whitaker

Melinda Whitaker is a recording artist known The Making Of for delivering soulful performances. Born “Lucky So-And-So!” in , Whitaker’s acclaimed career began in Edmonton singing her compositions and performing on CBC television with “Lucky So-And-So!” Tommy Banks. She returned to Vancouver to Audio Samples perform with Fraser McPherson, Oliver Gannon, Doug Riley, Ted Quinlan and recorded for Holger Petersens’s Jazz Radio Reviews Canada. She was an in demand session singer on commercials for television, radio and film. Melinda Whitaker Whitaker’s career is punctuated with CTV and CBC appearances, entertainment Website specials, and three seasons with The Rene Simard Show. She has shared the stage with the legendary Bryan Adams,, Jose Feliciano, Martin Short, Wolfman Jack, Andre Gagnon, and Kenny Loggins. She opened for the Ray Brown Trio at the Stage Plot Vancouver International Jazz Festival, headlined with the Victoria Symphony Orchestra, and performed at Victoria JazzFest.

In 2004 Whitaker recorded The Touch of Your Lips. Images

In 2012 Whitaker collaborated with Winner Phil Dwyer to produce Lucky So-And-So! Now, with this new recording, Melinda Whitaker has moved Contact into the Pantheon of jazz vocalists, a master at the top of her craft. Reviews

Jazz Singer Melinda Whitaker Today she's a jazz singer. But once upon a time, Melinda Whitaker was a full-fledged Renette.

It was back in the late '70s. Quebec wunderkind René Simard had his own CBC-TV show in Vancouver. For three seasons. Whitaker was a back-up singer and featured soloist.On YouTube, you can view vintage clips of her on the René Simard Show belting out tunes such as Bonnie Tyler's It's a Heartache.

On Saturday night, the Saanichton vocalist performs pop and jazz tunes at Hermann's Jazz Club, a launch for her new album, Lucky So-And-So! The band is led by the recording's producer, Phil Dwyer.

Whitaker has had a long career that includes six-nights-a-week stints at Gary Taylor's Show Lounge in Vancouver and sharing the stage with Bryan Adams and Jose Feliciano.

And she has fond memories of those early days with Simard. "We were called the Renettes," Whitaker said. "He was a real sweetheart. He was very talented and very young. We did that show when he was, like, 15. ... He had a chaperone on that show, because some of the dancers tried to put the make on him."

It was Whitaker who approached Dwyer - a Juno-winning musician based in - to produce Lucky So-And-So! He not only agreed to oversee the project, Dwyer wrote arrangements as well as playing and soprano, alto and tenor . Victoria trombonist Ian McDougall also plays trombone on the disc, recorded in Nanaimo last April.

What makes Lucky So-And-So! is Whitaker's rich, burnished contralto. She brings bona fide warmth and emotional depth to familiar songs such as the title track, as well as My Foolish Heart, The Song is You and Stevie Wonder's Creepin'. Her heartfelt interpretation of You've Changed, a favourite with generations of pop and jazz singers, is especially compelling.

Whitaker cites Carmen McRae, another jazz contralto, as a seminal influence. She also points to Nancy Wilson and Seattle jazz/blues singer Ernestine Anderson. "I really listened to them tons and tons," she said.

Whitaker was part of Vancouver's thriving music scene of the 1970s and early '80s, when there was scads of nightclub and studio work for singers and musicians. After earning an English degree from the University of B.C., she set out with musical friends (including some who'd performed with Cheech and Chong in Vancouver) to play Edmonton's club scene.

She returned to Vancouver, where her future husband, pianist Gerry Caunter, helped land her a regular gig at Gary Taylor's Show Lounge. That's where Whitaker received her real musical grounding. She not only sang jazz six nights a week, she did weekday lunchtime shows. Such a musical situation is almost impossible to find today. "My heart goes out to musicians of today because there's a dearth of gigs. There's no place to go out and grab it by the ... well, you know," she said. As well, there was plenty of session work at such Vancouver studios as GGRP, Little Mountain Sound and Mushroom Studios. That's when Whitaker met future rock star Bryan Adams. "He was just a kid in Vancouver," she said. "We did jingles together."

Whitaker moved to Saanichton from Vancouver seven years ago to look after her elderly parents. She's become a familiar face on the local scene, having performed for Hermann's, TD Victoria International JazzFest, the Victoria Symphony and with such groups as the Great Ladies of Jazz. Whitaker is also heard on the recording Daedalus: Poetry by Dorothy Livesay by Victoria pianist Brent Jarvis.

There may be a sequel to Lucky So-And-So! When Whitaker first talked to Dwyer about all the tunes she'd love to record, the list was lengthy. "He said, 'Well, you're just talking three albums there,' " she said, chuckling.

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Reviews

Melinda Whitaker and Phil Dwyer Produce a Winner with “Lucky So-And-So!” December 12, 2012 Rick Gibbs

There’s lots of smoke but no mirrors in Melinda Whitaker’s Lucky So and So, a smouldering new vocal album of seven standards and two Stevie Wonder tunes produced and arranged by the great Phil Dwyer.

Whitaker, supported by an A-list of west coast players, delivers the real thing with her signature dark, husky voice that seems made for jazz.

And while that voice thins now and then under the load of these demanding tunes and arrangements, Whitaker makes up for any tonal challenges with sensitive phrasing that respects the lyrics and knows when there should be sound and and when there should be silence.

Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out to Dry is a fine example with the gorgeous interplay between her muted trumpet voice and Dwyer’s sweet, supple sax. You’ll also hear it in My Foolish Heart as she plays of rich horn lines and Dwyer’s spare piano work.

Fact is, all the songs on this album are delivered with style, not the least of which are the Stevie Wonder tunes Overjoyed and Creepin’, well-chosen contemporary contrasts to the standards that are at the core of the album.

Speaking of Phil Dwyer, is there a better musical mind anywhere in the country? He, along with the other masterful players he’s recruited, including Brad Turner on trumpet and flugelhorn, Ian McDougall on trombone and Ken Lister on bass, has given Whitaker an expansive musical sandbox in which to play.

Just listen to the percussive fun and excitement on the opening The Song is You and you’ll know you’re in for a treat. This album is a winner vocally and instrumentally.

Note: Sadly the CD arrived too late for me to review it in time for Whitaker’s Victoria show this past weekend, but you can catch her tonight (Wednesday) at The Cellar in Vancouver at 8 pm. And the album is now available on disk or digital download through Whitaker’s website. It would make a great Christmas gift.

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Mic Mic Mic Piano Bass Drums

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Melinda Sax Trumpet

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Melinda Whitaker Victoria, B.C. T. (250) 656-5139 C. (250) 818-2138 Email: [email protected] facebook.com/melindawhitakermusic Melinda Whitaker Website www.melindawhitaker.com

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