Barbara Rosene is a passionate interpreter of American popular music. Spending much of the year performing internationally as the featured singer with the legendary Harry James Orchestra, Barbara offers up her niche brand of vocal jazz with a stylized spin on the great music of the 1920s, 30s and beyond.
Don't miss this opportunity to hear Barbara right here in Historic Downtown Akron! Featuring Jackie Warren (piano) and TBA (bass). Be sure to stick around after the trio performance to catch a solo piano performance by Cleveland's "First Lady of Jazz," Jackie Warren from 11pm-midnight!
"No one evokes more vividly the music of the great singers of the 1920s than Barbara Rosene...”
- Will Friedwald (Wall Street Journal critic, author of Jazz Singing)
BIOGRAPHY
Barbara Rosene has built an unequalled reputation for interpreting the great music of the 1920s and 30s. She is a passionate vocalist whose interpretations uncover the richness of jazz classics through the subtle, skilled delivery of one truly in love with the genre she sings.
Rosene gives voice to songs in ways that are both gracefully provocative and warmly welcoming. Few singers have her feel for classic material, from all eras of Jazz, interpreting the music with not only a full understanding and love of the original time period but with the rare ability to make the material sound fresh and emotionally relevant today.
In her established career she has shared stages with jazz icons, performing internationally with The Harry James Orchestra, Vince Giordano and The Nighthawks, the late Les Paul at New York’s Iridium Jazz Club, The Woody Allen Band, at The Carlyle Hotel, as well as directing her own New Yorkers, and as guest artist with orchestras and in festivals across the world. She has played such venues as The Iridium, Lincoln Center’s Rose Hall, The Montreal Jazz Festival, Night Town (Cleveland), and The Arizona Music Festival.
Barbara has been featured on Judy Carmichael’s NPR program ”Jazz Inspired”, and recently on NPR’s “Hot Jazz Saturday Night.” She has been recognized by Backstage Magazine (Bistro Award, 2006), “Jazz Improv Magazine”, and is featured in Scott Yanow’s “Great Jazz Singers.”
Rosene is personally committed to the significance of jazz music in American Popular Song and in America’s roots and spirit. Finding the soul of a song and linking its heart and expression with her own story brings this seductive blonde singer the satisfaction of a career well-spent. Recently she has begun lecturing on The Tin Pan Alley composers and early women jazz singers.
“Do what thrills you. Do what has meaning,” says Rosene, genuinely. “One thing I know is that it really is a privilege to perform. When someone is touched or broadened by something you have given them it is a gift to be able to give back to the world in that way.”
Barbara’s CDs include 4 on the Stomp Off label, all of which pay homage to the great composers and vocalists of the 1920s and 30s.
Will Friedwald, author of Jazz Singing and Sinatra! has written: “No one evokes more vividly the music of the great singers of the 1920s than Barbara Rosene.”
In February, 2013 Stomp Off Records released another CD for Barbara entitled “Nice and Naughty”. It features Conal Fowkes who’s voice and piano stylings as Cole Porter, were featured in “Midnight In Paris”, Andy Stein on Violin; known for his work on “A Prairie Home Companion”, New York Clarinetist and Arranger, Pete Martinez and Craig Ventresco ( Ghost World, Crumb) on Guitar and Banjo. It is a collection of double entendre songs coupled with some very sweet tunes from the 1920s and 30s.
Barbara’s CDs include releases on The Blues Back, Arbor’s and Azica labels.
