I saw her PBS special "Live from the Penthouse" or something like that. She was in a smaller room in the Lincoln Center. She did her whole opera thing and then she talked about singing jazz in clubs to support herself through college. She sang John Kander's "Letter from Sullivan Balloo" and did it beautifully. She then went on to some more standard jazz rep, like "Poor Butterfly" and I wasn't thrilled with it. She still kept her "classical sensibilities". I didn't believe her as a jazz singer. She sounded like an opera singer singing a standard. Now, I don't know if this means she really doesn't sing jazz or not. I recently did a recital where I threw in some standards at the end of a whole lot of opera and lieder. I thought I was sounding "jazzy" and I am a pretty good jazz singer. I know I do the jazz better than classical, but after listening to the CD of myself, I still had my "classical sensibilities" through the jazz set of a very round sound, raised soft palate, etc. So, is it possible that Renee really DOES sing jazz, but just not after a whole lot of legit singing. It's VERY difficult to make the transition between these two very different genres within a few seconds of each other. Any other ideas?
Trevor
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