GAIL BAER, JAZZ VOCALIST
Alexandria, Virginia, United States | INDIE
Music
Press
"Gail Baer is a vocalist of many styles. Her experience with folk, blues, and jazz has shaped a voice that is deep with emotion. [ ] Baer's vocal range envelops the chorus with tenderness. Subtle contrasts in her pitch add a hardness and softness to the interpretation." ~ 2008, The Quartet, Official Newsletter of the Friends of the Baltimore-Washington JAZZfest, 2008. - The Quartet
“rich sonic feast [ ] sultry, knowing voice (with shades of sassy and Lady Day)l“ ~ S. Shaw and S. Hill, 2007. - Old Town Crier
"Gail's mastery was all too lovely [to] tear down even the sturdiest of macho impassive barriers to the soul. [ ] Gail punctuates her phrasing with an incredible vocalese glissando that easily reminds the serious fan of Lorraine Cousins who sang briefly with Mingus. [ ] She sings with assertiveness, she is unassuming yet commanding. [ ] Ballads bathe her in a powerful comfort zone. ” ~ S. Shaw and S. Hill, July 2007. - Old Town Crier
“No over amplification here, but gentle and sweet music rendered affectionately and with insight.” ~ M. Jones, 1995. - Falls Church News-Press
“Much of Gail’s music is traditional, certainly an uncommon pleasure in a world of rock-and-roll. [ ] seats fill rapidly when she plays. [ ] Gail spoils her audience with beautiful, enchanting, sometimes haunting one-of-a-kind melodies and provides exquisite accompaniment on a variety of string instruments. She is at her best in a quiet, relaxed atmosphere and so is her audience. ” ~ J. McCann, 1979. - Boulder County Preview, TV & Entertainment
Discography
HELD IN TIME, released from OASIS Disk Manufacturing in summer of 2008, and produced through Vintage Sound Productions (see vintagesound.com), a private label. One cut off my CD, is my arrangement of the straight-ahead jazz ballad, Autumn Leaves, which is on the OASIS Radio and Jazz Sampler, Volume III, #9. I also have streaming, live videos of my performances, which I intend to upload for viewing on this site. I have MP3 bytes off HELD IN TIME, as well, for listening.
Photos
Bio
A native Washingtonian, Gail Baer began performing solo, with her guitar, at age 16, in 1969, at the Pitt coffeehouse, in Washington D.C. At 16, she learned the open-tuning stylings of Joni Mitchell, a strong influence. She performed solo in folk/country formats on guitar, in Colorado and New Mexico, from 1975 until 1981.
A first influence of Gail's was her stepfather, Tom Neimann, a jazz pianist, syndicate cartoonist and former analyst for PRC, who founded the Potomac Dixieland Jazz Society in the 1970s. Gails mother, Helen Fisker, was another early influence and a Peabody piano student. Gail learned straight-ahead standards and bossa novas from her stepfather and came to love/incorporate traditional songs of folk and blues vocalists, like Mable John and Bessie Smith, into her solo repertoire. Other influences included international recording artists/vocalists Betty Carter, Abbey Lincoln, Etta James, Flora Purim, Kevyn Lettau, Rosa Passos, Astrud Gilberto, Billy Holiday, Nancy Wilson, Diane Schurr, and Brazil 66.
One guitarist-peer from her 1st jazz ensemble, Gail Baer & Company, described Gail: When she delivers the lyric, its not as if she merely recited the lines; shes talking to you and means every word of it. Its personal to her, and she wont be swayed by whatever happens to be in this week. I can tell you, as the other musicians we have worked with would, that she has a way of stretching us, beyond what we would have thought possible. In other words, she gets more out of you than you thought you had.
Gails sound is soft, not abrasive. Her vocal style bridges jazz and blues formats. Gails jazz combos have performed in Maryland and Virginia venues, since 1994, including for the Bluemont Concert Series; the Pear Blossom Festival (Bowling Green, Virginia, benefit for the Sena Foundation); First Night Alexandria Concert Series (2004, the historic Carlyle House in Alexandria; park concerts in in Falls Church and Arlington, VA; and a benefit for the Katrina Victims, at Chick Halls Surf Club in Bladensburg, MD. Gails first jazz quartet was one of the house bands, from 1998-2000, for the Kenmore Inn, bed and breakfast in Fredericksburg, VA. Her following, in Virginia alone, includes more than 300 e-mail addresses, most of whom are couples who have heard her perform in Virginia venues.
Band Members
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