Tammy McCann

Tammy McCann just turned the Jazz Showcase into her recording studio.

No room really could contain all of the sound that Chicago vocalist Tammy McCann can produce, as she reminded listeners Thursday night at the Jazz Showcase.

During climactic moments — and there were plenty — the mighty singer sounded as if she had to pull back a bit, the intimate club just too small to hold all of that luscious sound.

Yet, ultimately, it wasn’t volume or power that made this occasion so attractive. More important, McCann’s remarkable range of color, texture, tone and nuance very nearly overwhelmed the ear. How could this much sonic variety and interpretive imagination possibly issue from a single artist’s voice?

Chicagoans already are aware of McCann’s gifts, her profile having risen steadily here and across the country during the past few years. But, true to form, McCann caught listeners a bit off-guard in several regards.

For starters, her ongoing partnership with Chicago guitarist Mike Allemana deepened the impact of this performance, McCann often duetting with Allemana while the rest of the band played along. To hear an instrument as sumptuous as McCann’s riffing alongside Allemana’s buoyant lines on guitar was to savor two first-rate jazz improvisers reveling in spontaneous interaction.

Then, too, several of the evening’s arrangements cast welcome new light on the familiar music at hand, rendering just about everything freshly urgent. Perhaps the welcome fact that this performance was being recorded for a forthcoming “Live at the Jazz Showcase” album heightened McCann’s long-running interest in keeping listeners guessing.

(L to R) Jeremy Kahn, Tammy McCann, Marlene Rosenberg, Mike Allemana, and Clif Wallace, perform at Jazz Showcase in Chicago on Thursday, October 8, 2015.

Nowhere was McCann more persuasive than in her slow-and-sensuous account of “You Go to My Head.” Though offered as a tribute to this year’s Billie Holiday centennial, McCann’s version sounded unlike Holiday’s or anyone else’s, thanks to McCann’s dusky tones, tautly controlled vibrato and phrases that seemed to stretch on forever. The romantic infatuation that the song was penned to convey radiated from every passing note.

Duke Ellington’s “Sophisticated Lady” does not need many more retellings at this point, but McCann tested herself — and her audience — with a daring version. The Latin instrumental undercurrent put rhythmic accents in unexpected places, while the band’s aggressive accompaniment provided considerable tension with the vocal line. Though the instrumentalists were over-amplified here (and elsewhere), there was no denying the fascination of hearing McCann wend her way through a maze of ensemble sound.

Part of the pleasure of any McCann performance derives from her scat singing, and she took flight in Rodgers and Hart’s “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was.” The flurry of pitches McCann produced didn’t merely spark vocal pyrotechnics, however, the singer giving weight, meaning and shape to her fast-flying lines. Her partnership with guitarist Allemana shone here, the two creating jazz counterpoint that sustained a propulsive sense of swing.

In “Tea for Two,” of all things, McCann and Allemana gleefully toyed with rhythms and expectations, finding intriguing ways to subvert a four-square tune. They were joined in their mischief by pianist Jeremy Kahn, bassist Marlene Rosenberg and drummer Clif Wallace, who kept pace with McCann and Allemana throughout the set.

If McCann’s classic dance-band tempo on “Body and Soul” made one wish to hear her ballad rendition of the tune, there was something to be said for her bracingly unsentimental approach. And McCann wasn’t kidding when she announced that her salute to this year’s Frank Sinatra centennial was going to take Ol’ Blue Eyes to the South Side of Chicago, her blues-drenched reading of “I’ve Got the World on a String” rich in throaty low notes and raspy, gritty growls.

Now that’s singing!! - Chicago Tribune, Howard Reich

Tammy McCann: “Love Stories” (JTMusic). At last, Chicago singer McCann has released a recording worthy of her remarkable instrument. “Love Stories” takes on standard repertory, but the songs sound refreshed, thanks to the range of colors, textures and phrasings at McCann’s command. From the opening track, “On Green Dolphin Street,” it’s clear that McCann is viewing well-worn tunes in deeply personal ways, altering rhythms and melody notes in expressive ways. No one is going to compete with Billie Holiday’s version of “Don’t Explain,” yet there’s no denying the singularity of McCann’s whispered tone or the penetrating, worldly wise insight of her reading. Listen to the bloom of her sound in “Watch What Happens,” the languor of her rhythms in “Old Devil Moon” and the silken delicacy of her account of “Daydream,” and you’re hearing a major artist announcing her gifts to the world. Much credit must go to pianist-arranger Laurence Hobgood, who has given McCann something no one else has yet has been able to provide her: instrumental settings that respect tradition but sound utterly of the moment.
Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune Sept.23, 2014 - Chicago Tribune, Howard Reich

Chicago listeners already know that Tammy McCann possesses one of the most voluptuously beautiful voices in jazz, but they've never heard her quite the way she sounded Thursday night at the Jazz Showcase.

For the first time McCann was sharing the stage with Laurence Hobgood, an exceptional pianist-arranger whose contributions have significantly changed the context for McCann's art.

Until now, McCann's luxuriant tone, traditional repertoire and glamorous stage persona have evoked an earlier, more romantic era in jazz history: the golden age when Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan, Nancy Wilson and comparably charismatic divas ruled the world. Practically everything McCann has sung has suggested a nostalgic longing for an epoch widely admired but inarguably gone. Few contemporary female jazz singers have recalled that period more poetically than McCann, her reverence for her musical forebears enhanced by the enormous scale of her instrument and the range of vocal colors she could produce.

In a single stroke, pianist Hobgood has enabled McCann to recalibrate all that, significantly repositioning her music. For though the glories of her voice remain wholly intact, the accompaniments Hobgood and fellow instrumentalists provided were unmistakably modern, fresh and, at times, a bit edgy. Suddenly a singer who seemed to be an upholder of traditions emerged as an artist gently recasting those traditions.

Some in the large audience might have been a bit disconcerted by the lean, sharp musical settings that Hobgood provided. But for at least one listener McCann sounded newly inspired and planted firmly and persuasively in the 21st century.

The shift was apparent from the outset, McCann, Hobgood and colleagues casting new light on a well-worn standard, "Old Devil Moon." Hobgood's insistent counter-motif – which opened the piece and recurred throughout it – provided harmonic tension and rhythmic contrast to McCann's long, silken lines. No matter how lush a sound McCann produced,

Hobgood's staccato accompaniment challenged her. So what once would have unfolded as warmly romantic singing now was cast against a formidable, hard-driving piano part. In the similarly historic "Caravan," McCann picked up on Hobgood's spirit of adventure, riffing freely on the repeated-note theme that was at the center of the pianist's work. Her solo here was quite inventive, Hobgood re-entering the fray with atmospheric tone-painting.

So it went throughout this first set, McCann liberating herself further from conventional, comfortable interpretations. She dared to sing certain passages of "Autumn Leaves" backed only by Samuel Jewell's drums; she let the final phrases of Billy Strayhorn's "Day Dream" drift softly into the ether; she stretched phrases to the breaking point in "I'll Remember April."

The tour de force came in the form of a duet with Hobgood on "Easy Living," a tune widely associated with another Chicago singer, albeit from an earlier era: Johnny Hartman.

McCann created her own world of sound here, her whispered notes carrying surprising tonal weight, her melodic lines taking twists and turns no one could have anticipated.

Hobgood did a great deal to make all of this possible, his work amounting to a form of narrative storytelling. Even if McCann hadn't sung a note, one would have been engaged by Hobgood's musical commentary.

Not that the McCann-Hobgood partnership can be considered a finished product. Balances between the vocalist and the band (which also featured bassist John Sutton and vibist Justin Thomas) sometimes were off, the instrumentalists at times stepping on McCann's notes.

More fundamentally, these fine musicians cannot be considered a working band at this point – they don't fully cohere. Yet Hobgood's art added immeasurably to McCann's, suggesting this could be the start of an important partnership.

They go into the recording studio next month. Already they have a great deal to say. - Chicago Tribune,Howard Reich

2012 was a characteristically plentiful year in jazz performance, Chicagoans hearing a tremendous range of music.

The best concerts, in chronological order:

March 1: Tammy McCann at the Jazz Showcase. The majestic Chicago singer designed her four-night run as a tribute to the late tenor-saxophone giant Von Freeman. An exalted goal, to be sure, but McCann fulfilled it, partnering with a different tenorist every evening. On opening night, she duetted poetically with Chicago tenor man Ari Brown, bringing languorous phrasing to “'S Wonderful,” luxuriant tone to Arthur Hamilton's “Strayhorn” and a seeming inexhaustible array of colors to ballads, blues and bebop. When McCann unreeled her original lyrics to Sonny Rollins' “Pent-Up House,” there was no doubt she stands among the most creative and accomplished vocalists in jazz today. - CHICAGO TRIBUNE, Howard Reich

2012 was a characteristically plentiful year in jazz performance, Chicagoans hearing a tremendous range of music.

The best concerts, in chronological order:

March 1: Tammy McCann at the Jazz Showcase. The majestic Chicago singer designed her four-night run as a tribute to the late tenor-saxophone giant Von Freeman. An exalted goal, to be sure, but McCann fulfilled it, partnering with a different tenorist every evening. On opening night, she duetted poetically with Chicago tenor man Ari Brown, bringing languorous phrasing to “'S Wonderful,” luxuriant tone to Arthur Hamilton's “Strayhorn” and a seeming inexhaustible array of colors to ballads, blues and bebop. When McCann unreeled her original lyrics to Sonny Rollins' “Pent-Up House,” there was no doubt she stands among the most creative and accomplished vocalists in jazz today. - CHICAGO TRIBUNE, Howard Reich

Jazz singers don’t just spring into being. It can take years to hone a singular style and sound.
That’s a lesson Tammy McCann learned six or seven years into her professional career during a tour in Italy when she was practicing a take on “You Don’t Know What Love Is.”
Like many budding interpreters, she started out emulating such esteemed vocalists as Ella Fitzgerald and Dinah Washington, to whom the South Side native is still often compared. But that day, she was excited to suddenly hear phrasing that was distinctively new and all her own.
“It takes time and a real sense of yourself to find your own voice,” McCann said.
Now solidly established as one of Chicago’s most respected jazz singers, she returns this weekend to the venerable Jazz Showcase. But this engagement, which runs through March 24, comes with a twist.
For all but one performance, she will be appearing with noted members of the jazz faculty at the Music Institute of Chicago — Jeremy Kahn, piano; Stewart Miller, bass; Ernie Adams, drums; Audrey Morrison, trombone and Victor Garcia, trumpet.
Since September, McCann has served as artist-in-residence at the school, doing some teaching but mainly acting as an ambassador for its growing 2½-year-old jazz studies program.
Although classically trained with experience in gospel, R&B and other musical styles, she has no doubt who she is now — a jazz singer who mixes in a few original tunes but primarily focuses on the time-tested standards.
“One thing I know about myself is the music that I sing,” she said. “I see myself as an ambassador for straight-ahead jazz — not pop-jazz, not soul-jazz. It’s the purest form of this amazing American masterpiece — jazz-music.”
McCann’s career has undergone several phases, including tours in Europe in the 1990s and a stint in 2000-02 as a back-up singer — a Raelette — to legendary vocalist and pianist Ray Charles.
After settling back in Chicago to devote time to a new husband and family, the singer returned to the stage in 2006, catching the attention of Alyce Claerbaut, the niece of famed jazz composer Billy Strayhorn.
Claerbaut became something of a mentor, opening doors for McCann to make her New York debut in 2011(she returns next month to perform with noted tenor saxophonist Houston Person) and the singer’s career has been on an upswing since.
“She essentially got everything going for me a couple of years ago,” McCann said. “She kind of re-introduced me to Chicago and really took me to New York City and helped me plant my flag.”
Also with the encouragement with Claerbaut, McCann has put an increasing emphasis on big-band music. She performs regularly with the 18-piece Reunion Jazz Orchestra, which will accompany her Sunday afternoon at the Jazz Showcase.
“Now I’m completely addicted,” he said. “Over the last nine months, that has been my laser focus — working on new music and just really being engulfed in the big-band genre.”
- Chicago Sun Times 2013,Kyle MacMillan

Jazz singers don’t just spring into being. It can take years to hone a singular style and sound.
That’s a lesson Tammy McCann learned six or seven years into her professional career during a tour in Italy when she was practicing a take on “You Don’t Know What Love Is.”
Like many budding interpreters, she started out emulating such esteemed vocalists as Ella Fitzgerald and Dinah Washington, to whom the South Side native is still often compared. But that day, she was excited to suddenly hear phrasing that was distinctively new and all her own.
“It takes time and a real sense of yourself to find your own voice,” McCann said.
Now solidly established as one of Chicago’s most respected jazz singers, she returns this weekend to the venerable Jazz Showcase. But this engagement, which runs through March 24, comes with a twist.
For all but one performance, she will be appearing with noted members of the jazz faculty at the Music Institute of Chicago — Jeremy Kahn, piano; Stewart Miller, bass; Ernie Adams, drums; Audrey Morrison, trombone and Victor Garcia, trumpet.
Since September, McCann has served as artist-in-residence at the school, doing some teaching but mainly acting as an ambassador for its growing 2½-year-old jazz studies program.
Although classically trained with experience in gospel, R&B and other musical styles, she has no doubt who she is now — a jazz singer who mixes in a few original tunes but primarily focuses on the time-tested standards.
“One thing I know about myself is the music that I sing,” she said. “I see myself as an ambassador for straight-ahead jazz — not pop-jazz, not soul-jazz. It’s the purest form of this amazing American masterpiece — jazz-music.”
McCann’s career has undergone several phases, including tours in Europe in the 1990s and a stint in 2000-02 as a back-up singer — a Raelette — to legendary vocalist and pianist Ray Charles.
After settling back in Chicago to devote time to a new husband and family, the singer returned to the stage in 2006, catching the attention of Alyce Claerbaut, the niece of famed jazz composer Billy Strayhorn.
Claerbaut became something of a mentor, opening doors for McCann to make her New York debut in 2011(she returns next month to perform with noted tenor saxophonist Houston Person) and the singer’s career has been on an upswing since.
“She essentially got everything going for me a couple of years ago,” McCann said. “She kind of re-introduced me to Chicago and really took me to New York City and helped me plant my flag.”
Also with the encouragement with Claerbaut, McCann has put an increasing emphasis on big-band music. She performs regularly with the 18-piece Reunion Jazz Orchestra, which will accompany her Sunday afternoon at the Jazz Showcase.
“Now I’m completely addicted,” he said. “Over the last nine months, that has been my laser focus — working on new music and just really being engulfed in the big-band genre.”
- Chicago Sun Times 2013,Kyle MacMillan

Jazz singers don’t just spring into being. It can take years to hone a singular style and sound.
That’s a lesson Tammy McCann learned six or seven years into her professional career during a tour in Italy when she was practicing a take on “You Don’t Know What Love Is.”
Like many budding interpreters, she started out emulating such esteemed vocalists as Ella Fitzgerald and Dinah Washington, to whom the South Side native is still often compared. But that day, she was excited to suddenly hear phrasing that was distinctively new and all her own.
“It takes time and a real sense of yourself to find your own voice,” McCann said.
Now solidly established as one of Chicago’s most respected jazz singers, she returns this weekend to the venerable Jazz Showcase. But this engagement, which runs through March 24, comes with a twist.
For all but one performance, she will be appearing with noted members of the jazz faculty at the Music Institute of Chicago — Jeremy Kahn, piano; Stewart Miller, bass; Ernie Adams, drums; Audrey Morrison, trombone and Victor Garcia, trumpet.
Since September, McCann has served as artist-in-residence at the school, doing some teaching but mainly acting as an ambassador for its growing 2½-year-old jazz studies program.
Although classically trained with experience in gospel, R&B and other musical styles, she has no doubt who she is now — a jazz singer who mixes in a few original tunes but primarily focuses on the time-tested standards.
“One thing I know about myself is the music that I sing,” she said. “I see myself as an ambassador for straight-ahead jazz — not pop-jazz, not soul-jazz. It’s the purest form of this amazing American masterpiece — jazz-music.”
McCann’s career has undergone several phases, including tours in Europe in the 1990s and a stint in 2000-02 as a back-up singer — a Raelette — to legendary vocalist and pianist Ray Charles.
After settling back in Chicago to devote time to a new husband and family, the singer returned to the stage in 2006, catching the attention of Alyce Claerbaut, the niece of famed jazz composer Billy Strayhorn.
Claerbaut became something of a mentor, opening doors for McCann to make her New York debut in 2011(she returns next month to perform with noted tenor saxophonist Houston Person) and the singer’s career has been on an upswing since.
“She essentially got everything going for me a couple of years ago,” McCann said. “She kind of re-introduced me to Chicago and really took me to New York City and helped me plant my flag.”
Also with the encouragement with Claerbaut, McCann has put an increasing emphasis on big-band music. She performs regularly with the 18-piece Reunion Jazz Orchestra, which will accompany her Sunday afternoon at the Jazz Showcase.
“Now I’m completely addicted,” he said. “Over the last nine months, that has been my laser focus — working on new music and just really being engulfed in the big-band genre.”
- Chicago Sun Times 2013,Kyle MacMillan

Jazz singers don’t just spring into being. It can take years to hone a singular style and sound.
That’s a lesson Tammy McCann learned six or seven years into her professional career during a tour in Italy when she was practicing a take on “You Don’t Know What Love Is.”
Like many budding interpreters, she started out emulating such esteemed vocalists as Ella Fitzgerald and Dinah Washington, to whom the South Side native is still often compared. But that day, she was excited to suddenly hear phrasing that was distinctively new and all her own.
“It takes time and a real sense of yourself to find your own voice,” McCann said.
Now solidly established as one of Chicago’s most respected jazz singers, she returns this weekend to the venerable Jazz Showcase. But this engagement, which runs through March 24, comes with a twist.
For all but one performance, she will be appearing with noted members of the jazz faculty at the Music Institute of Chicago — Jeremy Kahn, piano; Stewart Miller, bass; Ernie Adams, drums; Audrey Morrison, trombone and Victor Garcia, trumpet.
Since September, McCann has served as artist-in-residence at the school, doing some teaching but mainly acting as an ambassador for its growing 2½-year-old jazz studies program.
Although classically trained with experience in gospel, R&B and other musical styles, she has no doubt who she is now — a jazz singer who mixes in a few original tunes but primarily focuses on the time-tested standards.
“One thing I know about myself is the music that I sing,” she said. “I see myself as an ambassador for straight-ahead jazz — not pop-jazz, not soul-jazz. It’s the purest form of this amazing American masterpiece — jazz-music.”
McCann’s career has undergone several phases, including tours in Europe in the 1990s and a stint in 2000-02 as a back-up singer — a Raelette — to legendary vocalist and pianist Ray Charles.
After settling back in Chicago to devote time to a new husband and family, the singer returned to the stage in 2006, catching the attention of Alyce Claerbaut, the niece of famed jazz composer Billy Strayhorn.
Claerbaut became something of a mentor, opening doors for McCann to make her New York debut in 2011(she returns next month to perform with noted tenor saxophonist Houston Person) and the singer’s career has been on an upswing since.
“She essentially got everything going for me a couple of years ago,” McCann said. “She kind of re-introduced me to Chicago and really took me to New York City and helped me plant my flag.”
Also with the encouragement with Claerbaut, McCann has put an increasing emphasis on big-band music. She performs regularly with the 18-piece Reunion Jazz Orchestra, which will accompany her Sunday afternoon at the Jazz Showcase.
“Now I’m completely addicted,” he said. “Over the last nine months, that has been my laser focus — working on new music and just really being engulfed in the big-band genre.”
- Chicago Sun Times 2013,Kyle MacMillan

Either Tammy McCann's voice keeps changing or it holds more mysteries than even longtime listeners realized.

For Thursday night at the Jazz Showcase, McCann found new tones and colors, fresh shadings and tints in an instrument that already ranks among the most alluring in jazz. Intent on doing something unexpected with practically every phrase, McCann produced sounds one hadn't thought were within her capability. Or anyone's.

How can one singer conjure the larger-than-life vocal manner of Dinah Washington, as McCann did in "Easy Living," but also the dusky timbre and languorous phrasing of Sarah Vaughan, as McCann achieved in "'S Wonderful"? Yet how can she also transcend those influences, and others, to sound like no one else at all?

Part of the answer comes from the very nature of McCann's voice, a classically trained instrument that the singer long ago repositioned to address jazz, blues, gospel and other facets of black music. The power of that combination — Western European vocal technique with an African-American esthetic – in itself distinguishes McCann from most of her colleagues. That she also brings to the equation an enormous instrument in the tradition of another great diva from the South Side of Chicago, the aforementioned Dinah Washington, makes McCann unique in music today.

This is why McCann finds herself increasingly in demand on both coasts, and why the Jazz Showcase was packed on a Thursday night for an artist still very much on the ascent.

Hoping to make something special of her first extended engagement at the Showcase, where she's playing through Sunday, McCann has cast the appearance as a tribute to a longtime influence, Chicago tenor saxophone legend Von Freeman. Thus she's partnering with a different tenor saxophonist each night, meanwhile devoting her between-song patter to lessons she learned from improvising alongside Freeman.

So the spirit of the great Vonski, as Freeman is known throughout jazz, hovered in the room throughout McCann's late set, even though the 88-year-old virtuoso hasn't performed publicly since last year. You could hear it not only in McCann's stories but, better still, in the interpretive imagination she applied to standards and obscurities alike.

She opened her late set with "I'm Beginning to See the Light," duetting poetically with Chicago tenor saxophonist Ari Brown, a searcher himself deeply influenced by Freeman (isn't everyone in Chicago jazz?).

To hear McCann's sometimes lush, sometimes gritty, sometimes whispering vocals answered by Brown's deep-and-dark exhortations was to understand why McCann benefitted so greatly from having riffed with a saxophone master such as Freeman. The most accomplished jazz singers tend to bring instrumental methods to bear on their vocals, particularly in high-flying scat passages, and McCann surely finesses an intricate figuration the way a great tenor player would.

On this night, McCann also ventured into less familiar territory, as in Arthur Hamilton's haunting "Strayhorn," an aptly ethereal tribute to composer Billy Strayhorn. The tune enabled McCann to dip to the bottom of her range, yielding plush, long-held low notes not often encountered these days outside the work of Cassandra Wilson.

When McCann unveiled her version of Sonny Rollins' "Pent-Up House," with McCann's original lyrics, she began to assert herself as something more than a song interpreter. Here was McCann making a statement as jazz inventor, her lyrics capturing the flow of the music and opening up new expressive possibilities for her. - Chicago Tribune 2012

Either Tammy McCann's voice keeps changing or it holds more mysteries than even longtime listeners realized.

For Thursday night at the Jazz Showcase, McCann found new tones and colors, fresh shadings and tints in an instrument that already ranks among the most alluring in jazz. Intent on doing something unexpected with practically every phrase, McCann produced sounds one hadn't thought were within her capability. Or anyone's.

How can one singer conjure the larger-than-life vocal manner of Dinah Washington, as McCann did in "Easy Living," but also the dusky timbre and languorous phrasing of Sarah Vaughan, as McCann achieved in "'S Wonderful"? Yet how can she also transcend those influences, and others, to sound like no one else at all?

Part of the answer comes from the very nature of McCann's voice, a classically trained instrument that the singer long ago repositioned to address jazz, blues, gospel and other facets of black music. The power of that combination — Western European vocal technique with an African-American esthetic – in itself distinguishes McCann from most of her colleagues. That she also brings to the equation an enormous instrument in the tradition of another great diva from the South Side of Chicago, the aforementioned Dinah Washington, makes McCann unique in music today.

This is why McCann finds herself increasingly in demand on both coasts, and why the Jazz Showcase was packed on a Thursday night for an artist still very much on the ascent.

Hoping to make something special of her first extended engagement at the Showcase, where she's playing through Sunday, McCann has cast the appearance as a tribute to a longtime influence, Chicago tenor saxophone legend Von Freeman. Thus she's partnering with a different tenor saxophonist each night, meanwhile devoting her between-song patter to lessons she learned from improvising alongside Freeman.

So the spirit of the great Vonski, as Freeman is known throughout jazz, hovered in the room throughout McCann's late set, even though the 88-year-old virtuoso hasn't performed publicly since last year. You could hear it not only in McCann's stories but, better still, in the interpretive imagination she applied to standards and obscurities alike.

She opened her late set with "I'm Beginning to See the Light," duetting poetically with Chicago tenor saxophonist Ari Brown, a searcher himself deeply influenced by Freeman (isn't everyone in Chicago jazz?).

To hear McCann's sometimes lush, sometimes gritty, sometimes whispering vocals answered by Brown's deep-and-dark exhortations was to understand why McCann benefitted so greatly from having riffed with a saxophone master such as Freeman. The most accomplished jazz singers tend to bring instrumental methods to bear on their vocals, particularly in high-flying scat passages, and McCann surely finesses an intricate figuration the way a great tenor player would.

On this night, McCann also ventured into less familiar territory, as in Arthur Hamilton's haunting "Strayhorn," an aptly ethereal tribute to composer Billy Strayhorn. The tune enabled McCann to dip to the bottom of her range, yielding plush, long-held low notes not often encountered these days outside the work of Cassandra Wilson.

When McCann unveiled her version of Sonny Rollins' "Pent-Up House," with McCann's original lyrics, she began to assert herself as something more than a song interpreter. Here was McCann making a statement as jazz inventor, her lyrics capturing the flow of the music and opening up new expressive possibilities for her. - Chicago Tribune 2012

Tammy McCann, Green Mill Jazz Club, Nov. 18. Drawing an overflow crowd that stretched down the block, McCann reasserted her place as the next great vocalist out of Chicago. A voice like hers emerges every couple of decades, or so, her sound immense, her tone luscious, her interpretive gifts mature. In an indelible evening, McCann delivered sensuous sound in "Teach Me Tonight," elegant scat singing in "On Green Dolphin Street" and a searing, starkly individualistic account of "Don't Explain." Next year, it will be even harder to get into her shows.

- CHICAGO TRIBUNE, Howard Reich

Tammy McCann, Green Mill Jazz Club, Nov. 18. Drawing an overflow crowd that stretched down the block, McCann reasserted her place as the next great vocalist out of Chicago. A voice like hers emerges every couple of decades, or so, her sound immense, her tone luscious, her interpretive gifts mature. In an indelible evening, McCann delivered sensuous sound in "Teach Me Tonight," elegant scat singing in "On Green Dolphin Street" and a searing, starkly individualistic account of "Don't Explain." Next year, it will be even harder to get into her shows.

- CHICAGO TRIBUNE, Howard Reich

Five years ago, singer Tammy McCann jump-started her American career back in her hometown, Chicago, after a decade working mostly in Europe. Her solo show at the now-defunct HotHouse instantly announced her as a formidable vocalist who clearly was going to make an impact.

Still, it's remarkable how much McCann has developed since that indelible performance. With a voice as large and a technique as sure as hers, she easily could have simply continued singing as always, letting that big-and-booming instrument do its work.

Instead, McCann has polished her art significantly, as she demonstrated to a crowded house Friday night at the Green Mill. The degree of vocal control and the range of color she produced in every song – actually, in every phrase – went far beyond what she was offering just a few years ago.

So even though she conceived her Green Mill show as a tribute to the jazz divas who have influenced her most, from Billie Holiday to Ella Fitzgerald, it was McCann's vocal identity that loomed largest.

Just consider what McCann did with Holiday's "Don't Explain." Any singer who dares take on this brooding, bitter love song risks evoking not just Holiday's classic recording but broader comparisons with the greatest tragedian in the art of vocal jazz.

And yet McCann's version proved so searing – and stylistically so far removed from Holiday's – that one quickly put aside the more famous account, at least temporarily. For McCann thoroughly reconstructed the piece according to her own aesthetic.

McCann's deep-and-throaty low notes and soft-and-dusky colors would have been persuasive enough. But she also launched climactic pitches of imploring power. This was "Don't Explain" recast as a vast jazz aria, by turns extraordinarily personal and unabashedly theatrical. Why compete with Holiday's stripped-to-the-bone understatement, McCann seemed to be saying, when you can coax so many hues from a single song?

Whenever McCann releases her next recording, she ought to consider making "Don't Explain" its centerpiece, for she has found new meanings in its sorrows.

If the other pieces in McCann's opening set didn't attain quite this degree of ferocity, they probably weren't intended to – the listener can be shattered only so many times in one evening. So McCann brought considerable sensuousness of tone to "Teach Me Tonight," luxuriant scat singing to "On Green Dolphin Street" and sleek duets with bassist Dennis Carroll in "But Not for Me" and drummer Michael Raynor in "What Is This Thing Called Love."

True, McCann may have erred at the beginning of her show, giving her sidemen too much solo space, when she needed to establish herself as the evening's main attraction. And though there was something ultra chic about closing her initial set with the Raynor duet, it didn't feel like a finale, which may explain why McCann had to tell the audience it was time for a break.

Quibbles aside, McCann clearly has entered a new phase in her maturation. She's the rare jazz singer whose outsized voice doesn't preclude intimacy, a technical whiz who's also capable of profound interpretation.

The future is hers.
- Chicago Tribune, Howard Reich, Nov. 21

Two years ago, Chicagoan Tammy McCann was an aspiring vocalist known mostly to local cognoscenti.
Today, she's enjoying a heightened national profile, thanks to the standing ovations she has earned playing Jazz at Lincoln Center, in New York; a forthcoming January appearance on National Public Radio's, "Piano Jazz Rising Stars" program, hosted by pianist Jon Weber and standing-room-only performances at Chicago'sGreen Mill Jazz Club.
So when McCann returns to the Mill this weekend, she'll arrive as a Chicago star on the verge of something bigger.
"After her New York sojourn, I'd say she's probably about 85 to 90 percent down the road to major success," says veteran Chicago jazz advocate Alyce Claerbaut, who has been selflessly guiding McCann's career — not for pay but out of admiration of the singer's gifts.
"What she needs is that one little bump to go over the top," adds Claerbaut, president of Strayhorn Songs, which manages the published works of her uncle, jazz genius Billy Strayhorn."It may take a year or two, but I think she will go over the top, because when people hear her, they set her apart."
Indeed, McCann commands more vocal firepower than any female jazz artist of her generation, even if the sheer heft of her voice is just part of her appeal. Add to that the plush colors of her instrument, the deepening maturity of her interpretations and the propulsive swing rhythm she can unleash at will, and you're clearly hearing the next great voice out of Chicago.
"I'm humbled that all these wonderful clubs see fit to put me in such prominent places," says McCann, who somehow juggles a burgeoning sing

ing career with her role as South Side mother of four. "The Green Mill, the Jazz Showcase — these are real icons here in Chicago. And Dizzy's at Jazz at Lincoln Center, that was unforgettable, too."
Come January, McCann will be performing with no less than pianist Weber and bassist Lonnie Plaxico at the annual conference of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, where talent buyers from around the world seek out promising artists.
At this point, McCann seems nearly unstoppable.
"When I think of when I first met her and heard her two years ago, well, things are very, very different now," says Claerbaut. "She didn't have any prospects in the Chicago area then, and that surprised me, because I was so stunned by her talent. …
"Now I think I've been vindicated in my feeling that she would make an impression on the world. So I think at this point, she's in a very, very good place.
"Look — she's going to be heard worldwide in a very prestigious NPR program. Once you hit the airwaves and people hear you, that empowers you."
At the Mill, McCann says she'll be paying homage to the great singers who influenced her, from Ella Fitzgerald to Dinah Washington to Billie Holiday.
"Outside of Billie, who was the origin for everything, they all kind of came up at the same time," says McCann. "But each was iconic in her own fashion.
"It's really kind of unprecedented, all of them to have such a legacy in and of themselves. And it wasn't as if one overshadowed the other.
"These days, you couldn't imagine having an Ella and a Sarah (Vaughan) and a Dinah at the same time. Back then, the industry allowed room for that. These days, it's very insular. … They open the door very seldom."
That door is starting to open for McCann. Yes, at the Mill she'll be singing of women known globally by a single name: Ella, Sarah, Dinah, Nancy (Wilson) and Billie.
But it seems just possible that someday, another, more contemporary one will be added to the pantheon: Tammy. - Howard Reich , Chicago Tribune , Nov 18th

Two years ago, Chicagoan Tammy McCann was an aspiring vocalist known mostly to local cognoscenti.
Today, she's enjoying a heightened national profile, thanks to the standing ovations she has earned playing Jazz at Lincoln Center, in New York; a forthcoming January appearance on National Public Radio's, "Piano Jazz Rising Stars" program, hosted by pianist Jon Weber and standing-room-only performances at Chicago'sGreen Mill Jazz Club.
So when McCann returns to the Mill this weekend, she'll arrive as a Chicago star on the verge of something bigger.
"After her New York sojourn, I'd say she's probably about 85 to 90 percent down the road to major success," says veteran Chicago jazz advocate Alyce Claerbaut, who has been selflessly guiding McCann's career — not for pay but out of admiration of the singer's gifts.
"What she needs is that one little bump to go over the top," adds Claerbaut, president of Strayhorn Songs, which manages the published works of her uncle, jazz genius Billy Strayhorn."It may take a year or two, but I think she will go over the top, because when people hear her, they set her apart."
Indeed, McCann commands more vocal firepower than any female jazz artist of her generation, even if the sheer heft of her voice is just part of her appeal. Add to that the plush colors of her instrument, the deepening maturity of her interpretations and the propulsive swing rhythm she can unleash at will, and you're clearly hearing the next great voice out of Chicago.
"I'm humbled that all these wonderful clubs see fit to put me in such prominent places," says McCann, who somehow juggles a burgeoning sing

ing career with her role as South Side mother of four. "The Green Mill, the Jazz Showcase — these are real icons here in Chicago. And Dizzy's at Jazz at Lincoln Center, that was unforgettable, too."
Come January, McCann will be performing with no less than pianist Weber and bassist Lonnie Plaxico at the annual conference of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, where talent buyers from around the world seek out promising artists.
At this point, McCann seems nearly unstoppable.
"When I think of when I first met her and heard her two years ago, well, things are very, very different now," says Claerbaut. "She didn't have any prospects in the Chicago area then, and that surprised me, because I was so stunned by her talent. …
"Now I think I've been vindicated in my feeling that she would make an impression on the world. So I think at this point, she's in a very, very good place.
"Look — she's going to be heard worldwide in a very prestigious NPR program. Once you hit the airwaves and people hear you, that empowers you."
At the Mill, McCann says she'll be paying homage to the great singers who influenced her, from Ella Fitzgerald to Dinah Washington to Billie Holiday.
"Outside of Billie, who was the origin for everything, they all kind of came up at the same time," says McCann. "But each was iconic in her own fashion.
"It's really kind of unprecedented, all of them to have such a legacy in and of themselves. And it wasn't as if one overshadowed the other.
"These days, you couldn't imagine having an Ella and a Sarah (Vaughan) and a Dinah at the same time. Back then, the industry allowed room for that. These days, it's very insular. … They open the door very seldom."
That door is starting to open for McCann. Yes, at the Mill she'll be singing of women known globally by a single name: Ella, Sarah, Dinah, Nancy (Wilson) and Billie.
But it seems just possible that someday, another, more contemporary one will be added to the pantheon: Tammy. - Howard Reich , Chicago Tribune , Nov 18th

Tammy McCann received several standing ovations during her stellar performance at Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola on Monday – the fourth of five prestigious jazz clubs in her New York City debut in celebration of her recent release, Never Let Me Go. With an all star band of some of New York’s finest musicians: Bruce Barth, piano; Joel Frahm, tenor saxophone; Richie Goods, bass; and Steve Williams, drums. Ms. McCann’s finely tuned show was flawless in its presentation.
Four was certainly Ms. McCann’s magic number this night as she managed to score ƒƒƒƒ (very strong) in all four major categories: performance, pipes, poise and program. Quiet anticipation filled the room as the Tammy McCann Quintet took their places on the stage. The comfortably full room included supporters such as Alyce Claerbaut, the niece of one of the most important composers in all of Jazz, Billy Strayhorn.
Ms. Claerbaut heard the singer at a brunch a year prior and became the catalyst that helped launch McCann’s career by taking her outside of her familiar performance venues in Chicago and in Europe and bringing her to New York City in 2010 in order to meet some other influential singers including one of her newest supporters, the respected American vocalist, Ann Hampton Callaway and some members of the Board of the Nelson Riddle Foundation, and the noted jazz critic and author, Stanley Crouch.
In the house this evening were members of the press, several well known musicians and many enthusiastic listeners; all there to share in the success of this evening. The energy in the room was highly receptive and appreciative. The band kicked off the introduction to her opening number; an up tempo swinging crowd pleaser, “I Just Found Out About Love”, as a casually elegant Ms. McCann ambled onto the stage and got down to business amidst cheers and vigorous applause.
She came to sing and sing she did. She came to meet us and invite us into her world, her success story, her song. She came bearing natural gifts and with raw talent in hand, she stepped up to the mic and into the hearts of everyone in the room. Tammy McCann gave a well grounded and even-keeled performance and presented herself as someone who clearly has her priorities straight. In short order her beautiful instrument emerged and continued to open up and evolve as she breezed through her show of familiar and favored Standards.
McCann was gracious, demure, steady and sure in her delivery on every piece which included four songs from her CD. The highly efficient band was with her all the way driven by Steve Williams who accented her every nuance throughout the night supplying the perfect foundation for her diversely rhythmic material; some of the arrangements of which were contributed by Chicago saxophonist Ari Brown who is also featured on Never Let Me Go.
Ms. McCann warmed up her chops taking a chorus over Lionel Hampton’s swinging arrangement of “Green Dolphin Street”, introducing the band along the way followed by a sincere version of “Never Let Me Go”. McCann then slipped easily into Carmen Lundy’s, “Blue Woman”, a contemporary groove piece from the new CD, unleashing another aspect of her musical vocabulary where she is very strong and very much at home, and then strolled on over into one of her favorite songs, a funky arrangement of “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was” by Buster Williams, like a kid having fun on every ride in the park.
McCann’s voice possesses elements of Classical, Gospel, R&B, Blues and Jazz and though she has been compared to the amazing Dinah Washington; shades of Betty Carter and Cassandra Wilson were present this evening in her improvising. In a night filled with highlights, her bluesy and sanctified rendition of Lena Horne’s anthem, “Stormy Weather” brought the first standing ovation of the evening. Billie Holiday’s, “Don’t Explain” was soulfully seductive but my personal favorites included a burning version of “My Heart Stood Still” which commanded a boppin’ solo from both Joel Frahm and Bruce Barth and a stunning rendition of the ‘60’s pop hit written by Carole King originally performed by the Shirelles, “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow”.
The set wound down with more classic greats, “I Thought About You”, “Lush Life”, (her homage to Billy Strayhorn and Alyce Claerbaut) and a hard swinging rendition of “Easy Living” that brought tumultuous applause. McCann’s outstanding performance proved that she is a talented singer with many qualities, not the least of which is her enormous gratitude for those who have supported and helped her realize the dream she is now living. It was with this sentiment that she dedicated the last most reflective song of the evening, Stephen Sondheim’s beauty, “Send in the Clowns”, to her manager, and left us all feeling grateful we were part of this evening with her.
- JAZZ INSIDE MAGAZINE, Aug 2011/ Nora McCarthy,Music Critic

Tammy McCann received several standing ovations during her stellar performance at Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola on Monday – the fourth of five prestigious jazz clubs in her New York City debut in celebration of her recent release, Never Let Me Go. With an all star band of some of New York’s finest musicians: Bruce Barth, piano; Joel Frahm, tenor saxophone; Richie Goods, bass; and Steve Williams, drums. Ms. McCann’s finely tuned show was flawless in its presentation.
Four was certainly Ms. McCann’s magic number this night as she managed to score ƒƒƒƒ (very strong) in all four major categories: performance, pipes, poise and program. Quiet anticipation filled the room as the Tammy McCann Quintet took their places on the stage. The comfortably full room included supporters such as Alyce Claerbaut, the niece of one of the most important composers in all of Jazz, Billy Strayhorn.
Ms. Claerbaut heard the singer at a brunch a year prior and became the catalyst that helped launch McCann’s career by taking her outside of her familiar performance venues in Chicago and in Europe and bringing her to New York City in 2010 in order to meet some other influential singers including one of her newest supporters, the respected American vocalist, Ann Hampton Callaway and some members of the Board of the Nelson Riddle Foundation, and the noted jazz critic and author, Stanley Crouch.
In the house this evening were members of the press, several well known musicians and many enthusiastic listeners; all there to share in the success of this evening. The energy in the room was highly receptive and appreciative. The band kicked off the introduction to her opening number; an up tempo swinging crowd pleaser, “I Just Found Out About Love”, as a casually elegant Ms. McCann ambled onto the stage and got down to business amidst cheers and vigorous applause.
She came to sing and sing she did. She came to meet us and invite us into her world, her success story, her song. She came bearing natural gifts and with raw talent in hand, she stepped up to the mic and into the hearts of everyone in the room. Tammy McCann gave a well grounded and even-keeled performance and presented herself as someone who clearly has her priorities straight. In short order her beautiful instrument emerged and continued to open up and evolve as she breezed through her show of familiar and favored Standards.
McCann was gracious, demure, steady and sure in her delivery on every piece which included four songs from her CD. The highly efficient band was with her all the way driven by Steve Williams who accented her every nuance throughout the night supplying the perfect foundation for her diversely rhythmic material; some of the arrangements of which were contributed by Chicago saxophonist Ari Brown who is also featured on Never Let Me Go.
Ms. McCann warmed up her chops taking a chorus over Lionel Hampton’s swinging arrangement of “Green Dolphin Street”, introducing the band along the way followed by a sincere version of “Never Let Me Go”. McCann then slipped easily into Carmen Lundy’s, “Blue Woman”, a contemporary groove piece from the new CD, unleashing another aspect of her musical vocabulary where she is very strong and very much at home, and then strolled on over into one of her favorite songs, a funky arrangement of “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was” by Buster Williams, like a kid having fun on every ride in the park.
McCann’s voice possesses elements of Classical, Gospel, R&B, Blues and Jazz and though she has been compared to the amazing Dinah Washington; shades of Betty Carter and Cassandra Wilson were present this evening in her improvising. In a night filled with highlights, her bluesy and sanctified rendition of Lena Horne’s anthem, “Stormy Weather” brought the first standing ovation of the evening. Billie Holiday’s, “Don’t Explain” was soulfully seductive but my personal favorites included a burning version of “My Heart Stood Still” which commanded a boppin’ solo from both Joel Frahm and Bruce Barth and a stunning rendition of the ‘60’s pop hit written by Carole King originally performed by the Shirelles, “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow”.
The set wound down with more classic greats, “I Thought About You”, “Lush Life”, (her homage to Billy Strayhorn and Alyce Claerbaut) and a hard swinging rendition of “Easy Living” that brought tumultuous applause. McCann’s outstanding performance proved that she is a talented singer with many qualities, not the least of which is her enormous gratitude for those who have supported and helped her realize the dream she is now living. It was with this sentiment that she dedicated the last most reflective song of the evening, Stephen Sondheim’s beauty, “Send in the Clowns”, to her manager, and left us all feeling grateful we were part of this evening with her.
- JAZZ INSIDE MAGAZINE, Aug 2011/ Nora McCarthy,Music Critic

Can a South Side mom who has a husband, four kids and one of the most sumptuous voices in American music find fame and fortune in jazz — and keep her sanity?
Chicagoan Tammy McCann is about to find out.
By day, she shuttles the younger two kids to and from school, cooks mountains of food in her narrow kitchen, and otherwise tries to orchestrate the six lives she and her husband are responsible for.
By night, she unfurls a luxuriant, supple, larger-than-life instrument that lately has had New York aficionados and power brokers swooning. McCann, in fact, appears to be on the verge of a career breakthrough, even though most folks in her hometown still don't know her.
So she stands at an unusual, sometimes thrilling, sometimes uncomfortable juncture: not yet almost famous, but quickly winning fans in influential places.
"She's probably the best singer I have heard since the emergence of Dianne Reeves," says Stanley Crouch, a prominent cultural critic and MacArthur "genius grant" winner, referencing a modern jazz diva.
"She brings all the jewels to the jewel chest," says Ann Hampton Callaway, a nationally admired singer and former Chicagoan.
"She's got the vocal apparatus of a Rolls-Royce," observes Francis Kiernan, executive director of the Nelson Riddle Foundation, which immediately began conceiving projects for McCann upon encountering her.
Mind you, neither Kiernan nor Crouch nor Callaway had even heard of McCann less than a year ago, and why would they have? With no recording contract, no manager, no publicist and no connections, McCann was happily raising her kids and teaching voice lessons, singing occasional performances and assuming that her performing career had gone about as far as it was going to go.
Now, everyone wants Tammy.
"I'm nervous — I could cry at any moment," says McCann, 43, sitting in the kitchen of her slender, unpretentious ranch home, a couple of hours before she has to pick up the kids.
"I'm very emotional. I want to be positive, I want to be prayerful and I want to be prepared for whatever opportunity presents itself to me."
But McCann is nothing if not prepared. In fact, she really has been getting ready for this moment since she first realized the nature of her gift at Kenwood Academy High School. The long years of near-obscurity that followed may have been a blessing, for artists whose careers take flight in their 20s often are ill-equipped to handle the outsize attention that comes their way. McCann, on the other hand, seems about as grounded as anyone could be (four kids will do that).
Better yet, her voice appears just now to be reaching its prime. Thanks to her gospel sensibility, operatic training, deep nightclub experience and prodigious jazz technique, McCann these days tends to bowl people over whenever she leans into a microphone.
Or, as Crouch puts it, "There are so few people who can do what she can do."
None, perhaps, because McCann's instrument is her autobiography, and its sings of an artist born and raised in the distinct musical culture of Chicago's South Side, where jazz, gospel and blues have flourished for generations. It's the place that gave the world Dinah Washington (the brilliant singer to whom McCann most frequently is compared) and Thomas A. Dorsey (the gospel pioneer whose niece, the great teacher-composer Lena McLin, taught McCann at Kenwood).
Yet when McCann was a kid — the oldest of three daughters born to Alice Faye and Arthur McCann, a now-retired Chicago police detective — she was mostly oblivious of jazz. Instead, she bounced in the back seat of the family's station wagon listening to the Stylistics.
Her parents, she says, "wanted us girls exposed to every facet of music, not just the standard fare of what was given to the black community at the time."
So her father bought her piles of Elvis Presley 45s, while her mother turned her on to Broadway belters.
"When my friends in grammar school were listening to (rappers) the Sugarhill Gang, I was listening I was listening to Helen Reddy and Barbra Streisand and Barry Manilow," says McCann. It wasn't until high school that McCann realized that her voice was unusual, thanks to teacher McLin, who still can't get over how the teenager sounded back then, in the early 1980s.
"She was really just magnificent," remembers McLin, who immediately saw an operatic future for McCann, casting her as the lead in Mascagni's "Cavalleria Rusticana" and other major roles.
Says McCann: "I told Ms. McLin I wanted to sing like Chaka Khan, and Ms. McLin said, 'No, you're going to sing like Leontyne Price.'"
Expertly trained in bel canto singing, McCann won a full-ride scholarship to Virginia Union University, in Richmond, but became bored as "a big fish in a small pond." Until one day when she wandered down the hallway of the music building and, as she passed a practice room, heard an exotic, seductive music.
"I knocked on the door and said, 'What is that you're playing — is that Bizet?'" she recalls. - CHICAGO TRIBUNE, ARTS CRITIC, HOWARD REICH

Can a South Side mom who has a husband, four kids and one of the most sumptuous voices in American music find fame and fortune in jazz — and keep her sanity?
Chicagoan Tammy McCann is about to find out.
By day, she shuttles the younger two kids to and from school, cooks mountains of food in her narrow kitchen, and otherwise tries to orchestrate the six lives she and her husband are responsible for.
By night, she unfurls a luxuriant, supple, larger-than-life instrument that lately has had New York aficionados and power brokers swooning. McCann, in fact, appears to be on the verge of a career breakthrough, even though most folks in her hometown still don't know her.
So she stands at an unusual, sometimes thrilling, sometimes uncomfortable juncture: not yet almost famous, but quickly winning fans in influential places.
"She's probably the best singer I have heard since the emergence of Dianne Reeves," says Stanley Crouch, a prominent cultural critic and MacArthur "genius grant" winner, referencing a modern jazz diva.
"She brings all the jewels to the jewel chest," says Ann Hampton Callaway, a nationally admired singer and former Chicagoan.
"She's got the vocal apparatus of a Rolls-Royce," observes Francis Kiernan, executive director of the Nelson Riddle Foundation, which immediately began conceiving projects for McCann upon encountering her.
Mind you, neither Kiernan nor Crouch nor Callaway had even heard of McCann less than a year ago, and why would they have? With no recording contract, no manager, no publicist and no connections, McCann was happily raising her kids and teaching voice lessons, singing occasional performances and assuming that her performing career had gone about as far as it was going to go.
Now, everyone wants Tammy.
"I'm nervous — I could cry at any moment," says McCann, 43, sitting in the kitchen of her slender, unpretentious ranch home, a couple of hours before she has to pick up the kids.
"I'm very emotional. I want to be positive, I want to be prayerful and I want to be prepared for whatever opportunity presents itself to me."
But McCann is nothing if not prepared. In fact, she really has been getting ready for this moment since she first realized the nature of her gift at Kenwood Academy High School. The long years of near-obscurity that followed may have been a blessing, for artists whose careers take flight in their 20s often are ill-equipped to handle the outsize attention that comes their way. McCann, on the other hand, seems about as grounded as anyone could be (four kids will do that).
Better yet, her voice appears just now to be reaching its prime. Thanks to her gospel sensibility, operatic training, deep nightclub experience and prodigious jazz technique, McCann these days tends to bowl people over whenever she leans into a microphone.
Or, as Crouch puts it, "There are so few people who can do what she can do."
None, perhaps, because McCann's instrument is her autobiography, and its sings of an artist born and raised in the distinct musical culture of Chicago's South Side, where jazz, gospel and blues have flourished for generations. It's the place that gave the world Dinah Washington (the brilliant singer to whom McCann most frequently is compared) and Thomas A. Dorsey (the gospel pioneer whose niece, the great teacher-composer Lena McLin, taught McCann at Kenwood).
Yet when McCann was a kid — the oldest of three daughters born to Alice Faye and Arthur McCann, a now-retired Chicago police detective — she was mostly oblivious of jazz. Instead, she bounced in the back seat of the family's station wagon listening to the Stylistics.
Her parents, she says, "wanted us girls exposed to every facet of music, not just the standard fare of what was given to the black community at the time."
So her father bought her piles of Elvis Presley 45s, while her mother turned her on to Broadway belters.
"When my friends in grammar school were listening to (rappers) the Sugarhill Gang, I was listening I was listening to Helen Reddy and Barbra Streisand and Barry Manilow," says McCann. It wasn't until high school that McCann realized that her voice was unusual, thanks to teacher McLin, who still can't get over how the teenager sounded back then, in the early 1980s.
"She was really just magnificent," remembers McLin, who immediately saw an operatic future for McCann, casting her as the lead in Mascagni's "Cavalleria Rusticana" and other major roles.
Says McCann: "I told Ms. McLin I wanted to sing like Chaka Khan, and Ms. McLin said, 'No, you're going to sing like Leontyne Price.'"
Expertly trained in bel canto singing, McCann won a full-ride scholarship to Virginia Union University, in Richmond, but became bored as "a big fish in a small pond." Until one day when she wandered down the hallway of the music building and, as she passed a practice room, heard an exotic, seductive music.
"I knocked on the door and said, 'What is that you're playing — is that Bizet?'" she recalls. - CHICAGO TRIBUNE, ARTS CRITIC, HOWARD REICH

Chicago's rising star Tammy McCann followed Sims during the second half of the concert with stirring renditions of "Come Sunday" and "Tell Me It's The Truth". Tammy's strong instrument resounded throughout the pristine edifice, even when she backed away from the microphone. She has such a unique gift and was initially classically trained. This was an ideal setting for Ms. McCann who displayed far reaching range during her delivery(coincidentally, Tammy also studied under Dr. McLin at Kennwood Academy in Hyde Park). The audience spontaneously rose to it feet in response to this spectacular performance.

- www.jazzchicago.net/James Walker

Until Friday night, audiences in Chicago – and most of the rest of the world – never had heard a live performance of Billy Strayhorn's "A Christmas Surprise."

The great composer had penned the piece for Duke Ellington's first Sacred Concert, in 1965, and unveiled it from the piano in the Manhattan staging of the work, with Lena Horne as vocalist.Then the song practically vanished, never to be included in published versions of Ellington's sacred music and rarely presented in concert.
So Friday evening's performance by singer Tammy McCann amounted to something more than just the Chicago premiere of the vignette, during pianist Willie Pickens' annual Jazz Christmas concert at Hyde Park Union Church. For anyone who values Strayhorn's enormous contribution to Ellington's songbook, "A Christmas Surprise" emerged as a small, rediscovered treasure.
Not that the piece stands as an unalloyed masterpiece. Its lyrics, by Rev. Dean Bartlett, told the story of the birth of Christ in prosaic, uninspired terms. To fully savor the high craft of Strayhorn's music, you nearly had to tune out the words, no easy feat when a singer of McCann's prowess was delivering them.
Nevertheless, the surging quality of Strayhorn's melody lines and the yearning character of his chord changes established "A Christmas Surprise" as a significant piece, conceived as both hymn and prayer. McCann, who's clearly the next great voice out of Chicago, argued persuasively for the emotional pull of this tune (also known as "A Song for Christmas").
Yet this performance was quite different from Horne's (which has appeared on CD reissues). In place of Horne's ineffably silvery soprano, McCann offered a deeper, darker, throatier sound. And though the boomy acoustics of the church did McCann no favors, the vocal splendor of her reading was hard to miss.
But then nearly everything McCann sang to a crowded church made for substantive listening. "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" doesn't usually unfold quite as languorously as this, but McCann's luscious lines justified the unusual tempo. McCann tried to persuade the audience to sing along on the spiritual "Go, Tell it on the Mountain," but the magisterial sound of her instrument soared way above all else.
This was the 16th year pianist Pickens has presented this Christmas concert, yet it was no mere recitation of holiday ditties. Instead, Pickens and his trio presented thorough jazz transformations of seasonal repertoire. If these tunes weren't inextricably associated with the holidays, Pickens' combustive versions would have been appropriate for any hard-core jazz den in America.
The pianist emphasized the point by featuring former Chicago trumpeter Maurice Brown, whose piercing high notes must have resonated clear to Lake Michigan. As Brown fractured and reinvented well-known melodies, Pickens applied characteristic galvanic force to the keyboard. Bassist Larry Gray's buoyant lines and pianist Robert Shy's restless rhythms represented hard-driving Chicago jazz at its most unrepentant.
Not your usual Christmas soiree, but jazz musicians thrive on surprise.

- Chicago Tribune, Howard Reich, Arts Critic

Howard Reich
My Kind of Jazz

February 3, 2009

She has to be the greatest Chicago jazz singer you never heard of.

But perhaps one of these days Tammy McCann will find her audience. Anyone with a voice as mighty, a technique as formidable and an imagination as irrepressible as hers has got to be discovered sometime, right?

Because she was based mostly in Europe from 1996 to 2003, McCann made scant impression back home in Chicago during the early chapters of her career. After she returned, it took her a while to get heard, though a thrilling performance in 2006 at the now-shuttered HotHouse told Chicagoans what they had been missing. The majesty of her low notes, the glory of her high ones and the palpable influence of the church on everything she sang evoked memories of a more historic Chicago vocal powerhouse: Dinah Washington.

Ever since McCann's comeback show, she has been chasing gigs, studying, rehearsing, teaching and otherwise honing her art, though the jazz life has not been easy (never was).

"We musicians hang our worth on being able to work," says McCann. "If nobody's calling you for a gig, it's like when a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it. You start to wonder, 'Am I really any good?' "

But McCann now has reason to be optimistic: A flurry of engagements will put her back on the music map.

"I'm really trying to accept the ebbs and the flows and the cycles," says McCann.

Starting now, there's less ebb and more flow.

Tammy McCann plays 7:30 p.m. Sunday at the Checkerboard Lounge, 5201 S. Harper Ct.; $10; 773-684-1472.

www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/chi-0203-jazzfeb03,0,5900729.story - Chicago Tribune

Howard Reich
My Kind of Jazz

February 3, 2009

She has to be the greatest Chicago jazz singer you never heard of.

But perhaps one of these days Tammy McCann will find her audience. Anyone with a voice as mighty, a technique as formidable and an imagination as irrepressible as hers has got to be discovered sometime, right?

Because she was based mostly in Europe from 1996 to 2003, McCann made scant impression back home in Chicago during the early chapters of her career. After she returned, it took her a while to get heard, though a thrilling performance in 2006 at the now-shuttered HotHouse told Chicagoans what they had been missing. The majesty of her low notes, the glory of her high ones and the palpable influence of the church on everything she sang evoked memories of a more historic Chicago vocal powerhouse: Dinah Washington.

Ever since McCann's comeback show, she has been chasing gigs, studying, rehearsing, teaching and otherwise honing her art, though the jazz life has not been easy (never was).

"We musicians hang our worth on being able to work," says McCann. "If nobody's calling you for a gig, it's like when a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it. You start to wonder, 'Am I really any good?' "

But McCann now has reason to be optimistic: A flurry of engagements will put her back on the music map.

"I'm really trying to accept the ebbs and the flows and the cycles," says McCann.

Starting now, there's less ebb and more flow.

Tammy McCann plays 7:30 p.m. Sunday at the Checkerboard Lounge, 5201 S. Harper Ct.; $10; 773-684-1472.

www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/chi-0203-jazzfeb03,0,5900729.story - Chicago Tribune

"It's just a matter of time before the rest of the world discovers the majesty of McCann's instrument, a voice that soars in all registers, at all tempos, on all occasions. This time, she'll be heard in a setting worthy of her, in the vast space of Rockefeller Chapel. The place may never be the same."
- Chicago Tribune, Howard Reich

They finally found a place big enough to hold Tammy McCann's voice: the great outdoors.

With thousands of people in front of her and the open sky above, the Chicago singer gave Jazz Fest Glen Ellyn its greatest moments on Saturday, unleashing tremendous salvos of vocal firepower. More important, there was sonic heft, tonal nuance and interpretive savvy to this work, which confirmed that Jazz Fest Glen Ellyn knows how to program a significant musical event.

The third annual festival, located along several blocks of the historic Main Street shopping district, offered a case study in how to present a civilized, aesthetically appealing jazz soiree. Because of the narrow confines of the street, the stage area retained an intimacy rarely encountered in outdoor performances. Here was a sterling instance of a community using its built environment to ingenious effect, the low-slung buildings forming a de facto amphitheater well suited to the intimate art of jazz.

This proved a particularly welcome context for McCann, who makes visceral emotional contact with listeners in any setting but whose voice renders most indoor spaces too small. No problem here, with McCann's fortissimos probably heard in downtown Naperville.



From her opening notes in the standard "I Didn't Know What Time It Was," McCann showed that she continues to evolve as interpreter and technician. Rarely does one hear a voice of this size finesse scat passages so nimbly. Yet every fast-moving scale and lightning riff had tonal weight, the singer never throwing off a note without giving it expressive meaning.

Part of the thrill of this set was in hearing McCann push past conventional repertoire and into less familiar, more contemporary work. Accompanied by drums alone, she made a battle cry of Lena McLin's "Move," an anthem on the quest for civil rights. And in "Amazon," from the Betty Carter songbook, McCann revealed a previously undetected ability to improvise far outside traditional song structures.

Earlier in the day, Chicago saxophonist Mark Colby acquitted himself well in ballads, bebop and blues. If his haunting tune "Reflections" (from his recent CD of the same name) owed a debt to the vintage "Body and Soul," it also yielded ornate solos of tangible melodic beauty.

Finally, the Deep Blue Organ Trio lived up to its name, Bobby Broom's lithe guitar work bathed in blues-drenched chords from organist Chris Foreman and relentless swing rhythm from drummer Greg Rockingham.

Downtown Glen Ellyn never sounded so good.


- Howard Reich | Tribune critic

"The music making became sublime when Chicago singer Tammy McCann floated serene, silken phrases in Ellington's "Come Sunday." Uninterested in mere vocal display, McCann let the music unfold slowly, at its own pace, her high notes wafting gently into the ether. But there was weight to this work too. McCann's pitches carried profound, blue-note shadings.

When McCann took on Ellington's "Tell Me It's the Truth," she transcended gospel cliches, declaiming her lines without shouting them" - Chicago Tribune, Howard Reich

"Some of the most thrilling music unfolded at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, where Tammy McCann reaffirmed her stature as the next great voice coming out of Chicago. When McCann re-emerged on Chicago's stages in 2006, after many years in Europe, she startled at least one listener with the sheer size and voluptuousness of her instrument.

But McCann has developed dramatically since then, deepening the interpretive nuance of her work, honing her scat-singing techniques, pushing out of conventional song forms and into more personal modes of expression. All of that was apparent on Saturday afternoon, when McCann proved that even enormous Rockefeller Memorial Chapel wasn't quite big enough to contain that glorious voice of hers.

Her most riveting moments came in Lena McLin's "Move," a civil rights aria penned as a tribute to Martin Luther King Jr., but well suited to the era of Barack Obama (and sung in his neighborhood, no less).

Accompanied only by Perry Wilson's drums, McCann started softly but swelled inexorably from one shattering climax to the next."

- Chicago Tribune, Howard Reich

One of the great success stories of 2006 was the emergence of Tammy McCann as a leading Chicago vocalist.

Triply blessed with jazz, gospel and classical techniques, McCann played a breakout show at HotHouse last May that announced her arrival as a leading singer.

Because she had spent many years working in Europe, she never had acquired the reputation that she deserved back home. And though she had been playing neighborhood festivals in Chicago, she never received the marquee billing that a talent of her caliber merits.

That all changed with her HotHouse engagement, McCann radically redefining Gershwin's "A Foggy Day," whimsically re-imagining "The Girl from Ipanema" as "The Boy from Ipanema" and bringing operatic grandeur to "When I Fall In Love" and Billy Strayhorn's "Lush Life."

McCann has been performing busily since around Chicago -- and across the country -- since then, but this weekend she returns to the scene of her earlier triumph, HotHouse.

Considering that she'll be backed by such formidable Chicagoans as tenor saxophonist Ari Brown, drummer Ernie Adams and bassist Eric Hochberg, this could be a key performance.

Tammy McCann plays at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at HotHouse, 31 E. Balbo Drive; $10; phone 312-362-9707.

Howard Reich

May 4, 2007



- Chicago Tribune

It's the recording that keeps turning up on my sound system at home, in the car, at the office — everywhere.

Maybe that's why up-and-coming Chicago singer Tammy McCann titled her new CD "Never Let Me Go": You can't. Or at least I can't.

Anyone who has followed music in Chicago during the past few years already knows about McCann's voice, a sumptuous instrument that's as huge as all outdoors and tends to envelop any room she's in. But there's so much more to her art than the size and scope of her sound, and she finally has produced a recording that proves it.

Not that "Never Let Me Go" doesn't have its minor flaws, chiefly the surprising blandness of some of its instrumentals.

But the sound of McCann's sprawling, multi-octave voice — and what she does with it — establishes her on record for the first time as a potentially significant force in jazz.

Sophisticated listeners might wince to see that the critical first track on the CD is the beyond-ancient, beyond-cliched, beyond-redemption "More." And yet, with McCann's first luscious notes — her voice so easy to get lost in — one hardly cares what the tune happens to be.

Better still, once McCann plunges into other songs, she forces the listener to reappraise perceptions of superb material. Nat "King" Cole may own "Nature Boy" forever more, but the way McCann stretches phrases past the breaking point proves there's still something new to be said about the great old tune. When she lets her voice bloom on high notes or revels in those velvety low notes of hers, "Nature Boy" becomes a jazz aria of the most sensuous kind.

As for the title track, the sheer voluptuousness of McCann's sound, the gauziness of her high notes and the creaminess of all the others establish that McCann can do more than shout to the rafters. She can caress a tune, too, as she does in "Blue Woman," applying extraordinarily subtle colors and textures to yet another tune she reinvents.
- CHICAGO TRIBUNE/HOWARD REICH, Arts Critic

Anyone who follows music in Chicago already realizes that Tammy McCann can sing and Ron Perrillo knows how to play a piano. Put the two together, though, and a fine singer becomes something of a powerhouse.

That was apparent on a recent evening at Pops for Champagne, where McCann's quartet benefited greatly from Perrillo's comprehensive virtuosity.

Even without Perrillo's lush contributions, McCann conveys a sometimes brassy, sometimes tender vocal tone reminiscent of Dinah Washington. Add to the equation Perrillo's quasi-orchestral pianism, and you have the convergence of two compelling jazz sensibilities.

Surely anyone who can turn the purple lyrics and somewhat antiquated melody of "More" into an appealing work of art is well worth listening to. McCann sang the piece as if it mattered (it doesn't), refreshing it with relentless swing rhythm and churchy exclamations. Amen to that.

She followed it with "Girl from Ipanema," though this time the title character clearly hailed not from the white beaches of South America but from the somewhat grittier South Side of Chicago. Her bluesy exhortations found soulful response in Perrillo's two-fisted accompaniment.

The pair hit even harder in a blues medley, Perrillo's enormous chords inspiring shouts and exclamations from McCann. The more Perrillo pushed, the more sound and fury McCann unleashed. There were moments of repose, too, as in a softly rhapsodic version of "Never Let Me Go," which McCann made into something of a jazz reverie. You could hear mist and fog in this vocal, as well as gracefully turned phrases designed to disarm the listener. The musicmaking was rendered all the more effective by Perrillo's delicate counterpoint.

With Dennis Carroll producing warmly resonant bass lines and Greg Rockingham pushing rhythms ever forward on drums, McCann hardly could have asked for a more felicitous musical setting.

Pops for Champagne's jazz room, however, needs acoustical retuning: It sounds too harsh when musicians are playing full tilt.

Tammy McCann plays at 9 p.m. Thursdays in May at Pops for Champagne, 601 N. State St.; no cover; 312-266-7677.

Howard Reich, Tribune Arts and Culture Critic

May 22, 2008

- Chicago Tribune

Tammy McCann collaborates with Lindberg's bluesy big band in selections from Duke Ellington's Sacred Concerts. The chance to hear McCann, who owns an enthralling instrument, in front of a large jazz ensemble makes this event required listening.

- Chicago Tribune, Howard Reich