Carmen Lundy
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| Carmen Lundy | |
|---|---|
| Born | November 1, 1954 |
| Origin |  Miami, Florida, U.S. |
| Genre(s) | Progressive and Smooth jazz |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, Composer, Songwriter, Painter |
| Years active | 1978 – Present |
| Label(s) | Afrasia Productions, Justin Time, Jvc, Sony (Japan), Blackhawk |
| Website | www.CarmenLundy.com |
Carmen Lundy (b. November 1, 1954) is an American jazz singer, composer, songwriter, actress, and painter. She has had a successful, three-decade career while focusing largely on original, self-penned material.[1] She has been positively compared with Aretha Franklin, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan.[2] She is also the sister of bassist Curtis Lundy.
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[edit] Biography
Carmen Lundy born November 1, 1954, in Miami, Florida, and at the age of six began to study the piano. She was deeply inspired by her mother, Oveida, who was the lead singer in a gospel group known as "The Apostolic Singers", and joined her church junior choir. Lundy decided to become a singer by the time she was 12 years old. While majoring in opera at the University of Miami, she also sang with a jazz band, and concluded in her sophomore year that that jazz was her calling. She cites Dionne Warwick, Roberta Flack and Stevie Wonder as being among her first influences. After receiving a Bachelor of Music degree, she moved to New York in 1978 where she was hired by the Mel Lewis/Thad Jones Big Band and performed her first New York engagement at the Village Vanguard in Greenwich Village. In 1980 she formed her own trio, using such pianists as John Hicks and Onaje Gumbs. She has also performed with such jazz veterans as Walter Bishop Jr., Don Pullen, Mulgrew Miller, William Edward Childs, Teri Lynn Carrington, Kip Hanrahan, Courtney Pine, Marian McPartland, and Kenny Kirkland.
While in New York, Lundy recorded her first two albums, Good Morning Kiss (1985), which was reissued in 2002 by popular demand. One of the things that makes Good Morning Kiss memorable is that Lundy recorded her own compositions. Yet, now that her first recording has been re-released, we find that Lundy has been consistent throughout her entire career, writing her own music, recording with her long-time friends, and extolling the virtues of love and peace.[3] Her second album Night and Day (1986), musicians include Kenny Kirkland (piano), Alex Blake (bass), Curtis Lundy (bass), Victor Lewis (drums), Rodney Jones (guitar), Ricky Ford (tenor sax). She also appeared in theatrical roles including the lead for the European tour of Duke Ellington's Broadway musical, "Sophisticated Ladies". Off-Broadway she portrayed Billie Holiday in Lawrence Holder's "They Were All Gardenias". She made her television debut as the star of the CBS Pilot-Special "Shangri-La Plaza" (1990) in the role of Geneva, after which she relocated to Los Angeles, where she currently resides.
Ms. Lundy is also a composer and songwriter whose catalogue numbers about forty published songs. Her compositions have been recorded by such artists as Kenny Barron ("Quiet Times"), Ernie Watts ("At The End Of My Rope"), and Straight Ahead ("Never Gonna Let You Go").
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts favorite Carmen Lundy is a woman of many faces: composer, arranger, producer, actress, painter, and sophisticated vocalist well known for her progressive bop and post-bop styling's--"an uncompromising jazz singer whose every note is bulls-eye accurate" (The Los Angeles Times). Equally adept at love-struck ballads, songs of heartbreak, or full-out swing, Lundy wields a voice of "agility and seductive allure [that] make for a potent combination."[4]
Her album Jazz & The New Songbook: Live At The Madrid (2005) proceeds where few of any of her jazz vocalist contemporaries fear to tread: she consistently records and performs her own songs. Recorded live at the Madrid Theatre in Los Angeles, Lundy uses her considerable talents to great effect, drawing on repertoire from her previous recordings. First-rate jazz vocals, exemplified by the ‘electric Miles’ influenced "Walking Code Blue", receive the backing of the best jazz musicianship: brother Curtis Lundy and Victor Lewis steer and stir things up in the rhythm section, while pianists Billy Childs and Robert Glasper prove to be inspirational – as are Bobby Watson, Mayra Casales and guitar great, Phil Upchurch.[5] Live at Madrid stayed at the top of the JazzWeek Charts for several month, and was nominated "Best Jazz Vocalist of 2006".
Carmen Lundy is also an artist whose oil on canvas paintings have been exhibited in New York at The Jazz Gallery (Soho), The Jazz Bakery and the Madrid Theater in Los Angeles. Examples can also be seen in the booklets accompanying each of her recordings.
[edit] Discography
| Year | Title | Genre | Label | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Jazz and the New Songbook: Live at the Madrid | Jazz | Afrasia Productions | |
| 2003 | Something to Believe In | Jazz | Justin Time | |
| 2002 | Good Morning Kiss (Reissued) | Jazz | Justin Time | |
| 2001 | This Is Carmen Lundy | Jazz | Justin Time | |
| 1997 | Love Me Forever | Jazz | Jvc | |
| 1997 | Old Devil Moon | Jazz | Jvc | |
| 1995 | Self Portrait | Jazz | Jvc | |
| 1992 | Moment to Moment | Jazz | Arabesque | |
| 1986 | Night And Day | Jazz | Sony (Japan) | |
| 1985 | Good Morning Kiss | Jazz | Blackhawk |
