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Love and music,
Diva JC
Publisher

JAZZ WOMEN

SHARON LAMOTTE

Sharon LaMotte was born in Newport, Rhode Island. Her father was raised in Bronx, NY, and became a Naval Officer whose tours took the family to live on the East Coast in Rhode Island, Maine, Florida, Virginia, as well as traveling throughout the United States and Europe. Her mother, a history major and librarian grew up in Red Bank, NJ. In 1984, Sharon became a resident of Asheville, North Carolina, where she managed the family Chiropractic office and raised her two children.

The diverse music scene  in Asheville peaked her interest in music. She studied Vocal Technique with Amy Rae Stupka and piano to strengthen her understanding of theory and harmony. Her jazz vocal coaches include Jackie Allen, Jennifer Shelton Barnes, Jay Clayton, and Sheila Jordan. She attended the Swannanoa Gathering Music Camp in 2002, Jamey Abersold Jazz Camp 2003 and Sheila Jordan's and Jay Clayton's vocal retreat in in 2004 and 2005.

Sharon’s delivery is highly personal and direct. Her trademark is a pure, unembellished interpretation that relies on tone and phrasing to communicate the lyric and melody. Another aspect of her style that sets her apart is the unique arrangements which are conceived with pianist Bill Gerhardt. Often compared to Blossom Deary and Astrud Gilberto, LaMotte performs with sincere, sexy honesty.

Rapid River LaMotte’s love affair with music and art has been a feature of her life from the beginning. Her total emersion in the world of jazz happened relatively late in life. She began to sing several years before meeting Gerhardt and, at his urging, started working professionally. She has continued to study with the great Sheila Jordan and Jay Clayton in New York City. Her knack for choosing material that is perfectly suited to her is uncanny. Her set list includes unfamiliar, modern compositions, as well as standards ranging back to the 1920’s.

In 2001 Sharon began her association with a group of musicians, the Taken Back Quartet. In collaboration with these musicians - Philip Whack, Sam Macy, Mike Holstein and Taylor Davis and with consultations from NYC pianist/composer  Gerhardt, she formed a non-profit organization dedicated to the presentation and documentation of original instrumental jazz. It was well received by the community and, after just four presentations, supported through grassroots grants from the Asheville Area Arts Council.

The Jazz Composers Forum, non-profit organization has produced a concert series, radio broadcasts and workshops throughout North Carolina, South Carolina, New York, and New Jersey for six years, while presenting at least two composers at each concert. As president of the Jazz Composers Forum, LaMotte works diligently to present local, regional and national composers in serious concert settings. To date she has presented over 200 listening room concerts of original instrumental jazz music. The Jazz Composers Forum has also held composer/small ensemble workshops and concerts at primary and university level schools. The Jazz Composers Forum is supported by the Susanne Marcus Collins Foundation and Business Sponsorships as well as individual donations.

Sharon is owner of Call That Jazz, booking and management agency. Her high standard for providing quality music has earned her a reputation with jazz lovers and jazz musicians throughout the United States. She continues to study piano and double bass. Her regular visits to NYC allow her the luxury of coaching with Jay Clayton and Sheila Jordan. She continues to grow and search out new musical horizons, whether singing in her cool understated style or promoting cutting edge twenty first century music.

Sharon LaMotte and The Bill Gerhardt Quartet perform throughout the Southeast. She has a regular gig in the West Village in NYC at Ido Sushi on Seventh Ave South, where she plays every couple of months. She performs every Monday at the Café on the Square, 1 Biltmore Avenue, Asheville, NC.

Contact Sharon LaMotte
www.callthatjazz.com
www.jazzcomposersforum.org
www.myspace.com/sharonlamotte
www.myspace.com/petridishband
International Assoc. of Jazz Educators
Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce.
Chamber Music America

BLUES WOMEN

RUTH BROWN

Ruth Brown was  the first rhythm and blues singer to be a living  legend.  Born Ruth Weston, on January 30, 1928, she was the firstborn of seven children raised in a deeply religious household in Portsmouth, VA. Known as "The Girl With The Tear in her Voice," "The Original Queen of Rhythm & Blues, "Miss Rhythm & Blues," and the well-known moniker of "Miss Rhythm,"

Her introduction to music was when she was installed in the junior choir of the Emmanuel AME Church where she received vocal coaching from her father, the choir director. In the Weston household, the only music allowed was religious. Still, Ruth developed an interest in popular music when she started to work behind the soda fountain at the local USO club after school and convinced the director to let her sing in the shows.

Ruth soon won a talent contest at Harlem's Apollo Theatre. While performing at a Washington, DC nightclub, she was noticed by a local deejay who contacted the top brass at Atlantic Records. Signed on the spot, Ruth gave the fledgling company its second ever hit "So Long," a simple blues showcase for her trochee, church-and-jazz-schooled voice. Her second single,  "Teardrops From My Eyes," brought out her more swaggering, aggressive side, and she was awarded with her first number one R&B hit. For the duration of the 1950's, she dominated the R&B charts with such red-hot singles as "5-10-15 Hours" and "(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean."

Brown's two dozen hit records helped Atlantic secure its footing in the record industry, a track record for which the young label was referred to as "The House That Ruth Built." The relationship would last until 1961, at which point she jumped to another label with middling success. With the onset of the turbulent 60's, musical styles made a transition.

Ruth was thrust into the role of single mother, raising two boys alone, forcing her to take jobs as a maid, school bus driver and head start teacher, limiting her singing to weekends only for awhile. The story might have ended there, but Brown enjoyed a career renaissance in the mid-seventies when she  recorded blues and jazz for a variety of labels. In September 1979, she made her first overseas tour, going to Japan with an all-star band, as part of the touring Monterey Jazz Festival. The following year, she made a tour of Europe sponsored by Route 66 Records in Sweden.

Upon her return to the United States, she starred in Allen Toussaint's off-Broadway musical Staggerlee and made a spectacular splash in the John Waters film Hairspray as "Motormouth Maybelle." She hosted the Harlem Hit Parade series on National Public Radio and won the 1989 "Best Actress in a Musical" Tony® Award for her role in the Broadway musical Black and Blue, after appearing in the original Paris production. Also, in 1989 she received her first Grammy® Award for the album Blues On Broadway.

Other accolades include a 1999 Lifetime Achievement Award from The Blues Foundation, The Ralph Gleason Award for Music Journalism (for her 1996 autobiography "Miss Rhythm: The Autobiography of Ruth Brown"), two W.C. Handy Awards and a Pioneer Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation, which was founded as a direct result of efforts by and on behalf of Ruth to foster wider recognition and provide financial assistance to rhythm and blues musicians of any stature. Ruth was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 along with Etta James and Sly & The Family Stone.

Brown had a stroke she suffered in the spring of 2000. She passed away on November 17, 2006. Ruth Brown is truly living legend!

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