratogan,
Rising jazz star heading for the stratosphere …no stopping her. …vertiginous, thrilling. The smart money says we'll never see this kid on such a small stage again. But it was a treat to be there when it did happen. --Montreal Gazzette

She has a strong, bright, centered sound, great harmonic and melodic command and time and technique to burn.
--- Saxophone Magazine


Ms Kelly is a remarkable musician, not because she's a brilliant player - that's taken for granted - but because she has the judicious poise of a veteran. …. her melodic gifts shine. She really is something. ,,,London Observer Feb 2010


I know of no explanation other than genius for Grace Kelly’s attainment of maturity in her art. She has mastery of the instrument, passion, profound swing and judgment that one would expect in a player with 20 years of professional experience. - -- Jazz Times


“Combine her proficiency with an equal measure of composure, and it’s easy to see how Ms. Kelly secured the endorsement of elder statesmen like Mr. Woods and Lee Konitz”
Nate Chinen, “New York Times


Grace Kelly took the spotlight and amazed those who saw her perform … she has already mastered techniques that can take years to do. Scena Jazz – Toronto

… some real fireworks. Her vocals were strong, but the nuances of her sax tone during "Round Midnight" were gorgeous. (Newport Jazz Festival)
Rick Massimo Providence Journal

“Has she really got it?” …. the answer turns out to be, “Yes.”
- William Ruhlman, JazzTimes
“What gave the evening a "star is born" dramatic tension was the playing of an amazing alto saxophonist, Grace Kelly.”
- Mike Drew, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
-

“Grace Kelly is still on. No mere flash in the pan, Grace Kelly is here to stay.”
- Ken Dryden, All About Jazz


“To say that Kelly plays with maturity beyond her years is to make the understatement of the decade. She has a strong, bright, centered sound, great harmonic and melodic command, and time and technique to burn... Make no mistake; Ms. Kelly has got the goods.”
- Billy Kerr, Saxophone Journal
- Various Press Journals

All due respect to Nikki Yanofsky and everything, but she's not the only child prodigy heading for the stratosphere at this festival.

Rising jazz star and Downbeat darling Grace Kelly, 18, is only a couple of years older than Montreal's sweetheart. The Korean-American sax player released her first album when she was 12. And judging from her stunning second. set on the CBC stage last night, there's probably no stopping her.

What stood out were the wisely-planned dynamics heard in the all-too-brief hour Kelly (nee Grace Chung) spent with seemingly delighted onlookers. Kicking off conservatively with the solid bop of Happy Theme Song, she was soon leading her gifted and versatile band --- Jason Palmer on trumpet, pianist Doug Johnson, bassist Evan Gregor and drummer Jordan Perlson ---into Filosophical Flying Fish, with its loose, syncopated New Orleans-styled foundation. A new, unrecorded composition, Where Did You Go, followed, showing a bossa nova lilt that evoked Stan Getz, an early idol of Kelly's.

By the time the quintet concluded with the tour de force Searching For Peace --- a scorcher with a precise, industrial motif shadowed by a rock-like backbeat --- some wonderful hell was breaking loose on stage.

And yet Kelly might not see herself as an envelope-pusher. At one point, before leading the band into the vertiginous, thrilling 101, she explained that she had initially planned on calling it Parenting 101, From a Child's Point of View, but decided to simplify. "I'm not a rebel. I'm a good kid," she added.

The smart money says we'll never see this kid on such a small stage again. But it was a treat to be there when it did happen.

--- Bernard Perusse --- - Montreal Gazette by Bernard Perusse

http://www.courant.com/entertainment/music/reviews/events/hc-gracekelly.artaug30,0,5646839.story
Courant.com
The Baton (And Cap) Has Been Passed
14-Year-Old Sax Prodigy Grace Kelly Already A Seasoned Veteran
By OWEN McNALLY

SPECIAL TO THE COURANT

August 30, 2007



When Phil Woods, a long-reigning king of the alto saxophone, bestowed his trademark black leather cap on stage last October to Grace Kelly, a wunderkind saxophonist, it looked like a mini-coronation, a spontaneous symbolic gesture that leaped across the generation gap.

Woods, who was then nearly 75, was knocked out by the then-14-year-old alto saxophonist's precociously cooking sense of swing and fluid phrasing when she joined him on stage to rip through the changes to "I'll Remember April" at the Pittsfield City Jazz Festival in Pittsfield, Mass.

"How did she sound?" a still dazzled Woods later explained. "I gave her my hat. That's how good she sounded. She is the first alto player to get one."

Mixing praise with prophecy, Woods, whose famously witty opinions on music and its practitioners can be quite astringent, added, "Hooray for the future of jazz and the alto saxophone!"

Kelly, who's riding a wave of critical acclaim for her third album, "Every Road I Walked" (Pazz Productions), wears the Woods cap with enormous pride at her gigs now.

And the young saxophonist/singer/songwriter/arranger from Brookline, Mass., will be wearing the hip headgear Saturday at 6:30 p.m. as she performs at the Jazz Café at the Tanglewood Jazz Festival, which runs Friday through Sunday in Lenox, Mass.

"It's not right to keep the cap just sitting in the closet, so I wear it to just about every gig. It's a good omen, a very special thing and so amazing that he gave it to me. He'd been wearing it for years, so it has much history," Kelly says from her hotel room in New York City.

Just back from a California jaunt, she's on a break for the weekend, an ordinary teen tourist in New York with her parents, Robert Kelly, her manager, and Irene Chang Kelly. Grace's deeply supportive parents always accompany her on tours that have taken her to premier jazz clubs, concerts and festivals from throughout the United States to Norway.

As a popular "A" student who's entering her sophomore year at Brookline High School, Kelly is already a veteran who has played at Carnegie Hall, Symphony Hall in Boston and Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola at Lincoln Center.

Her expanding résumé includes live performances with numerous notable musicians, including Woods, Frank Morgan, Lee Konitz, Ann Hampton Callaway (an idol who has encouraged her), Dianne Reeves, Terri Lyne Carrington (herself a onetime child prodigy drummer) and Chris Potter.

A versatile musician whose varied, original songs can include a pop or even folk flavor, the savvy jazz saxophonist has been quite comfortable grooving with such venerable bluesmen as James Montgomery and James Cotton.

Living at home with her parents, she'll have to find extra storage space in her bedroom to warehouse the many awards she has already garnered, including numerous Down Beat student music awards and top prizes earned at the 2007 Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival. Kelly, who wrote her first song at age 7, won the ASCAP Foundation 2007 Young Jazz Composer Award for the title track of her album, "Every Road I Walked." Her amusing, whimsically titled tune "Filosophical Flying Fish"- one of the mix of 14 originals and standards on her new disc - has triumphed in two prestigious songwriting competitions.

While her new recording is packed with strong samples of her playing, singing and writing that demonstrate skill and maturity far beyond her chronological years, older listeners may at first be struck not by her obviously ample talent but by her glittering name, Grace Kelly.

Asked if questions about her name come up very often, or is ever much of a problem, Kelly says, "No, not really. Some of my friends don't even know who Grace Kelly, the actress, was. Those who do just think it's cool. (Kelly, the former screen goddess, died in a car accident in 1982, a decade before the saxophone phenom and many of her friends at school were even born.)

"Sometimes people think it's an interesting name because at first they think that I might have been named for her, which I wasn't," Kelly says.

Actually, she was born Grace Chung on May 15, 1992, in Wellesley, Mass., to Korean parents.

At age 2, Grace moved to Brookline with her mother and sister, Christina, after her parents divorced.

Grace's mother married Robert Kelly in 1997. A few years later, Grace and her sister were legally adopted by her stepfather, and thus she became Grace Kelly. Grace has two stepsisters, Heather and Sara, and a stepbrother, Tim, who was a sergeant in the Marines, serving two tours in Iraq.

Right from the beginning in her new home, young Grace was encouraged to pursue her growing interest in music and dance by her parents, both of whom have an abiding interest in the arts and music.

"My mom loved tenor saxophonist Stan Getz. I can remember on Sundays eating our pancakes for breakfast and listening to Stan Getz in the background. His sound is what really struck me and inspired me. That's why I wanted to play saxophone," she says.

At 6, Grace was taking formal piano lessons.

Even then, her unusual musical talent was apparent. But she kept breaking the classical rules, ignoring written notes to spin themes in her own spontaneous, individualistic form of expression.

Already, signs of jazz rebellion and a passion for improvisation were apparent in the gifted child with a knack for creativity, whether she was making up songs, stories and plays or inventing new dance steps improvised in front of a mirror.

In fourth grade, there were clarinet lessons. But Grace was already hooked on a different kind of sound. Her heart belonged to that gorgeous, floating Stan Getz sound, that warm, human-voice-like tone and phrasing that was the legendary saxophonist's signature and the envy of saxophonists around the world.

Plus, there were all the other great players, both instrumentalists and singers, she would hear at home on recordings or on the radio.

All that wonderful, warm jazz music in the air - a kind of all-embracing, natural ambience in the Kelly household - was absorbed in young Grace's mind and processed by her unusually keen ears, creating an idealized kind of saxophone sound in her imagination that she wanted to capture.

Fourth-graders, however, weren't permitted to study the saxophone. Clarinet was it, as close as you could get to Getz and saxophone bliss.

Grace couldn't wait for fifth grade to attain that special, magical reed sound that was echoing in her head.

"I feel that when I first picked up the saxophone, there was a real connection right away. Some people say that in order to get a nice sound out of your instrument, you have to have imagined it in your head before."

Grace had already imagined that perfect sound and found the alto, rather than the tenor, was just the right instrument to emulate that ideal she heard in her head and felt in her heart, a sonic state of grace.

On her latest album, which features the formidable Carrington on drums and noted bassist John Lockwood, you can hear the sound she heard and has crafted with her own diligence and with the help of tutorials from such saxophone savants as Lee Konitz, Jerry Bergonzi and Allan Chase.

You can hear how she has absorbed the influence of such alto greats as Woods, Paul Desmond and Frank Morgan, and then put her own expressive spin on it.

As a singer, she also shows surprising ability, confidence and maturity beyond her years, whether scatting, without overkill, or singing the lyrics to a samba in Portuguese. Even at 15, she seems to have a better, more mature understanding of how a lyric works in a song than many vocalists twice or even three times her age.

Touring, recording, writing songs, practicing, studying with jazz masters, jam sessions, rehearsals, dance classes, piano lessons, vocal training, going to school, making the honor roll and, in general, just being a teenager all make for a most demanding schedule. With her parents' loving support, Grace somehow manages quite well.

"It's all about having a good balance. I can't say that I have a lot of spare time, but I get time to hang out with my friends who come to my performances and support me," she says.

Getting homework done on the road can be a problem, she acknowledges, particularly if you want to maintain honors grades with hopes of some day attending one of the leading music conservatories in New England or New York City.

"Sometimes it's hard. I'm a big procrastinator, but I'll do it when I'm in a hotel room, or even sometimes backstage at a performance, although that can be a little hard.

"I find the time, though, because I know that I have to do it right then becauseotherwise when I get home nothing will be done," she says.

She likes to go to movies, loves to dance and, best of all, just hang out with friends. In her few free moments, she likes to chill out by listening to live recordings by the Bill Evans Trio, Stevie Wonder, the Getz/Gilberto bossa nova classics or the new Pat Metheny/Brad Mehldau discs.

Yes, she's had time for boyfriends in the past, but right now, she says, her best friend is her alto saxophone, a most time-consuming and rigorously demanding buddy.

What keeps her going, she says, is that she loves what she's doing and feels there's so much more to be learned. Modest and self-critical, she constantly strives to pick up knowledge first-hand "from these great musicians who are teaching me and pushing me on the bandstand."

"After one of my live performances," she says, "I was literally sweating because I was feeling so pushed, which is so satisfying and great. It left me with the feeling that I've got to go home and practice a lot more because there's always going to be more for me to learn.

"If I wasn't doing this, though, I feel that I would be missing something because it brings me so much joy.

"Sometimes it feels kind of like a dream, and I can't believe that I'm actually up there on the stage doing what I'm doing. It's a lot of work, but a lot fun, and you've just got to enjoy it."

GRACE KELLY and her combo perform Saturday at 6:30 p.m. at the Jazz Café at the Tanglewood Jazz Festival, which runs Friday through Sunday in Lenox, Mass. Admission to the Kelly concert is free with a ticket to a main-stage event. Main-stage headliners include Ahmad Jamal, Jimmy Heath, Kurt Elling, Randy Crawford, Joe Sample, Hank Jones, Roberta Gambarini, the Maria Schneider Orchestra, Hugh Masekela, the Poncho Sanchez Latin Big Band, Kevin Mahogany's Kansas City Review, Cyrus Chestnut, Red Holloway and Marian McPartland taping her "Piano Jazz" radio show with guest Renee Rosnes. Tickets: www.tanglewoodjazzfestival.org and 888-266-1200.

Copyright © 2007, The Hartford Courant



- Hartford Courant By OWEN McNALLY

In January 2008, when the alto saxophonists Grace Kelly and Lee Konitz got together to cut a couple of tracks and ended up recording this entire album together, Kelly was 15 years old and Konitz was 80. It is some measure of the effectiveness of both performers that, without that knowledge, the listener wouldn’t be likely to realize that the interplay on the disc featured a spiritual grandfather and granddaughter. Kelly is a prodigy for whom this is her fourth recording; Konitz has been both a mentor and a teacher.
The similarity between them is not surprising, but still can be striking, as on “You Don’t Know What Love Is.” In other instances, they alternate. On “There Is No Greater Love,” the first part features Kelly, accompanied by bassist Rufus Reid, playing arco. Reid dispenses with the bow in the second half, when Konitz comes in. The student is the somewhat more restrained, correct player; the teacher is freed up to take more chances and actually may be having more fun. The unplanned nature of the session is apparent in the arrangements and the playing, but that’s all to the good. Two tracks in a row, “Alone Together” and “Buzzing Around,” feature only Kelly and Konitz, playing for each other.

The latter track is billed as a “free improvisation,” meaning they made it up as they went along, and there are more of those as the album goes on, leading to the short final track, “NY at Noon,” which finds all the musicians—Kelly, Konitz and Reid, plus guitarist Russell Malone and drummer Matt Wilson—going for broke. It’s a happy mess. Kelly is still so young that it’s hard to avoid describing her in terms of a phenomenon. Paired with Konitz, she at least is able to share that pressure on the other end of the calendar. To the paired questions, “Has she really got it?” and “Has he still got it?,” the answer turns out to be, “Yes.”


-William Ruhlmann - JAZZ TIMES Magazine Oct 2008

GRACEfulLEE
Grace Kelly | Pazz Productions (2008)


By Ken Dryden

Grace Kelly is still only a teenager, but she has already turned quite a few heads in the world of jazz. She already has an impressive resume, having won several Down Beat Student Music Awards and a pair of ASCAP Young Composer Foundation Awards, in addition to beginning studies at Berklee in the fall of 2008 on full scholarship at the age of 16. She has studied with Lee Konitz, Jerry Bergonzi and Allan Chase and has already played in many well-known venues, working with artists like Phil Woods, Dave Brubeck, Hank Jones, Kenny Barron, Cedar Walton and many others, while also appearing on Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz (to air in December, 2008). Woods gave her the ultimate complement; after they jammed together on "I'll Remember April," he gave her his trademark leather cap, the first alto saxophonist ever to receive one.
GraceFulLee is Kelly's fourth CD and she is in great form, accompanied by a veteran rhythm section consisting of guitarist Russell Malone, bassist Rufus Reid and drummer Matt Wilson. Fellow alto saxophonist Lee Konitz was intended as a guest on a few numbers, but they enjoyed playing together so much, he ended up staying for the entire date. Kelly proves herself by negotiating Konitz's tricky "Subconscious Lee" (an early reworking of "What is This Thing Called Love"), a cool rendition of the veteran's "Thingin'" (inspired by "All the Things You Are") and the title track, a loping jazz waltz and joint effort. Kelly has an appreciation for standards, highlighted by her emotional take of "You Don't Know What Love Is," and there are also several delightful free improvisations: one with Konitz, another with Wilson and a final one with the full band. She also shines in her duets with Malone and Reid. No mere flash in the pan, Grace Kelly is here to stay.

Grace Kelly at All About Jazz.
Visit Grace Kelly on the web.


Track listing: Subconscious Lee; Just Friends; GRACEfulLEE; You Don't Know What Love Is; Alone Together; Buzzing Around; Thingin'; Call of the Spirits; NY at Noon.


Personnel: Grace Kelly: alto saxophone; Lee Konitz: alto saxophone; Russell Malone: electric guitar; Rufus Reid: bass; Matt Wilson: drums.
- All About Jazz - Ken Dryden

CD: Grace Kelly, Lee Konitz
Grace Kelly, Lee Konitz, GracefulLee (Pazz).

Alto saxophonists, one fifteen, the other eighty, on the same wavelength, enjoying one another's company. As I wrote near the time this was being recorded, Ms.Kelly is a phenomenon -- not a precociously talented child, but a complete improvising musician. With Konitz, one of the great individualists in jazz, she is a peer. On the tracks featuring her in duo with drummer Matt Wilson, guitarist Russell Malone and bassist Rufus Reid, she is resourceful and satisfying. Wow. - Riiftides - Doug Ramsey

GRACE KELLY – MOOD CHANGES

When it comes to saxophonist/vocalist/composer/lyricist/arranger Grace Kelly, people seem to be divided into two groups: those who marvel at her proficiency, creativity and ever-accelerating growth, and those who have yet to encounter the 16-year-old wunderkind.

The ranks of the former category are growing by the day. Trumpeter and Jazz at Lincoln Center Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis was so impressed with Kelly’s three-night stand as guest of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in November that he has invited her to join the ensemble at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater in Washington, D.C. for an Martin Luther King, Jr. Day/Inauguration Eve concert on January 19th. Harry Connick, Jr. heard Kelly in a master class on a December afternoon and brought her on stage to sit in with his band that night. This capped an already exceptional end of 2008 in which Kelly’s appearance on NPR’s Piano Jazz with Marian McPartland was syndicated nationally, The Boston Music Awards declared her the city’s Outstanding Jazz Act, and local ABC affiliate WCVB-TV named her one of five Bostonians to Watch in 2009.

To this astonishing list of kudos and credits, Kelly now adds Mood Changes, the fifth release on her PAZZ label. The album mixes six standards with four Kelly originals and features her working quintet (Jason Palmer, trumpet; Doug Johnson, piano; John Lockwood, basses; Jordan Perlson or Terri Lyne Carrington, drums), with guest appearances by guitarist Adam Rogers on two tracks and trombonist Hal Crook on one.

“I’m just trying to listen to as much music as possible, which makes it hard for me to put together a CD about just one thing,” Kelly says in explaining her inspiration for Mood Changes. “A year before the session, I wrote `Tender Madness,’ which is slow and sad, and around the same time, when I was in a good mood, I wrote `Happy Theme Song.’ At that point, I realized that a concept for my next album was taking shape. Two more originals, `101’ and `But Life Goes On,’ extended the idea, as did the six standards.”

The album is a showcase for Kelly’s multi-faceted talent. Alto saxophone, her primary instrument, is heard on seven of the tracks, but she also overdubs soprano sax behind her vocal on “Comes Love” and makes her debut on tenor on the original ballad “Tender Madness” and “It Might as Well Be Spring,” where she also sings. “I started playing the sax because of Stan Getz,” she explains, “and the tenor adds to my goal of creating different colors and moods.” A third vocal track, “But Life Goes On,” indicates Kelly’s incredible maturity as both composer and lyricist. “I’m a melody-first person, and usually find it a lot harder to write words, but as deeply philosophical as this piece is, it was written relatively quickly,” she reports. An instrumental original, “101” (originally titled “Parenting 101” and meant to depict “parenting from a kid’s point of view”) has already received an ASCAP Foundation Young Jazz Composers Award (her second such citation) and a Down Beat Student Music Award for extended composition (one of four DB awards she garnered in 2008). Kelly’s arrangements of two pop hits, Bill Withers’ “Aint No Sunshine” and the Beatles’ “Here, There and Everywhere,” incorporate the distinctive concept of guest guitarist Adam Rogers; and her unique scoring of “I Want to Be Happy” in 7/4, including Hal Crook’s trombone, finds her writing for three horns for the first time. The disc is completed by a quintet jam on “I’ll Remember April.”

Kelly is particularly excited about the strides that Mood Changes reveals in her bandleading skills. “There’s nothing like playing my own music with my own band,” she acknowledges. “Everyone is so comfortable, yet I feel as if I’m getting pushed in every performance. At the same time, I realize more of what I want over the years, and more direction goes into the music. Every time we play is a complete adventure.”

Adventure has been the watchword for the teenaged phenom, who was born Grace Chung on May 15, 1992. (She became Grace Kelly after her mother divorced and remarried and her stepfather, Bob Kelly, legally adopted Grace and her sister Christina.) The strong classical music background of her mother’s family led Grace to begin piano lessons at age six, and she still does much of her composing at the piano as she sings wordlessly. Singing, dancing, writing songs and theater were also early passions, soon joined by a fascination with the recordings of Stan Getz and other jazz saxophonists that her parents played during Sunday brunches. She began to study the clarinet at her elementary school in the fourth grade, and began private saxophone lessons a few months later. Further inspiration was provided by Ann Hampton Callaway, who detected “the boundless spirit and imagination of a natural artist” when she met Kelly in 2002. Another early champion, middle school music teacher Ken Berman, was so inspired by the pre-teen’s playing and writing that he insisted, “you have to record.” What followed was her first disc, Dreaming. “The CD release took place on March 17, 2004, when I was 12,” she recalls, “and as soon as I walked on stage, I realized that performing was my favorite thing to do.”

A growing list of triumphs and testimonials to Kelly’s brilliance followed. Times Too (2005), a two-disc set, found her expanding her musical pallet while interpreting such classics as “Isfahan” and “`Round Midnight” with the gravitas of a veteran. The title track of her next disc, Every Road I Walked (2006), garnered the first of her ASCAP Foundation awards and an invitation to perform with the Boston Pops. When conductor Keith Lockhart asked her to play the composition at the concert with just a rhythm section, Kelly countered by suggesting that she write an arrangement for the full orchestra. “That experience taught me that anything is possible,” she says.

Now a teenager, Kelly continued to garner accolades from artists she revered, sitting in with the likes of Dave Brubeck, the late Frank Morgan and Phil Woods. (“I gave her my hat, that’s how good she sounded,” Woods enthused. “She’s the first alto player to get one.”) Perhaps her most intensive connection has been with Lee Konitz, who Kelly has studied with for the past three years. “The biggest lesson that Lee taught me has been spontaneity, from day one,” she emphasizes, while Konitz has referred to Kelly as “all ears and all heart.” Kelly asked Konitz to guest on two tracks for her fourth album, an invitation that led to the joint composition “GRACEfulLEE” and an entire disc of the same name. GRACEfulLEE, with the all-star support of guitarist Russell Malone, bassist Rufus Reid and drummer Matt Wilson, garnered a rare **** ½ review in Down Beat, and has been widely acclaimed as one of the best jazz recordings of 2008.

Currently, Kelly is entering her second semester at Boston’s Berklee College of Music. “I loved playing with the other kids in high school,” she explains, “but many of my friends in the band were graduating seniors. So after I auditioned for Berklee and received a full scholarship, I got my GED and started college at 16. It’s been great, playing all the time and just living music all day. I’m learning so much, like chromatic solfège, which has really changed my ears, and I’m playing all kinds of music. Playing in a group that focuses on the Yellowjackets has been great, and I can’t wait to be in Terri Lyne Carrington’s ensemble next semester.”

Without hesitation, Grace Kelly will tell you that her goal is “to stay in jazz but also do different things, bigger arrangements, like Stevie Wonder and George Benson.” Her ambition has yet to outstrip her talent, and Mood Changes suggests that such a turn of events is unlikely in the foreseeable future.
- Press Release - Mood Changes

JAZZ REVIEW
Grace Kelly
The alto saxophonist and vocalist, just 15, shows her rising star status as she leads a quintet at Jazz Bakery.




By Don Heckman, Special to The Times


Jazz has had its share of prodigies over the years, as well as players -- Miles Davis was one -- who established their creative credentials while they were barely out of their teens. But aside from pianists such as Eldar Djangirov and Taylor Eigsti, few teenage horn players, and even fewer who are female, have drawn much attention in recent years.

With the exception, that is, of Grace Kelly, a 15-year-old alto saxophonist and singer from Massachusetts. She's not an actress -- at least not yet -- but she is a startlingly gifted young jazz talent. Kelly performed at several venues around town during Grammy week as a member of the Gibson/Baldwin Grammy Jazz Ensembles. On Monday, she got to appear with her own quintet at the Jazz Bakery.




A slender, smiling young woman with a warm demeanor, Kelly came on stage with the look of a slightly nervous teenager about to give a recital. That changed when the first tune began -- the standard "I'll Remember April." Fluent from multi-phonics at the horn's low end to soaring high harmonics, technically facile even at fast tempos, delivering her notes with a strikingly warm and passionate sound, Kelly played with stunning maturity and an extraordinary command of her instrument.

Her soloing on "Caravan" on " 'Round Midnight" was filled with unexpected twists and turns, and when she switched to soprano saxophone for an original tune, "101," her improvisational inventiveness immediately adapted to the articulation and tone of the smaller instrument.

That alone would have been impressive, but what was even more remarkable about Kelly's playing was the maturity of her phrasing, her harmonic choices and her use of saxophone techniques that most players don't achieve until they've been playing for decades. Then there are her well-crafted compositions -- "Filosophical Flying Fish," "Every Road I Walked," "Horn Theme Song."

The final asset in this gifted young talent's creative portfolio was her singing and songwriting, superbly displayed in her beautiful rendering of her own thoughtful song, "But Life Goes On."

Kelly was ably supported by a first-rate band -- the fine young trumpeter Jason Palmer, pianist Doug Johnson, bassist John Lockwood and veteran drummer Terri Lyne Carrington. But this was Kelly's night to shine -- with a glow that is just beginning.






If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at latimes.com/archives.

- Don Heckman - LA Times

“What if I told you that the future of jazz, which many have pronounced dead or dying in the last two decades, rested in the hands of a 16-year-old Korean American saxophonist named Grace Kelly? ….I’ve heard the future of jazz and it is Grace Kelly.”
- David Was, NPR’s Day to Day


“Jazz has had its share of prodigies over the years, as well as players -- Miles Davis was one -- who established their creative credentials while they were barely out of their teens …..few teenage horn players, and even fewer who are female, have drawn much attention in recent years. With the exception, that is, of Grace Kelly, a 15-year-old alto saxophonist and singer Grace Kelly. Grace plays with stunning maturity and an extraordinary command of her instrument.”
-Don Heckman, Special to The LA Times


“I love this record…This young lady has bags of talent.
- Michael Jackson, Downbeat

“Has she really got it?” …. the answer turns out to be, “Yes.”
- William Ruhlman, JazzTimes
“What gave the evening a "star is born" dramatic tension was the playing of an amazing alto saxophonist, Grace Kelly.”
- Mike Drew, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
-

“Grace Kelly is still on. No mere flash in the pan, Grace Kelly is here to stay.”
- Ken Dryden, All About Jazz


“To say that Kelly plays with maturity beyond her years is to make the understatement of the decade. She has a strong, bright, centered sound, great harmonic and melodic command, and time and technique to burn... Make no mistake; Ms. Kelly has got the goods.”
- Billy Kerr, Saxophone Journal
-
“Combine her proficiency with an equal measure of composure,
and it’s easy to see how Ms. Kelly secured the endorsement
of elder statesmen like Mr. Woods and Lee Konitz”

Nate Chinen, “New York Times
- Various News Outlets

No, not that Grace Kelly.
I’m torn to define saxophonist, singer, songwriter, composer, and arranger Grace Kelly as “emerging”, considering what she has already accomplished. But as Grace celebrates her 17th birthday next Friday (that’s right, she is just 16), one must assume that there is plenty of opportunity in years to come for this young lady to become a household name in jazz.

On his radio program Jazz After Hours this morning, host Jim Wilke suggested that “young” and “talented” can often go hand in hand, and that no one would argue that both can easily be applied to Grace Kelly. After hearing her wonderful recording of Comes Love, it was easy to agree. And, as her website boasts, I am far from the only person to agree.

Kelly, at age 16, has already performed or recorded with Wynton Marsalis, Dave Brubeck, Harry Connick, Jr., Diane Reeves, Phil Woods, Hank Jones, Kenny Barron, Russell Malone, Cedar Walton, Peter Bernstein, and Marian McPartland. That is the very short list. She has also performed at Carnegie Hall, Birdland, and Scullers (another short list), as well as a variety of jazz festivals. She has won numerous young musician and student musician awards, and was named Best Jazz Act in Boston in 2008 by the FNX/Phoenix Best Music Poll. Oh, and she began her first term at Berklee College of Music last fall, on a full ride, again at age 16.

When you hear Grace Kelly play, or listen to one of her arrangements or compositions, you realize that this isn’t one of those situations where a musician will get cut slack simply based on the fact that they are young. Kelly needs no slack to be cut for her, and the attention that she has received and will continue to receive is more than worthy. Her performances and compositions are frighteningly mature and well designed. In fact, the only way you are even aware that the player is a 16 year old is if you are told that.

What is more surprising is that Grace isn’t someone who had a sax shoved in her hands at age two. She, like many of us, took piano lessons as a young kid. She also followed the typical chronological time line that most kids do in school, not really playing the sax until she was ten. Two years later, she was impressing the likes of Ann Hampton Callaway and Victor Lewis.

I am not someone who throws around the word “prodigy”, but there is not much way to avoid associating that word with Grace Kelly. To imagine what she has accomplished in six years is hard enough to believe. To actually hear it is even more unbelievable. - Groove Notes

Grace Kelly

Grace Kelly plays with intelligence, wit and feeling. She has a great amount of natural ability and the ability to adapt that is the hallmark of a first-class jazz musician.
--- Wynton Marsalis

“I first met Grace Kelly at the 2006 summer jazz program at Stanford University. I was amazed at her precocity and talent. Recently she sat in with me and the Jazz Ambassadors Jazz Band at the Pittsfield Jazz Fest. and we jammed together through "I'll Remember April." How did she sound? I gave her my hat! That is how good she sounded! She is the first alto player to get one. Hooray for the future of jazz and the alto sax!”
“Ten years ago I was asked by someone where the new Bird was going to come from. I said, half-jokingly, that it might be a dwarf, Albino woman from Africa. Jazz seems to be floundering right now, and we don’t have a clear-cut leader.
Maybe Grace Kelly is the one. You just never know.” ………Phil Woods

Ms.Kelly is a phenomenon -- not a precociously talented child, but a complete improvising musician. With Konitz, one of the great individualists in jazz, she is a peer.
……Doug Ramsey- Rifftides
“Grace had invited me to play a few tunes on her new CD but once we got into the studio there were many inspired moments and it turned out to be a whole Cd on its own. I gave her permission to play better than I, if she just couldn’t stand it anymore. Grace is a fearless young improviser, and besides that she is fun to be around. Now I have a friend in Grace who at this very young age is ‘seriously’ interested in playing the saxophone and more.” …..Lee Konitz
"The future of our music is in good hands." …..Jimmy Heath

No mere flash in the pan, Grace Kelly is here to stay.
Ken Dryden – All About Jazz
“Has she really got it?”…….. the answer turns out to be, “Yes.”
-William Ruhlmann - Jazz Times Magazine


Well after reading the glowing reviews from many of my peers on your CD jacket I expected something special, but words can only do so much justice toward introducing your talents and obvious dedication to music.
It simply has to be heard...you know how to get to the essence of swing, sound, and true improvisation and whether you are playing or singing or composing this essence shines through and is the sign of a true artist at work.
It also goes without saying, that you have a maturity far beyond your years. I look forward to following your career. I really think you will have a big impact on the music world.” ….. Randy Brecker

"Grace Kelly is a unique and genuine talent.
Great young performers are nothing new, but someone who possesses such ease
of expression and musical personality at such an early stage of her career is
a find, indeed. I can't wait to see what her future holds!" ...Keith Lockhart


Jazz has had its share of prodigies over the years, as well as players – Miles Davis was one- who established their creative credentials while they were barely out of their teens. Few teenage horn players and even fewer who are female have drawn much attention in recent years, with the exception, that is, of 15 yr old alto saxophonist and singer Grace Kelly. Grace plays with stunning maturity and an extraordinary command of her instrument. ….Don Heckman L.A. Times
- Various Distinguished Artists