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Artist
Kendra Shank
12+ albums
jazzfemale vocalistsfolkpoppiano
about
Originally a folk/pop singer/guitarist based in Seattle, Kendra Shank comes to performance naturally. Born in California to a playwright father and actress mother, Kendra was acting in plays at age 5, picked up the guitar at 13, and at 19 began her professional music career. Jazz, however, came later. During a 1988 residency in Paris, the influence of jazz artists grew, especially Billie Holiday. In 1989 Shank began studying with jazz vocalist Jay Clayton in Seattle, while keeping dual residency in Paris where she gigged in jazz clubs. Her jazz career blossomed quickly and in 1991 she was hired by Bob Dorough as vocalist/guitarist/percussionist for his U.S. west coast tour. She soon caught the attention of jazz legend Shirley Horn, who co-produced Shank's critically-acclaimed debut compact disc, Afterglow (Mapleshade, 1994), featuring pianist Larry Willis and saxophonist Gary Bartz, and invited Kendra to perform as her guest at the Village Vanguard in New York. Ms. Shank relocated to New York in 1997 and recorded two albums for Jazz Focus Records, Wish (1998) and Reflections (2000), which climbed the jazz radio charts and won "Top Ten Album of the Year" awards in Jazziz, Newsday, and The Boston Globe. "This vocalist makes lyrics believable, invents like an instrumentalist, and has an ear second to none for little-known and unknown tunes," wrote the Globe's Bob Blumenthal. Shank combines jazz originals, standards, French songs, folk/pop tunes, and open improvisation in an ad
