Learning And Curves

Oleta Adams: Turning down the chance to pursue an operatic career as a lyric soprano, along with a scholarship to Pacific Lutheran University, Oleta instead spent a summer in Europe before heading to Los Angeles in the early 1970s. One demo tape and $5,000 later, she discovered that the disco movement had deafened music executives.

Minnie Driver : But any comic misfires were offset by her hilarious recurring performances on the hit NBC sit-com “Will & Grace” beginning in 2003, playing Karen Walker’s haughty nemesis Lorraine Finster at a high-camp high pitch, and by her bravura supporting turn as the Italian opera diva Carlotta in the film adaptation of the popular Broadway musical “The Phantom of the Opera” (2004).

Telegraph : In 1944 Olga Guillot successfully auditioned for a part in the vocal group Cuarteto Siboney, directed by Isolina Carrillo – the composer of Dos Gardenias, recently re-popularised by the Buena Vista Social Club. The following year, when the group was recording a version of Stormy Weather (in Spanish, as “Lluvia Gris”), the soloist fell ill and Olga was chosen as the replacement.

Rosemary Clooney : When Clooney was 13 her mother moved to California to marry a sailor, taking Nick with her but leaving the girls behind. Her father tried to care for Rosemary and Betty, working steadily at a defense plant, but he left one night to celebrate the end of World War II—taking the household money with him—and never returned.

Dusty Groove : Alice Clark has a rich soulful voice, with a style that sounds a bit like Esther Marrow, mixed with some of the lead vocalists in Voices Of East Harlem – a really right-on sort of sound that’s totally great, and way hipper than most 70s chart soul! Arrangements are by Ernie Wilkins, who brings in a touch of jazz – but again, with a much hipper feel than most of his other backings – and most of the tracks are quite obscure, well-written tunes – of the sort of material you might expect to hear sung by Gil Scott-Heron or Donny Hathaway.

Rosa Passos : “One of Brazil’s often-overlooked performers is Rosa Passos, a leading upholder of the bossa nova movement. Like all great bossa nova, Passos’s music is fleecy soft, but still manages to grab you hard with its ineluctable swing.

Danish Arts Agency : Though she is mainly associated with the Danish jazz scene, it is very difficult to categorize Susi Hyldgaard’s style of music. Her creativity, and determination to explore the areas between such different genres as jazz, pop, house, trip-hop as well as the good old singer-songwriter traditions, has made her a unique voice in Danish music.

Ursula Rucker on MySpace : “Now that I am a mama of four black boys in America, I need all the strength to raise them and do my best to achieve good human being-ness, so I can show them the way. Supa Sista has evolved into ma’at mama.””

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