Music
Press
"You're very unique. You have a great personality...love working with you! Your rendition of Voodoo Woman was great-you acted out the part! Loved your intro on God Bless The Child...great performance and emotion."
-Sheila Jordan, Jazz Vocalist,
recording atrist, teacher
"Excellent vocal quality. Wonderful interpretation and phrasing of God Bless The Child...bluesy feel and attitude! Great use of vocal power when needed. Yeah! St. Louis Blues is a perfect tune for you, nice job belting it out! Excellent stage presence and eye contact with the audience. You got it!"
-Bob Ferrier, Freelance Guitarist,
teacher
"God Bless The Child...this is a wonderful tune for you! Nice use of higher register-saving it for the end. You made us all smile!"
-Bruce Diehl, Saxophonist,
Director of Jazz Studies at
UMASS-Amherst
"You are a really great blues singer and performer...you execute this style perfectly. You allowed the words to come through...really built the song in Peel Me A Grape. You make songs your own which is great, great, great."
-Catherine Jensen-Hole, Jazz
Vocalist, Assisstant Professor
of Music, UMASS-Amherst
"You got it! Really great groove- vibe"
-Chip Jackson, Bassist,composer,
arranger, teacher
- UMASS-Amherst, Music Department
"Easily the best female vocalsit in the state of Arizona" - Jimmy Z, Owner, Studio Z/Fortitude
"Easily the best female vocalsit in the state of Arizona" - Jimmy Z, Owner, Studio Z/Fortitude
"We've got something very special here" - Bill Reed, Circle In The Square, NYC
"We've got something very special here" - Bill Reed, Circle In The Square, NYC
"Incredible (raw) energy...powerful" - Linda Spevacek, Conductor, Composer, Judge, Author, Vocal Coach
"Incredible (raw) energy...powerful" - Linda Spevacek, Conductor, Composer, Judge, Author, Vocal Coach
"She is the crown jewel of my project" - Joseph Ridley, Lead Guitarist/Composer
"She is the crown jewel of my project" - Joseph Ridley, Lead Guitarist/Composer
"She lights up the room when she sings" - Johnny Schweitzer, Drummer
"She lights up the room when she sings" - Johnny Schweitzer, Drummer
"Peter adored you. I adore you. You are a breath of fresh, intelligent, talented air" - Marla Finn and Peter Stelzer
"Peter adored you. I adore you. You are a breath of fresh, intelligent, talented air" - Marla Finn and Peter Stelzer
"The power of her voice is earth shaking, yet she stands about five feet tall and couldn't weigh more than 100lbs." - Ferrel H. Raskin, V.P.
"The power of her voice is earth shaking, yet she stands about five feet tall and couldn't weigh more than 100lbs." - Ferrel H. Raskin, V.P.
You're a fine musician and person with whom to play music, and I look forward to sharing the bandstand with you sooner rather than later. - George Voland
"Hey, you're dangerous when singing...absolutely great! My listeners are doing their 'job', they listen...and vote: yesterday my listeners pushed you to #1."
Midnight Special Blues Radio-Live 365.com
-Paul Bondarovski
"I don't just like it, I love your sound...you will start to get airtime"
Helsinki's Blues Cafe-Live365.com
-DJ Geoff - Paul Bondarovski, DJ Geoff
"Hey, you're dangerous when singing...absolutely great! My listeners are doing their 'job', they listen...and vote: yesterday my listeners pushed you to #1."
Midnight Special Blues Radio-Live 365.com
-Paul Bondarovski
"I don't just like it, I love your sound...you will start to get airtime"
Helsinki's Blues Cafe-Live365.com
-DJ Geoff - Paul Bondarovski, DJ Geoff
Discography
~MAKIN' MY MARK-debut album to be released Feb.29, 2008.
~Kansas City Online Radio, Featured Artist, Jennifer Tracy Kessler, Jan 27-Feb 2, 2008
(Category: Music).
~Jazz Magazine, Emme K, Italy-"Payin' The Cost To Be The Boss" selected for compilation cd (August 6, 2007).
~"Payin' The Cost To Be The Boss (voted #1 by listeners on March 11, 2007), I Smell Trouble, Voodoo Woman" all given internet radio airplay at Midnight Special Blues Radio, Live365.com (Feb/March/April '07).
~"I'm A Woman, I Smell Trouble and Voodoo Woman" all given internet radio airplay at Helsinki's Blues Cafe, Live365.com (March, April '07)
~"I'm A Woman" given radio airplay at 1360 AM Philadelphia(2005)
~Half-Pint Belts the Blues Demo(Studio Z, AZ, 2005)
Photos
Bio
"All men (women) dream but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men (women), for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible."
T.E. Lawrence
JT "HALF PINT" KESSLER:
The big voiced, pint sized vocalist has been recognized as a daring, expressive and distinctive blues belter with a spirited personality to match. Kessler’s vocal abillities echo the sounds of Janis Joplin, Lulu, Lydia Pense and a little bit of Billie Holiday all swirled together.
INFLUENCES:
She claims Bessie Smith, Big Mama Thornton, Koko Taylor, Etta James, Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Ruth Brown, Nina Simone, Ernestine Anderson, Cassandra Wilson, Tina Turner, Prince and James Brown as her greatest influences, although she brings originality to everything she touches.
MY STORY:
While growing up in Scottsdale, Arizona, Kessler became involved in community theater which surfaces in her vocal work today. After spending her college years studying Creative Writing at the University of Arizona, she married her next-door neighbor, they backpacked Alaska, moved to New York, had two babies, then returned to Arizona to open…and close their dream restaurant. “Truthfully, closing the doors of our restaurant ended up being a good thing. I took a deeper, closer look at my dreams and here is what I found…that performing was my real dream and that I needed to allow myself to pursue it, even if it seemed impractical. Ultimately, I found it to be just as impractical to live my secondary dreams, which the following excerpt from one of my songs really illustrates:
“It was time to do what feels good inside, not what others tell me to do. When I’m singing that sure feels good ‘cause it feels true. When I’m expressing my heart that feels right. That’s what I’m doin’ here tonight. I'm manifesting my destiny. I'm letting my dreams get the best of me. I'm loving it, looking to bleed through all the time. I'm embracing my sound, I'm willing to make the climb."
In an effort to 'shed their skin' they sold just about everything, packed the kids in the car and took off for Vermont to visit the cousins. Ultimately, they became residents and while living in Vermont, Kessler was fortunate to have found a mentor in the internationally known singing teacher Bill Reed (Circle in the Square Theater School, NYC). He helped Kessler access the voice behind the theater training, her organic sound - and out came the Blues, raw and real.
TRANSITION FROM SEMI-PROFESSIONAL TO PROFESSIONAL:
After successfully performing at The Bundy Center for The Arts in Vermont, she returned to her native state Arizona and joined Surprise Element Blues Band as lead vocalist. She went into the studio for her first recording session with Fred Green (an established Jazz Fusion band out of Tempe, AZ) and came out with a Blues demo titled “Half Pint Belts the Blues.” At the end of '06 Half Pint and The Unknown Blues Band (also known in the Jazz world as Kilimanjaro; Charles Eller, Paul Asbell, Tony Markellis, Luke Adler) stepped into Charles Eller Studios (the top New England recording studio that recently teamed up with Jacob Edgar, Putumayo World Music) to record 10 old-school Blues covers. Jennifer Tracy's debut record, Makin' My Mark, will be released in early 2008. In Jan 2008 a new line was created for public performances, HALF PINT AND THE CHASER'S, to back Half Pint's debut album; members include Half Pint on Vocals, Bob Mackenzie on Harmonica, Bill Darrow on Guitar, Tom Buckley on Bass and Jason Corbiere on Drums.
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