The Great American Songbook

Jeannette Miller

Jazz vocalist Jeannette Miller is known for her “swanky take-charge vocals” (Sound Views) and her love of improvisation. Her interpretations of classic songbook standards draw on years of experience as a pop/folk singer-songwriter, training in classical piano, and improvisation studies with Bobby McFerrin’s Circlesongs, Rhiannon, and Jay Clayton.

As a singer/songwriter, Jeannette’s original songs have garnered multiple awards in national songwriting competitions. The title track from her EP “Dreamtime” was featured in a CD compilation by Fast Folk Music Magazine, and is now archived in the Smithsonian Collection.

Marie-Claire Giraud

Born: June 8, 1987

Marie-Claire Giraud is a soprano, jazz singer, songwriter and  actor. Born on the island of Dominica and raised in The Bronx, NY.  Marie-Claire started her operatic training in Rome, Italy. The pandemic afforded Marie-Claire the luxury of time to reflect and expand her creative spirit- writing her first musical, and discovering her true voice of soprano. 

The artiste’s impressive career has taken her to legendary venues such as Barclays Center, Madison Square Garden, New York City Hall, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater, and Small’s Jazz Club in NYC. In July and August 2024 Marie-Claire took the stage in Honolulu for the Hawaii Classical Music International Competition Winner’s Concert and headlined a sold-out performance at Maui’s Jazz Maui Sunset Jazz Series.  She also has performed at international festivals like the Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival and the Cartagena Jazz Festival, under her belt.

How Two Stars Revived Their Careers at Concord Records

by Joan Merrill
April 18, 2025

From 1996 to 2002 I produced 15 shows--mostly on vocalists--or NPR's Jazz Profiles. I was fortunate to have as subjects two legendary vocalists--Ernestine Anderson and Rosemary Clooney--both of whom I interviewed in their homes in Seattle and Beverly Hills. In learning about their lives, I was struck by how they had seemed to be following similar ...

The Great American Songbook Goes Legit��Thanks to Michael Feinstein

by Joan Merrill
March 17, 2025

A mutual friend introduced them and before the meeting was over, Michael Feinstein had a job. He was to sort out lyricist Ira Gershwin's extensive record collection. At the time, 1976, Feinstein was 20 and Gershwin 80. Perhaps the age difference was the basis for their friendship. Gershwin enjoyed the enthusiasm of the young ...

What��s Harder to Write, Poetry or Lyrics?

by Joan Merrill
January 15, 2025

Lyrics are often compared to poetry. Are they a form of “the poetic art?" Are they less “artistic?" Poetry has a romantic aura to it, whereas lyric writing seems rather plebeian (to borrow a word from “Cry Me a River"). Writing lyrics doesn't have the cachet writing poetry has. It isn't as cool. And ...

Dorothy Fields, The Only Major Female Songwriter Of The Golden Age

by Joan Merrill
December 22, 2024

Whenever there's a discussion of the great songwriters of the Golden Age of popular music (1920s to 1960s), we hear the names Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart, Harold Arlen, Harry Warren, Frank Loesser, George Gershwin, and a few others. You don't very often hear names Yip Harburg, PF Webster, Johnny Burke, Sammy Cahn, or ...

Shanna Carlson

Born: June 25

Crescent Super Band

Active since: 2000

The Crescent Super Band comprises many of the nation's most acclaimed jazz musicians, ages 15–18. DownBeat Magazine has repeatedly named the 20-piece group the best youth jazz ensemble and top big band in the world with 28 Utah Best of State Awards (Best Professional Band, Best Vocal/Instrumental Group, Best Rock/Blues Soloist, Best Youth Performing Group), 2 Utah Best of State Statue Awards for Arts & Entertainment, and 22 prestigious DownBeat Magazine Awards.

The band has worked with many of the biggest names in music, including members of The Killers, Toto, Journey, AC/DC, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, the Saturday Night Live Band, and jazz legends like Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Trombone Shorty, Herbie Hancock, Randy Brecker, and others. However, one of the crowning performances of the band's career was their headlining debut at Carnegie Hall in May of 2013.

Shawnn Monteiro

Exciting, captivating and completely distinctive�� is how most jazz cognoscenti describe Shawnn's pulsating lyric style. Whether in the intimacy of a club date or the glitter of a Las Vegas showroom, Shawnn has delighted audiences from USA to Europe with her highly popular jazz repertoire laced with blues-oriented improvisations. Evident in Shawnn's liveliness of lyrical phrasing and intermittent scat variations is the influences of Carmen McRae and Sarah Vaughan, from whom she draws that inner core of creative energy. But good genes help, too. Shawnn's father was the late renowned bassist Jimmy Woode, veteran of the Duke Ellington band