Genres: Standards, Vocal Jazz Active: 90's, 2000's Born: in Detroit, MI
June Christy, Joy Adams, Jenny Evans, Linda Tate, Claire Martin, Clairdee, Diana Krall, Sarah Vaughan, Eden Atwood, Chris McNulty, Dominique Eade, Helen Merrill, Susannah McCorkle, Shirley Horn, Chris Connor, Julie London, Mary Ellen Desmond |  |
Chicago resident Regina Johnston, who goes by Beaky Johnston or simply Beaky on-stage, is among the many female jazz vocalists who has been active on the Windy City jazz scene in the '90s and 2000s. Beaky is not an abstract, cerebral, or avant-garde sort of vocalist. Emphasizing the Tin Pan Alley songbook, Beaky has favored a very clean, straightforward and accessible approach that owes a lot to the '40s and '50s; her primary influences have included Ella Fitzgerald, Anita O'Day, Peggy Lee, Dinah Washington, and Nancy Wilson (the Nancy Wilson who once sang with hard bop alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, not the Seattle native who is part of the hard rock/arena rock supergroup Heart). Beaky (who has been quoted as saying that she identifies with vocalists who "sing with clear voices and pay respect to the melodies and lyrics") is not from Chicago originally; the Midwesterner grew up in Detroit, which is where she was given the nickname Beaky as a child.
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Release: August 24, 2004
Label: Southport/Asian Improv
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