Jody Sandhaus

Since the 1980s, Jody has been a fixture on the musical scene in New York and its environs, being heard there and around the world in such venues as New York Steinway Hall, The Ear Shot Jazz Festival in Seattle, WA, Women in Jazz Festival in Mendocino, CA , WNYC’s “Around New York”, The 92nd Street Y, the Charles Ives Center for the Performing Arts, William Paterson University’s Jazz It Up concert series, The Buffalo Museum of Art, Rich Forum Theater, Mohonk Mountain House’s Jazz On The Mountain Festival, and in Rome, Italy at the Villa Celimontana Jazz Festival and The Mississippi Jazz Club.

A few additional venues in NYC include Sweet Rhythm, Caviarteria, The 55 Bar, Enzo’s Jazz Room, The University Club (for one year), Zinno Jazz Club, The Friar’s Club, and St. Peter’s Midtown at Midday jazz series. She has performed with some of New York’s top jazz musicians such as Charles Davis, Michael Moore, Eddie Locke, Rufus Reid, Leroy Williams, Ralph Lalama, Dennis Irwin, Todd Coolman, Frank Gant, Larry Ham, Vernel Fournier, Pete Malinverni, Andy Fusco, Joe Magnarelli, Ben Allison and others.

Jody Sandhaus has three albums of her own as leader-WINTER MOON, I LIKE IT HERE and A FINE SPRING MORNING.

Jody was born on April 29 in Houston, Texas. Growing up New York there was always music playing in the house. Her parents were fans of opera, show/Broadway, and classical music and so she grew up singing and playing instruments.

Jody began classical piano studies at age 6 and continued through college. She taught herself guitar in junior high school and eventually began her professional singing career at age 19 in Lake Placid, NY in the Adirondack Mountains.

After high school, she continued her college studies at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. There she had the opportunity to continue piano and voice studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music while attending Case.
Jody moved to the West Indies for a few years and it was while living abroad that Jody’s real introduction to the music of the great American composers came. Jody’s landlady left behind a large record collection....it was these abandoned records that became an inspiration to her and her future music. LPs featuring the music of the Gershwins, Rodgers and Hart, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Sammy Cahn, Hoagy Carmichael and singers such as Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Maxine Sullivan, Peggy Lee, Irene Kral, Frank Sinatra were left behind along with a record player.

Upon her return to New York, Jody began in earnest to study vocal production, working intensively with noted vocal coach Marie Traficante.
Jody is a featured performer on several jazz CDs as well as on various commercial jingles. Sundays she can be heard as a soloist at the (predominately African American) DeVoe Street Baptist Church in Brooklyn, New York, interpreting Spirituals and Gospel Music. She is the mother of three children, and her husband, Pete Malinverni, is a jazz pianist.

Top 10 of 2004, All About Jazz (Dan McClenaghan)
Top 10 for 2004, New Jersey Jazz Society (Joe Lang)

4 Stars, All Music Guide (Scott Yanow)
“Jody Sandhaus has a pure, sweet, full and strong voice that is well suited to interpreting standards. She always swings, her subtle improvising makes her interpretations seem personal and she knows how to tell a story.”

Jazz Improv (Dave Miele)
“With her new release A Fine Spring Morning, JS proves herself to be not only a first rate jazz singer,but an artist that is aware of who she is and where she fits within today’s jazz scene. As much a result of her artistic integrity as her vocal skills, A Fine Spring Morning is nothing short of a fine jazz release.”