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Links: www.gracekellymusic.com

Style: Jazz
Origin: US (Boston)
Touring party: 6 (5 on stage)
Territory: Exclusive for Europe in coop with Pazz Productions
Availability: May + Summer 2012

Grace has two projects available

GRACE KELLY QUINTET
Grace Kelly - saxophones and vocals
Jason Palmer - trumpet
Doug Johnson - piano
Evan Gregor- bass
Jordan Perlson/Terry Lynn Carrington –drums

GRACE KELLY/PHIL WOODS GENERATION PROJECT
Grace Kelly Alto sax and vocals
Phil Woods - Alto sax
Doug Johnson - piano
Evan Gregor - bass
Jordan Perlson – drums

Youngest musician ever to be named to the “Downbeat Magazine
Critics Poll 2009, and 2010 “Alto Saxophone Rising Star”

“Grace plays with stunning maturity and an extraordinary command of
her instrument.” — Don Heckman,  LA Times

NEW RECORD OUT IN JANUARY 2011 - " MAN WITH THE HAT"

Release Info:
With more than a half-century of experience in the jazz world, it would be safe to
consider Phil Woods not only one of the music’s living legends but a true aficionado of
his fellow instrumentalists. So it speaks volumes that the first time he shared the stage
with a then-14-year-old Grace Kelly, he was moved to remove his iconic leather cap and
place it on her head – the first time he’d ever made such a gesture to a fellow alto
saxophonist.
“I’d never dreamed that I would have this relationship to him or that I’d even meet him,”
says Kelly, reminiscing about that experience. “I look at this hat that he’s worn on his
album covers for the last fifty years and it’s really well worn, and now he has a brand
new one. It’s really a special memory.”
Four years later, the 18-year saxophone prodigy returns the favor with a new CD
featuring and in tribute to Woods, aptly titled Man With the Hat. A fresh take on the
bebop legacy that Woods has espoused for his entire career, the album arrives just in time
to inaugurate the alto great’s 80th birthday year and consists of seven standards and
originals penned by both Kelly and Woods and performed by an all-star ensemble.
“Phil has been one of my biggest inspirations since I started playing saxophone,” Kelly
says, and when the two saxophonists pair up there’s no mistaking the qualities that they
share. Throughout Man With the Hat, both pair sophisticated elegance with a sprightly
swing, erasing six decades of separation between players who are either forever young or
old souls.
The two first crossed paths in 2006, when Kelly attended the Stanford Jazz Residency
Program in California, where Woods was an instructor and offered some encouraging
words. It was a few months later, at a gig in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, when Kelly was
invited onstage and knighted with his cap. In his liner notes, Woods enthuses, “I sleep a
little better knowing this lady is playing the instrument I love so well. Bird, Rabbit and
Mr. Carter would be equally pleased I am certain!”
While Woods may speculate about the reactions of those bygone giants, Kelly’s talents
have attracted the praise of several legends who remain among us. Primary on that list is
Lee Konitz, with whom Kelly recorded her fourth CD, GRACEfulLEE, in 2008. But she’s
also earned accolades and mentorship from the likes of Wynton Marsalis, Harry Connick
Jr., and Dave Brubeck.
One more name that can be added to that list is that of pianist Monty Alexander, who
calls her “one of the most gifted, deeply musical, charismatic, and delightful musicians I
have ever known in all my years in the world of jazz.” Alexander was the first person
Kelly thought of when assembling the band for Man With the Hat. “I just love his
playing,” she says. “It’s so swinging and so cheerful.”
That cheerfulness is a key element to Kelly’s sound; even on ballads, her sheer joy in the
music beams through. She infused that quality into the disc’s title track, written with
Woods in mind. “I wrote it thinking about his sound on the saxophone,” Kelly says. “He
has this incredible buzz that is present and very alive. Phil is so lyrical, it’s always easy to
sing along with what he’s playing.”
The band is completed by drummer Bill Goodwin, whose association with Woods dates
back to 1974 and the inception of his long-running quartet; and bassist Evan Gregor, a
member of Kelly’s touring quintet for three years. Their road-tested compatibility is
evident on their gorgeous duet performance of Cole Porter’s “Everytime We Say
Goodbye.”
When it came time to choose the repertoire for the album, Woods came up with another
present – a new set of lyrics to Benny Carter’s “People Time” penned by singer and
screenwriter Deborah Pearl. Beyond her skills as saxophonist, composer and arranger,
Kelly is gifted with a lovely, supple voice which matches perfectly with Pearl’s wistful
imagery. The disc’s second vocal track, Kelly’s original “Gone”, showcases her soulful
side.
On pieces like “Gone”, her plaintive take on Bill Strayhorn’s “Ballad for Very Tired and
Very Sad Lotus-Eaters”, or the jaunty stroll through “The Way You Look Tonight”,
Kelly offers a decidedly modern perspective on traditional bop without losing sight of
what attracts her to music from which she is several generations removed.
“The thing that drives me is that it’s so incredibly swinging,” she says. “You just want to
dance to it. Music today has turned into a heavy intellectual sound, but when I turn on
these old-school records by Ray Brown and hear Monty or Phil, it’s not complicated to
the listener. It just feels really good and everybody can relate to it, and I love that. I like
when you can feel that it does something really substantial to your soul.”