REBECCA SAYRE: REVIEWS

Rebecca Sayre to perform next Sunday at Dogwood Park
COOKEVILLE -- Treat Dad to a picnic in the park and an afternoon of jazz on Father's Day next Sunday, when Rebecca Sayre and her jazz trio take the Dogwood Pavilion stage from 2-3:30 p.m.

The concert will be the third in this year's Sundays in the Park concert series as well as Sayre's third Cookeville appearance -- she also performed here with her former band, Badabing Badaboom, at both Dogwood Park and Fall FunFest.

"The people here are really laid back and seem to enjoy themselves a lot," said Sayre. "It's one of those shows that I just look forward to because it's relaxed, it's fun, and everybody has a good time."

While she has learned an entire catalog of jazz standards through playing with Badabing Badaboom and at the National Jazz Workshop, Sayre has recently penned a number of original tunes as well with former bandmate Eddie Mugavero.

"I played a couple of these songs at a concert that I did in Carmel, Calif., in January, and people were saying, 'We want to hear more of your songs,'" said Sayre. "I thought I should do straight-up jazz, but the folks were digging the new stuff and wanted to hear more of it, so I'm going to be doing more of it at the Cookeville concert. But I'll be doing plenty of standards as well."

Backing her will be world-renowned guitarist Richard Smith, bassist Charlie Chadwick and drummer Jim White.

"You don't find this caliber of musicians just anywhere," said Sayre. "That's part of the beauty of working out of Nashville."

Two of Sayre's music CDs will be for sale at the show, including "This Is Always," which went to number 47 on the national jazz charts, and her new five-song EP, a pre-release from her album "New Girl," which will be released this fall.

The concert is free. Bring blankets or lawn chairs. For more information about the Sundays in the Park concert series, sponsored by the Cookeville Arts Council and presented by the Department of Leisure Services, call (931) 528-1313.

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MONTEREY HERALD Jan 19, 2008
Nashville Cats: Nashville musicians Rebecca Sayre and Beegie Adair play jazz, not country Singer/guitarist Rebecca Sayre, pianist Beegie Adair and bassist Charlie Chadwick comprise a trio of musicians from Nashville who play jazz. Nashville doesn't exactly strike a chord of recognition for most fans of the swinging American roots music. New Orleans, New York, St. Louis, yes, but Nashville is home to the Grand Ole Opry and country music, right? Clearly, this is a ruse.

Truth be told, there's all kinds of music to be found in Nashville, and since it's such a big music town, filled with industry types, recording studios and record labels, it rings true that talented musicians of all types will flock to Nashville for steady work, just like musicians who land in Los Angeles or New York to work the session musician angle.
Sayre is the main attraction of the star-studded Nashville combo, taking front woman position to sing primarily jazz standards performed in a classic, swinging style.
Yet she will introduce listeners to some of her original material and her tasteful, if not blazing, guitar playing.
Adair is the better known of the three, owed to her more than 50 years as a professional musician and her impeccable touch on the piano in service to the traditional jazz she grew up listening to.
Chadwick also maintains a jazz pedigree, recognized as perhaps Nashville's most sought-after session bassist. He currently holds a seat in the multi-faceted guitar great John Jorgenson's hot swing jazz ensemble.
"Well, we always have a good time," Adair said about the other musicians in a phone interview from her home in the Nashville area. "'Cuz they're both really superb musicians. This is kind of fun because I haven't worked with Charlie for a while; he's been working with other groups. And I'm working with my own group. I hadn't seen him for a while until we rehearsed with Rebecca. It was fun to get back together and kind of get on the same wavelength and figure out what we are going to play and who's going to play what and when. So we had a real good time. We're looking forward to doing these concerts. Hanging out with your friends and doing something you like is what it comes down to."
Sayre, who grew up in Saratoga, near San Jose, moved to Nashville soon after graduating from high school.
She and her boyfriend at the time were in a band together and they decided to make a go of a music career there.
She sang in a country swing band and "then got into the songwriting thing," she said. In search of a job in the industry, she decided to attend Belmont College, a respected source for an education in the music business.
"I noticed on the job board at school there were all these internships being offered," Sayre said, talking from the deck of her parents' house in Big Sur. "I figured it was best to go to college if I wanted to work for them, so that was my roundabout way to make sense out of going to college."
She did get several internships, at MCA Publishing, MCA Records, RCA and Arista Records. After college, she moved back to California for a few years.
On her return to Nashville she got into a band called Bada Bing Bada Boom, an all-original swing hybrid band. Its style and popularity inspired her to reinvestigate writing her own music.
Since she was about 11 or 12 years old, she had been playing the guitar, taught a little by her older brother, whose musical interests were in rock and folk singer/songwriter styles.
She became drawn to artists who wrote their own music, all the while developing her own interests in playing the guitar and writing songs.
"When I was in Bada Bing Bada Boom, I got encouraged by friends to do my own thing with a jazz trio, and in doing that I was encouraged to go to the Nashville Jazz Workshop. They do evening classes, six weeks at a time. You can learn the repertoire of Harold Arlen, or all the transcriptions of the coolest solos out there by Charlie Parker and Stan Getz. And Beegie was there teaching part-time. I already knew her; she was very well known in Nashville, as she is in the rest of the world. She was just so warm and encouraging, and she became a real mentor for me. When I started doing some jazz gigs I asked her, 'Hey you want to come play with me?' So we started playing together, the earliest we played together was maybe 2002. We just had a really good rapport."
Adair, a veteran pianist with more than 20 recordings with her trio and a resume of gigs and recording dates with a wide range of major stars, including work with Clint Eastwood on his film "Every Which Way But Loose," will surely draw fans out to this gig at The Jazz and Blues Company Saturday.
Adair gives it up to Sayre and is extremely happy to support the budding songwriter at this, her first appearance in Carmel.
In fact, it's also Adair's first appearance on the Central Coast. Let's give these Nashville cats a warm welcome.

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MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY JAN 19, 2008
Savvy Chanteuse: Rebecca Sayre crafts her stirring sound from jazz, country and the American Songbook Raised in Northern California and based in Nashville, singer Rebecca Sayre is a little bit country, and a little bit jazzy. A Music City veteran who slowly migrated from twang to swing, Sayre has emerged in recent years as deft investigator of the American Songbook who knows how to turn a tune into a compelling story.

Sayre makes her debut at the Jazz and Blues Company on Saturday with bassist Charlie Chadwick, best known as a member of Gypsy jazz guitarist John Jorgenson’s band, and the great Nashville jazz pianist Beegie Adair, a musician’s musician who is widely esteemed by her peers.

Growing up in an equestrian environment in the Santa Cruz Mountain town of Saratoga, Sayre naturally soaked up country music from stars such as Conway Twitty, Don Williams and Loretta Lynn as well as Western swing institutions like Asleep at the Wheel and Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks. After graduating from high school, the aspiring young songwriter gravitated to Nashville.

“This is a town where people move to pursue their dream of music,” Sayre says. “Some people might find that in New York or Los Angeles, but Nashville feels like a small community. These are the best musicians in the world, and it’s kind of a well-kept secret. A lot of people get road gigs and then come back home and play jazz gigs here.”

While it might seem strange that Sayre found her inner chanteuse in Nashville, the city boasts a dazzling array of musicians including many well versed in the ways of jazz. When a slick pop sensibility pushed country’s old guard off the airwaves in the late 1980s, Sayre started delving into jazz.

“I wanted to branch out,” she says. “I started studying at the Nashville Jazz Workshop, listening to Ella and Chris Connor, Charlie Parker and Bill Evans.”

It was at the Nashville Jazz Workshop that Sayre met Beegie Adair, and the pianist encouraged her to pursue a solo career. As Sayre built up her repertoire and her jazz chops, Adair became a regular accompanist. And when Sayre recorded her debut album, 2003’s lustrous This Is Always, Adair, who’s also a skilled jazz singer, provided expert support.

Sayre is not the kind of jazz singer who radically reharmonizes a song and turns it into a guessing game for the audience. When she launches into a standard by Gershwin, Arlen or Porter, she gives the composer his due, interpreting around the edges with her subtle phrasing. She’s also a songwriter who is getting ready to release an album of original material that draws inspiration from the Grand Ole Opry as much as Tin Pan Alley.

It’s unfortunate that jazz and country music are often portrayed in polar terms. The former is often identified as black, urban and sophisticated while the latter is pigeonholed as white, rural and uncomplicated. But the truth is far more complicated. The best musicians find inspiration wherever their ears take them, and over the decades numerous jazz and country players have played together and listened closely to each other. Sayre is just a recent example of an artist unconcerned by musical stereotypes.

“The reason why country and jazz are linked is they are honest American music forms,” Sayre says. “Charlie Parker would put nickels into the juke box to listen to Hank Williams. It’s the storytelling. I love country music, and that’s one of the elements I pull from when I’m writing.”

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CARMEL PINE CONE
After impromptu audition, vocalist performs Nashville’s jazz REBECCA SAYRE just happened to have her guitar with her when she happened upon Carmel’s Jazz and Blues Co “She came in with her guitar and did an impromptu audition,” explained Dave Kimball, owner of the Jazz and Blues Co., a gift shop and concert venue that hosts the KRML jazz radio station, which Kimball also owns. “I accompanied her on piano. And she won me over.”
Sayre, who was visiting relatives in Big Sur when she stopped by Kimball’s multi-faceted business, will perform two sets at the Jazz and Blues Co. Saturday, Jan. 19. She’ll be joined by Beegie Adair, who Kimball describes as “one of the world’s finest pianists.”
Sayre lives in Nashville, a city better known for its country music than its jazz. But Kimball said that’s changing.
“Nashville has become a jazz town because there are so many recording studios there” he explained. “There’s a big jazz scene there now. It’s not a hee-haw town anymore.”