Fiona Stewart Solo / Ensemble
Hobart, Tasmania, Australia | SELF
Music
Press
I had the great pleasure in my role as Jazz Ambassador for the 2010 Clarance Jazz Festival to play with some very talented Tasmanian Jazz Artists.
“Diva Day” was an event held at the Bellerive Boardwalk as part of the Festival and featured four female singers. They all came from a jazz and improvised music base, but all very different in their musical interpretation of the style. Having played with all four acts on the day, one stood out as an ensemble
with a fresh and dynamic approach to the standard jazz trio with featured vocalist. It was and ensemble that would not be out of place in any festival line up in Australia. The Fiona Stewart Ensemble I found to be a very young band lead by an experienced singer not afraid to take risks in her performance.
The repertoire was an interesting mix of french bossas and jazz waltzes to reinterpreted standards as well as original material. The addition of acoustic guitar, played by Fiona, also help give the band an interesting and more contemporary sound. Fiona has the ability to engage an audience and moves easily around the stage. She also engages each musician and inspires them to greater heights of performance. Fiona tells the stories of the songs and uses her voice in such a way that I found it unafraid, exciting and moving. I too was inspired by Fiona and her ensemble’s performance and look forward to hearing them on the airwaves and festival’s around Australia.
Paul Williamson
saxophonist
WAY OUT WEST - Clarence Council Bulletin
Discography
FLY - original folk, r+b
EASY LIVING - original and interpreted jazz standards
Photos
Bio
Fiona was singing before she could speak. Song is as vital to her as food, love and air to this artist. With a jazz singing mother introduced at a tender age to the great voices of Carmen MCrae, Sarah Vaughan and Nina Simone. As a teenager, she found herself drawn to female artists such as Joni Mitchell and Roberta Flack.
A professional actress and acclaimed performer, Fiona has always has been communicating intimately with audiences - whether as an actor in contemporary Australian theatre at the Sydney Opera House or playing original acoustic jazz for music lovers at festivals in French castles. She lived and worked for 10 years in France; a modern-day troubadour!
30 years of breathing through r+b, soul and jazz, she now performs a repertoire that is a mix of her own original material and tunes that she loves from all genres from all over the world.
In solo in an unplugged setting or with her hip young acoustic trio versed in all the above styles, she delivers a dynamic, emotionally enriching concert.
To see and hear The Fiona Stewart alone or with her Ensemble is always an intensely musical experience.
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