George Evans (Canadian jazz vocalist)

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George Evans (George Louis Henry Evans) was born January 23, 1963, in Bloomington, Indiana. Parents, Dr. Robert K. Evans and Professor Lucile Villeneuve Evans, both long time faculty of Cincinnati Conservatory of Music (CCM) and Indiana University School of Music (opera department.) Sister, Julie D. Evans, architect in Chicago and NYC.

George attended the Cincinnati School for Creative and Performing Arts in music, theatre, and dance (4 yrs) and the Musical Theater Department of CCM (5 yrs) before heading toward New York City for further music, dance, and theater training. Working in the field musical theater in the 80s, he ultimately chose a career in music, notably, jazz vocal performance and jazz broadcasting.

First surfacing in the late-'80s in the cabarets of New York City, George Evans went on to study and work in the fertile Montréal art and music scene of the '90s. There he gained notoriety as a vocalist, and respect as an authority on popular song. George became a fixture on Montréal radio, and for the better part of a decade, performed in the clubs before eventually venturing westward in 1999 toward Toronto and English Canada. Known nationally since the launch of his second disc, I'm All Smiles, George Evans has become one that country's most celebrated interpreters of standards and jazz.

Also a recognized music archivist, George has been tapped a total of eight times to select and sequence for Verve Records in the US, including much of The Diva Series, focusing on Verve’s best selling great ladies of song. . In 2004 he created the unusual Here Come The Boys: a Canadian Crooner Collection, and his fifth solo album Movie Songs, both for Maximum Jazz and Universal Music Canada. Then in 2006, he produced Bewitched, his sixth jazz vocal release for the Canadian and greater North American market, and his first with strings.

George Evans was nominated Vocalist of the Year in the Canadian National Jazz Awards, and has performed across Canada in the major festivals (The Vancouver International Jazz Festival, The Montreal International Jazz Festival, The Toronto Downtown Jazz Festival) and top jazz clubs (The Top o’ the Senator in Toronto, The Montréal Bistro in Toronto, The Cellar in Vancouver, and Upstairs in Montréal to name but a few.) He continues his activities south of the border, appearing with regularity in New York City in clubs such as Danny’s Skylight Room in Manhattan.

As a writer, George's column Vocalizing In Jazz was for several years a regular feature of Planet Jazz Magazine, a promising international publication. He currently resides in Toronto, Canada.