Rebecca Sullivan

A seleção dos “melhores do jazz”, feita pelo historiador Arnaldo DeSouteiro, publicada pela primeira vez em 1979, chega ao 34º ano. Chick Corea com a turma do Return To Forever,Toots Thielemans, Ron Carter, John McLaughlin, Jürgen Friedrich, Mike Longo, Al Jarreau, Till Brönner e Randy Brecker estão entre os artistas que brilharam em 2012.

Esta é a lista dos que mais se destacaram, em 2012, no panorama jazzístico internacional. Atendendo aos pedidos dos leitores, que desde 1979 acompanham essa votação, incluímos – após os nomes de todos os colocados em cada categoria – os títulos dos trabalhos (CDs ou DVDs) pelo quais os artistas foram avaliados, com base apenas em lançamentos realizados no decorrer deste ano.

Para variar, foram necessárias várias semanas para a preparação de todas estas listas, reouvindo CDs, revendo DVDs, checando fichas técnicas e, às vezes, reavaliando opiniões. Tudo isso com o objetivo de fornecer o mais fiel possível retrato do cenário jazzístico em 2012, a partir de bases reais de análise.

O que significa, por exemplo, que artistas que não lançaram novos trabalhos este ano, seja como líderes ou sidemen, tornaram-se, por mais geniais que sejam, automaticamente inelegíveis. Tal critério explica a ausência de feras como Mark Murphy, Andy Bey, Jon Hendricks, Gene Bertoncini e Carla Bley que, apesar de terem realizado muitos shows, não lançaram novos trabalhos em 2012.

Vários discos premiados em 2012, com atraso, pelas revistas especializadas (“Road Shows Vol.2” de Sonny Rollins, por exemplo), não aparecem na nossa lista por uma simples razão: constaram da relação de 2011.

Aí estão os resultados completos:

Female Singer: 1º Sandy Patton (“Painting Jazz Vol. II” – Unit); 2º Denise Donatelli (“Soul Shadows” – Savant); 3º Amikaeyla (“Being in Love” – RootsJazz); 4º Cassandra Wilson (“Another Country” – eOne); 5º Cristina Morrison (“I Love” – Baronesa); 6º Cheryl Bentyne (“Let’s Misbehave” – Summit); 7º Rebecca Sullivan (“This Way, This Time” – Rhyme or Reason); 8º Nora McCarthy (“A Small Dream in Red” w/ Jorge Sylvester – Red Zen); 9º Elina Duni (“Matane Malit” – ECM); 10º Letizia Gambi (“Introducing Letizia Gambi” – Jando Music)
The Best 10 Vocal Jazz CDs
Al Jarreau: “Live” w/ Metropole Orkest (Concord)
Kurt Elling: “1619 Brodaway – The Brill Building Project” (Concord)
Denise Donatelli: “Soul Shadows” (Savant)
Sandy Patton & Thomas Dürst: “Painting Jazz Vol. II” (Unit)
Amikaeyla: “Being in Love” (RootsJazz)
Nora McCarthy & Jorge Sylvester: “A Small Dream in Red” (RedZen)
Letizia Gambi: “Introducing Letizia Gambi” (Jando Music)
Cristina Morrison: “I Love” (Baronesa)
Chris Conway: "Time Traveller" (Oblong)
Rebecca Sullivan: "This Way, This Time" (Rhyme or Reason) - Jazz Station

Here are a couple of ladies that take a completely different approach to singing, and both work marvelously.

Cynthia Felton has a golden and rich voice, range as big as the Grand Canyon and a vibrato that would make Sidney Bechet jealous. She’s done song books in the past, such as Ellington,etc, and this time she hits the jazz standards and beyond with a cooking team that includes John Beasley-Cyrus Chestnut/p, Edwin Livingston-Robert Hurst, Lorca Hart and a rotating series of other guests and cameos. Her readings of material here is creative and alluring. A version of “Take 5” that sounds more richly African than Middle Eastern, an amalgamation of “Better Than Anything” with a Killer Joe groove, and a seductive “Close Your Eyes” are just a few of the highlights here. She goes comfy and intimate on a bass and drums take of “My Love Is” and enchants on a vibrant “Cherokee” that is charging like a wild mustang. Thrilling music all through the session, and solos by Wallace Roney and Ernie Watts here and there don’t hurt a bit!

Rebecca Sullivan goes the completely opposite route. She teams up with guitarist Mike Allemana for a series of tunes that sound like part of the Newport Folk Festival. Her gentle and cheerful demeanor could easily be in front of a band like Fairport Convention, and with most folkies, most of the tunes are about, what else? Relationships! Stories about distant loves in “The Shining Sea” or even marriage-YES PEOPLE STILL GET MARRIED-on a lovely take of Brian Wilson’s “Wouldn’t It Be Nice.” She can also swing, as on the jazzy “Human Racing,” and coos with fragility on an intimate “You Are There.” - Jazz Weekly

Combining the flute-like vocals of Rebecca Sullivan and the warm, finger-picked guitar of Mike Allemana, THIS WAY, THIS TIME is the delightfully unadorned debut from a jazz singer with a refreshingly different repertoire. Whilst including compositions by Hoagy Carmichael and Peggy Lee, Sullivan dismisses the usual standards in favour of more eclectic material such as Nick Drake's Blossom Friend, Brian Wilson's Wouldn't It Be Nice and even the traditional Irish song She Moved Through The Fair, which gives this album the status of a folk-infused jazz gem from a promising and somewhat daring new vocalist.
More info: http://www.rebeccasullivanjazz.com/ - Northern Sky Music Magazine

1. This Way This Time 2. The Shining Sea 3. She Moved Through the Fair 4. Wouldn’t It Be
Nice 5. Some kind of Love 6. Blossom Friend 7. Human Racing 8. Strange Enchantment 9.
Ivy 10. Are You There.
Rebecca Sullivan (voc) Mike Allemana (g) Recorded 2012 Chicago Time 43 mins
Rebecca Sullivan is originally from Pennsylvania and has been based in Chicago since
2006. She is teamed up on this duo album with fellow Chicagoan, guitarist Mike Allemana. I
reviewed an album by Mike last year with a vocal group called “Crosscurrents”. His
accompanyment on his Gibson L5 is sympathetic and unobtrusive, perfect for bringing out
the best in a vocalist. On certain tracks Rebecca uses a double track of her own voice as added accompanyment. She has a
soft timbre to her voice which belies her 3 octave range. They do a great jazz arrangement of the Beach Boy’s “Wouldn’t It
Be Nice” with some fine rhythm work from Mike with flamenco type strumming. Some great arrangements of lesser known
tunes by such greats as Frank Loesser, Johnny Mandel and Hoagy Carmichael, and on the latter’s composition “Ivy” Mike
does a nice solo with his own backing. This is a really good duo and Rebecca Sullivan has a nice clear voice, a great range
and a good feel for improvising, couple this with an experienced accompanist and you have a fine CD. For more information
contact www.rebeccasullivanjazz.com
I M. - Jazz Guitar Society of Western Australia

If you're a fan of great vocal guitar duets like Tuck & Patti, and wondered what’s new on the horizon, the answer to that question is “This Way, This Time”, the debut album from folk/jazz artist Rebecca Sullivan.

Released June 12th on the Rhyme Or Reason record label, “This Way, This Time” is a duet recording with former Bostonian Rebecca Sullivan, and guitarist extraordinaire Mike Allemana playing exceptional acoustic and jazz electric guitar. I haven’t heard many new jazz vocalists who are sopranos, and even fewer still who have such amazing control with respect to intensity. Sullivan colors phrases with a beautiful tone and soulful vibrato, without being piercing to the ear regardless of the the range.

“The Way This Time” is almost hypnotic with soft soulful flow, and then goes to brisk rhythmic angular lines. Mike Allemana never misses an opportunity to create effective chording, and make challenging harmonies connect with the directions Rebecca takes in their arrangements.

The traditional measure of a jazz musician is the ability to play a ballad. “You Are There” is beautifully done with stellar vocal and guitar performances by Sullivan and Allemana respectively. The guitar and voice caress this romantic song with brilliance. That would be the keyword I’d attach to this CD as well. Sullivan and Allemana solidly exhibit their skills with gold medal worthy performances, and this is only the beginning! - The Entertainment Bank

Rebecca Sullivan – This Way, This Time – She’s young, she’s new, she’s quite different, and I’m eager to hear how she develops. Her voice isn’t exactly jazz, so her skill at improvising comes as an endearing surprise. She plucks the ten songs on this CD from many different trees, but with consistent charm. - Turntable for One

Vocal CD of the Month
Rebecca Sullivan & Mike Allemana: "This Way, This Time" (Rhyme or Reason) 2012

Produced by Geof Bradfield
Recorded & Mixed by Vijay Tellis-Nayak @ Transient Sound
Mastered by Brian Scwab
Front & Liner Photos: Maura Sullivan
Back Cover Photo: Ingrid Karolewski
Artwork: Gina Stewart

90% of new records I receive from female jazz singers are extremely predictable in terms of repertoire, arrangements and product. The same old GAS standards done with minimal or no creativity at all. Most of these singers want to be the next Diana Krall, when not even Krall herself seems comfortable in keeping her sonic aesthetics anymore. Anyway, what matters is the pleasure I feel when listening to someone who wants to break the mold. And takes chances!

Rebecca Sullivan does it very well on her debut CD, "This Way, This Time," so far one of the best surprises of the year. Her choice of repertoire is self-consciously unconventional. She goes beyond jazz, mixing affecting interpretations of infrequently heard gems by Johnny Mandel (“The Shining Sea”), Friedrich Hollaender (“Strange Enchantment”), and Hoagy Carmichael (“Ivy”) with boldly personal versions of songs by the Beach Boys (“Wouldn’t It Be Nice”), Nick Drake (“Blossom Friend”), and St. Vincent (“Human Racing”). She also contributes two originals ("Some Kind of Love" and the title track, co-written with Allemana), and closes the album with Johnny Mandel/Dave Frishberg’s poignant “You Are There.” That closing track, alone, would be enough to make Rebecca's work worthy of attention.
Gifted with a pure tone, she phrases and ennunciates better than most singers around these days. Sullivan knows how to tell a story: concisely & succintly. Chicago guitarist Mike Allemana is the perfect partner, not merely a backing musician. He doesn't only supports Sullivan; he challenges and stimulates her to musical adventures that many veteran singers (Rebecca, although incredibly mature, has only a 6-year professional career) would prefer to avoid. Not to mention some great guitar solos, always intriguing but never over-performed.

With her girlish sophistication, gleaming intelligence, and three-octave range, the Pennsylvania native is at 29 already a full-blown original. Sullivan came into her own as a jazz vocalist in Chicago, where she’s been based since 2006 and where she’s frequently gigged with Mike Allemana. Their compelling musical chemistry is the main event on "This Way, This Time," a fantastic duo session released on Rhyme or Reason Records last month.

“Rebecca has a lovely, liquid instrument, often evocative of Billie Holiday yet completely personal and unpretentious,” says saxophonist Geof Bradfield, who produced the album. “Her delivery is so intimate, and it really works seamlessly with Mike’s inspired colors and textures.”
“Rebecca really gets inside the lyric,” says Allemana. “Unlike many young singers, she never manipulates the melody or takes it out of context. She knows the composer wrote it that way for a reason.”

A native of York, Pennsylvania, Rebecca Sullivan grew up with several music traditions—singing in her family’s a cappella gospel group, studying classical piano (and winning competitions), steeping herself in American standards from the 1940s and ’50s. As a student at Portland’s Reed College, she performed folk music on open-mic nights, accompanying herself on guitar. But her first exposure to jazz came in the unlikely place of St. Petersburg, Russia, where in 2004 she spent a semester abroad studying Russian literature. There she had the opportunity to hear live jazz: “I had no idea songs could sound like that,” she recalls of that epiphany.

While in Russia, Sullivan put in serious listening time to recordings by Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, and Carmen McRae, and once she returned home she was already on her way to pursuing a career as a jazz vocalist. She relocated to Chicago in 2006 to study at the Bloom School of Jazz, and also began attending tenor saxophone legend Von Freeman’s weekly jam session at the New Apartment Lounge. She made a deep impression on Mike Allemana, Freeman’s longtime guitarist. “It’s so refreshing to find a young singer who knows these beautiful old songs,” he says.

Long before Sullivan quit her day job (at the University of Chicago Press) to devote herself full-time to singing. “When I worked up the nerve to ask Mike if he would do a gig with me,” she says, “I really felt like I was in over my head. But he said yes, it worked pretty well, and we ended up doing more gigs and eventually recording the album together.”

Come fall, Sullivan, now 29, will be starting the next chapter in her musical journey in Boston, where she plans to pursue a master’s degree at the New England Conservatory. “I’ll be studying with Dominique Eade, and then I’ll have a separate improvisation teacher,” she says. “I decided to go there because I want to be immersed in the intense musical learning environment they offer, as well as to improve as a musician and songwriter. Also, some great jazz musicians whom I really admire studied at NEC: Roberta Gambarini, Luciana Souza, Bill McHenry. And I can’t wait to be back on the East Coast!”

Rebecca Sullivan performed with Mike Allemana at a CD release show on Sunday 6/24, 8:00 pm, at Szold Hall (Old Town School of Folk Music), in Chicago. - Jazz Station - Arnaldo DeSouteiro's Blog

By
C. MICHAEL BAILEY,
Published: July 9, 2012
Rebecca Sullivan & Mike Allemana: This Way, This Time

The great composers of the jazz standard repertoire had lesser-known contemporaries whose work although of quality, inevitably did not garner the same attention. This body of somewhat unknown jazz compositions offers the up-and-coming jazz artist a wealth of material to choose from when trying to assemble that most important debut recording.

Chicago-native vocalist Rebecca Sullivan does just that and selects from this less celebrated pool of music for her debut This Way, This Time. Accompanied by guitarist Mike Allemana, who also practices sonic loop alchemy, Sullivan's delicate soprano weaves its way through near-standards like the Johnny Mandel—Peggy Lee composition "The Shining Sea" and the Johnny Mandel—Dave Frishberg song "You Are There." Sullivan spins her airy vocals over Allemana's exacting guitar on Hoagy Carmichael's 1947 composition "Ivy." While these songs have been covered, they have not been jettisoned into the standard jazz canon like "My Funny Valentine," which is just as well, as familiarity often breeds musical contempt where overplayed standards are concerned.

Sullivan and Allemana are not content simply with covering the same old songs. The pair cover a reharmonized Beach Boys classic, "Wouldn't it be Nice," contemporary vocalist St. Vincent's (Annie Clark) "Human Racing" and Nick Drake's "Blossom Friend."

This is stripped-down music that is as organic as it is ethereal. Sullivan makes her distinctive high coquettish voice work with this material, while Allemana provides unique support drawing from a broad array of musics including Bossa Nova, Latin, and mainstream jazz.

Rebecca Sullivan begins on a high note.

Track Listing: This Way, This Time; The Shining Sea; She Moved Through The Fair; Wouldn't It Be Nice; Some Kind Of Love; Blossom Friend; Human Racing; Strange Enchantment; Ivy; You Are There.

Personnel: Rebecca Sullivan: vocals; Mike Allemana: guitar, looper.

Record Label: Rhyme Or Reason Records | Style: Straight-ahead/Mainstream - All About Jazz

Chicago-based vocalist Rebecca Sullivan teams up with guitarist Mike Allemana for a fantastic debut effort. This Way, This Time captures the dance between the human voice and the guitar beautifully. The timing and synchronicity between vocalist and guitarist is near perfect. The album has an intimate, quiet feel with nice arrangements by Sullivan and Allemana of some less-covered tunes by known composers. Featured are works by Johnny Mandel and Peggy Lee, Brian Wilson, Frank Loesser and Fredrick Hollander as well as a nice cover of a beautiful Irish traditional. A really wonderful listen.

Click here to listen to a clip of “You Are There”.

- The JazzPage

Band: Rebecca Sullivan, 29

How did you get interested in music? I guess I was always into music because my mom's family was very musical. She grew up in North Carolina, and her father was a preacher. They had a gospel a cappella group. The whole family ... would tour around and play these shows. They were still doing that for fun when I was kid.

I would always sing with the family at ... church events and family get-togethers.

When did you start taking lessons? When I was about 8 years old, I started taking piano lessons, and I started taking voice lessons when I was 13. I taught myself some guitar when I was around 14 or 15, and I started singing some folk songs. I was always in chorus ... from

elementary school on up (through York Country Day School). I was involved in musicals and some community singing groups. I sang with the York Symphony Chorus when I was in high school along with my mom, so that was pretty fun.

In addition to your family, were there other artists who inspired you? When I was really little, I loved Patsy Cline and Elvis and The Stetler Brothers. I loved Peter, Paul and Mary. When I was 13 or 14, I started getting into my parents' record collection, and they had a lot of Bob Dylan albums. I got really into (Dylan) and Joan Baez and all the '60s folk singers.

Did you pursue music in college? I sort of took a break for a little bit. I still played guitar and sang on my own, but I didn't take any music lessons ... which was a big change for me. I just focused on academics. Then, I started to miss it. I started singing with the chorus (at Reed College in Portland, Ore.) I started taking classical piano lessons and some voice lessons and some different things like classical Indian singing and music theory. It was then that I really started listing to jazz because I studied abroad in Saint Petersburg, Russia ... during my junior year. The CDs there are really cheap. I just stared buying all of these different CDs. I really liked jazz, and so I was listening to all these vocalists (including) Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan and Dinah Washington and Carmen McRae. When I got back to Reed, I started working on jazz. Once I graduated and moved to Chicago (for an internship at the Museum of Contemporary Art), I started taking more lessons and getting more serious about it.

Does Chicago have a good jazz scene? There is a huge jazz scene in Chicago. It was a really great place to start out because here, as opposed to some other places like New York (City), people can still make a living playing music. There are definitely paying gigs around. In New York, it's a great place to be, and I'd like to be go there eventually, but people pretty much have to be touring if they're living there. There are so many talented musicians. I think it would have be harder to start out there.

You're celebrating the release of your CD "This Way, This Time." Can you talk about making the album? It was about 2008 when I started playing gigs and actually getting paid. We started working on (the album) over a year ago. I started thinking of doing an album with the whole band. I had been working with this guitarist, Mike Allemana. We had a great musical connection. We played a lot of duo gigs, and I was thinking it would be really cool to do an album that was just a duo. (Allemana) did a lot of the

arrangements on the album. We wrote one of the songs together, and I wrote one of the songs. It's kind of a big mix. We have original material, and we have a few standards. We also have some arrangements of some other tunes. There's a Nick Drake songs ... and there's also a song by St. Vincent. Then, we have an Irish folk song that we arranged together and a Beach Boys song.

What else is on your agenda this summer? I'm more in a writing mode right now. I'd like to do a whole album of original music. I have a show coming up in July. My whole band is going to play, and we're going to do an entire set of original music. I' - York Daily Record

RHYME OR REASON
REBECCA SULLIVAN/This Way, This Time: Finding her jazz voice while studying literature in Russia and then moving to Chicago, she got her hooks into the Chicago jazz vocal tradition putting out this record before moving on again later this year. A very personal guitar/vocal album with a varied set card, this is a fun, arty set that carries along on a sprightly charm you don’t hear much of anymore. Quite the dandy diversion. - midwestrecord.com

[...]The same week, I headed to the south Loop for a very different kind of recital at a very different venue: the Rebecca Sullivan Quintet on the lush, capacious stage at Joe & Wayne Segal's Jazz Showcase.

One of the paradoxes of being a fan is the longing for the object of your enthusiasm to be embraced by a wider public, and the subsequent feeling of panic when this in fact occurs. "Hey," you want to shout to all the hipster-come-latelies, "welcome to the party and everything, but stop crowding me out, I was here first." I feel something similar about Sullivan, a beguiling young jazz singer who used to be a familiar presence in my north-side environs. Now she's gone widescreen, branching out into other clubs, other 'hoods... she's even making a name for herself in the suburbs. Suddenly, I'm faced with a new reality: if I want to see Rebecca Sullivan, I gotta get in a car and drive.

This time it was definitely worth the trip: headlining the Showcase is a kind of jazz benediction, a notch in any musician's cane, and it's Sullivan's next step in her continued ascent. She certainly looked ready for world domination, sporting the simple black cocktail dress that constitutes the battle armor of female jazz singers everywhere. Backed by Josh Moshier on piano, Jeremy Cunningham on drums, Mike Allemana on guitar, and--a heroic last-minute replacement for an ailing John Tate--Matt Ferguson on bass, Sullivan launched into "I Only Have Eyes For You" with so much insouciant swing I almost had to grip the table to keep my center of gravity in place.

Sullivan had promised "standards, nonstandards, and originals" for this gig, and she delivered. The nonstandards included a knockout jazz reading of the folk ballad "She Moved Through the Fair" (with Allemana's guitar as sole accompaniment) and a cover of the alt-rock tune "Human Racing" by St. Vincent. The originals boasted Moshier's "Saturnine," Allemana's "This Way, This Time" (with lyrics by Sullivan which, she confessed, she'd only finished about an hour before the show), and Sullivan's own "I Am Not," with its floor-dropping time-signature shifts in the bridge.

But even the standards weren't so very standard; they included Thelonious Monk's "Ask Me Now," Irving Berlin's "Russian Lullabye," and Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Chega de Saudade" (with her cool, lilting soprano, Sullivan was born to sing bossa; and she sings it in Portuguese, thanks). There was also, notably, "Sweet Surprise" by Blossom Dearie--a performer who, I'm embarrassed to say, I hadn't till now realized is one of Sullivan's natural precursors. Like Dearie, Sullivan pairs an appealing, sparkling-fresh instrument with keen intelligence and sophisticated musicianship; sagacious soubrettes, I call them. You could probably do better. Actually, so could I. But I'm too busy listening... and smiling.

For more about Black Bear Combo, including upcoming dates, visit their website. Likewise for Rebecca Sullivan's info and calendar, check out her site. - Huffington Post

Release Date 06/12/12

A musical epiphany and a debut release are both very good things when it comes to vocalist Rebecca Sullivan. Tosss in a compelling back story and you have musical reality on steroids or could that be Sullivan's three octave range? This 29 year old vocal standout discovered her love for jazz in of all places - Russia!

When the Cold War was but a distant memory, Sullivan found herself spending a semester abroad studying Russian Literature in St. Petersburg. Jazz clubs in St. Petersburg are plentiful and without those pesky age restrictions of alcohol serving American clubs, Sullivan began to drink from the cultural well from which her artistry would soon blossom. While a Bob Dylan fan, Sullivan began to enrich her vocal vocabulary with the works of Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington and Carmen McRae and soon she began to study jazz as a vocalist and her own cultural path began to take shape which leads up to her debut release.

This Way, This Time is an organic showcase for a brilliant vocalist with the ability to separate herself from those content merely to crank out the same predictable standards with all most identical arrangements. As a critic I often compare my efforts to that of a sonic prospector. I sift through the sonic sand and silt of the mediocre to slightly better than average singer destined to go no further than perhaps the lounge at the local Marriott only to have the U.S. Postal Service present me with the proverbial gold nugget.

Words such as intimate, organic and unpretentious are often over used but apply in perfect context with this stellar release. A sonic pulse carefully crafted around some more eclectic work from Johnny Mandel to an inventive reharmonization of the Beach Boys classic "Wouldn't It Be Nice." With the help of guitarist Mike Allemana who is a most gifted player in his own right, Sullivan's interpretations and sonic exploratory transcend genre and are the perfect blend of a very personal yet vivid sonic color palette when combined with Allemana. One of the most striking abilities of Sullivan is to not do a complete reharmonization to the point of mangling a melody, she carefully dissects the lyrics into a personal interpretation making the old turn new and the new become adventurous yet without the self indulgent pitfalls that younger artists in similar situations often find themselves. I call these career killers.

Sullivan's pristine vocals open the release with an original composition that being the title track "This Way, This Time." Sullivan can turn on a note, playing catch and release for dramatic effect in an intimate setting which is similar to innate gift of swing some bop players are simply born with. How does one teach expressive soul? Clearly Sullivan is incredibly comfortable in a setting that leaves no margin for error and no room to hide. Vocals and guitar are a format not conducive to merely "fix it in the mix." The Beach Boys classic "Wouldn't It Be Nice" is a personal favorite and while there was a natural concern over the transition to a tune with more jazz sensibilities, to do this the tempo is amped up slightly with deceptively subtle syncopation that is done with such precision that her contemporaries with twice the experience may not be able to pull off as well. A more free form and open approach allows her three octave range full range of expression despite her modest remark of only using slightly over two octaves is simply stunning. A sonic exploratory of shifting harmonics and the open soul of a searching artist allow this recording to border on the addictive. "Some Kind Of Love" is another Sullivan original and proves her formidable skills as a lyricist and confirmation that the one trick pony status of the average singer does not apply here.

Innovative, fresh and a captivating subtlety in the inherent complexity of some of the arrangements places Sullivan as a name to remember and certainly a name to watch out for! After reviewin - @CriticalJazz

Heat up a cold night with some hot jazz – the Rebecca Sullivan/Mike Allemana duo at 3rd Saturday Coffeehouse Open Mic Night on Saturday, January 15. Rebecca Sullivan is a jazz vocalist who performs in clubs in Chicago and counts Dinah Washington, Billie Holiday and Carmen McRae among her influences. Mike Allemana, known as tenor sax legend Von Freeman's guitarist since 1997, was voted "Best Jazz Soloist in Chicago" by the Chicago Reader in 2008, and is just back from Poznan, Poland where he performed in the 5th Annual "Made in Chicago Jazz Festival." The duo are working on their first CD.

3rd Saturday Coffeehouse Open Mic Night is at Unity Temple, 875 Lake Street, Oak Park. 7:30 pm sign up, 8 pm Open Mic, 9 pm featured artist. Open mic is limited to 5 minutes. Charlie Rossiter host. We are acoustic—no equipment provided. $3 to $5 donation. 708-660-9376. - Chicago Tribune: Oak Park/River Forest