Cleveland Watkiss

Cleveland Watkiss
Background information
Born	(1959-10-21) October 21, 1959 Hackney, London, UK
Genres	Rock music Jazz Nu jazz Funk Soul Lounge Reggae Drum and bass
Occupations	Singer Composer
Instruments	Vocals Piano Guitar
Cleveland Watkiss's voice from the BBC programme Ella in Berlin, 23 April 2013.[1]

Cleveland Watkiss is a British virtuoso vocalist, actor and composer. He was the winner of the London Jazz Awards for Best Vocalist in 2010 and was voted Wire/Guardian Jazz Awards best vocalist for three consecutive years.

Biography

Watkiss was born in Hackney, East London, to Jamaican parents, and was one of nine children.^[2] He studied voice at the London School of Singing with opera coach Arnold Rose and at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He was also one of the co-founders of the vastly influential Jazz Warriors big band. His vocals can be heard on their debut album, Out of Many People, which won a video award in Japan. Watkiss was then entered for the Wire/Guardian Jazz Awards and was voted best vocalist for three consecutive years, and was the opening act of choice for two of the world's greatest female jazz vocalists, Cassandra Wilson and Abbey Lincoln. John Fordham, the Guardian music journalist, described Cleveland as "arriving on the scene with a bang”.

Watkiss has performed with a diverse range of artists from around the world, including: the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Düsseldorf Symphonic Orchestra, Wynton Marsalis & JALO, Bob Dylan, Jackie Mittoo, Keith Richards, James Taylor Quartet, Art Blakey, Sly & Robbie, Abdullah Ibrahim, Stevie Wonder, Patife, Lepaja Symphonic Orchestra, Carlinhos Brown, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (JALO), Robbie Williams, Joe Cocker, Bobby McFerrin, The Who, Branford Marsalis, George Martin, Julian Joseph, Bocato Big Band, Lisa Stansfield, Courtney Pine, Janet Kay, Maxi Priest, Soul II Soul, London Chamber Orchestra, Kassa Mady, Goldie, Cassandra Wilson, Kenny Wheeler big band, Sugar Minott, Talvin Singh, Björk, Pete Townshend, London Community Gospel Choir (LCGC), and many more.

Watkiss is also a keen music educator, working as a voice instructor for Singup, with workshops in venues/schools, colleges and universities around the UK.

More recently, Watkiss was cast in the starring role in Julian Joseph and Mike Phillips's ground-breaking jazz operas Bridgetower and Shadowball He has performed in many of the major concert halls, festivals and clubs around the world with "VocalSuite", a solo voice performance, and his new Quartet "CWQ", accompanied by Shaney Forbes (drums) and Mark Hodgson (bass) Marco Piccioni (guitars).

Discography

• Watkiss, Cleveland (1991). Green Chimneys. Verve Records. 

• Watkiss, Cleveland (1991). Blessing in Disguise. Polydor

• Watkiss, Cleveland (2001). Victory's Happy Song. Via. 

References

• Carr, Ian; Digby Fairweather; Brian Priestley (2004). The Rough Guide to Jazz. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 1-84353-256-5.  Cite uses deprecated parameters (help)
• Walker, Klive (2005). Dubwise: Reasoning from the Reggae Underground. Insomniac Press. ISBN 1-894663-96-9.