JSO Honors Hall of Fame Voices

5:00 - Doors

5:00 - 7:00 - Mix, mingle and sip (VIP Ticket with dinner*)

7:00 - 10:00 - Main program

$25 GA/$40 VIP with dinner*

*Dinner includes: Bourbon St Chicken / Garlic Stuffed Brisket

Creole 7-Cheese Mac / Sautéed Green Beans/Seasonal Salad.

Featuring Honorees:

Shirley Nanette (2013)

Nancy King (2001)

and Rebecca Kilgore (2003)

With

Steve Christofferson (Piano)

Tom Wakeling (Bass)

and Charlie Doggett (Drums)

*A benefit for Jazz Society of Oregon's Cathedral Park Jazz Festival

Celebrating 50 Years of the Jazz Society of Oregon

Shirley Nanette has appeared as guest soloist in concert throughout the United States and Canada, on both commercial and public television. She has performed at many of Oregon’s musical events including: the Mt. Hood Festival of Jazz, Cascade Music Festival, Sunriver Music Festival, and each year at Oregon Art Museum’s “Museum After Hours” Gospel Meets Jazz concert.

A stellar performer with demonstrated skill across genres, whether pop, torch, R&B, jazz, or gospel, Ms Nanette displays a nomenclature and music style that is head and shoulders above the norm. “I came up in the church and grew up in a home where music was always heard,” she says. She can even recall her mother telling stories about how she literally sang herself to sleep at night. “I did,” she says. “Since I was seven years old, singing has been my thing.” Her family linage might also have something to do with it. “My grandfather’s cousin on my mother’s side was Bessie Smith,” she explains. Evolving from such ripe DNA isn’t the only reason for her talent. But a connection like that certainly lifts one’s self-esteem and confidence. Before settling on jazz, though, Ms. Nanette considered other vocal styles; after all, she had the chops and wind for anything. “I wanted to be an opera singer,” she says. “And while in my twenties, I was introduced to an opera coach.”

Ms. Nanette’s vocal powers grew as did her stature in the industry, fueled by a restless determination to be her best, to venture and challenge herself. And she found those challenges in a variety of styles and venues, from late-night spots in Portland like the Upstairs Lounge in the 1960s,

Shirley was honored by the Portland Rose Festival Grand Floral Parade with her own float, two consecutive years, from which she sang through the entire length of the parade.

She has been the opening act for Frankie Valle and the Four Seasons, Billy Eckstine, Diane Schuur, Lou Rawls and Eddie Harris and substituted for Tony Bennett with the Spokane Symphony when he became ill. Shirley performed with the Woody Hite Big Band and the George Reinmiller Big Band, usually in outdoor summer concerts.

Her love for children is supported by the numerous awards and invitations to community functions and events she’s been invited to in order to share her gift and mentor young aspiring artists. She recently garnered an award from Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church for her volunteer work and mentor ship. “Singing in a church choir is a wonderful opportunity offered to young people as a way to learn the craft,” she says. She also taught classes in arts and communications,voice and performance skills at the Arts Magnet Academy. Her community work reaches back to the 1970s, when she was a supervisor for the first wave of children involved in the federally mandated bus program when schools became racially integrated. “I’ve lived through some very interesting times,” she says, as she recalls society becoming more tolerant and race relations improving.

Shirley Made her debut with the Oregon Symphony in 1981, conducted by Norman Leyden. She appears as one of the “Pops” concert favorites. She has also appeared as guest soloist with the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Seattle, Spokane, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Baltimore, Tucson, San Diego, Honolulu, Long Beach, and the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C.

In 1983, competing against several thousand contestants throughout the United States, she won the First “Star Search” aka “Fantasy” national talent competition on NBC Television. Shirley was recognized as “Best Female Vocalist in Portland” from 1981 to 1991. She appeared in the stage play “The Colored Museum” written by George C. Wolfe, in a parody of Josephine Baker. In 2000, she appeared in Truman Capote’s “The Grass Harp” performed at the Lakewood Theatre in Lake Oswego, for which she received an Artistic Merit award from the theater company.

Shirley was chosen twice as the only jazz vocalist to be represented by the Oregon Arts Commission. In May of the following year, she began the task of making her first recording entitled “See You Later”. It was released in 1992. The album includes compositions of Cole Porter, Rogers and Hart, Irving Berlin, Michel LeGrand and George and Ira Gershwin. The lyrics from the title tune to her studio recording, “Starting Here, Starting Now,” she believes, sum up her spirit and humanity. “I’ve lived through some very interesting times,” “When we walk, we walk together, year by year. When we talk, we say the most with silence, when we are near, starting here.”

Shirley has been inducted in the Oregon Music Hall of Fame for her dedication to jazz and her long career.

Her work includes a CD and DVD set called "Starting Here, Starting Now". It was recorded at Jimmy Maks jazz club in early 2008 and is a landmark opportunity to see and hear Shirley and the musicians in her band.

Shirley has performed with the Portland’s NW Childrens Theatre 2009 singing and acting.

She also produced a Christmas recording called “The First Noel” in 2013.

In 2019, at 71, Shirley returned to the stage to perform her 1973 album, Never Coming Back, in its entirety. It was presented by Albina Music Trust at the Halocene.

So, when will Ms. Nanette stop? Does the music ever end? “I’m going as long as my ability allows. I will know when to stop. Not there yet.” She can still hit those high and low notes. “I’ve learned how to maneuver,” she says with a smile.

Shirley’s incredible energy emerges when she is on stage doing what she does from the heart, performing for the audiences that love her and have watched her grow into the beautiful, talented, and gracious lady she is today.

-- written by Shawn Kirkeby with excerpts from an article in 2013 Jazzscene by Yugen Rashad.

For most of her career, Nancy King has been considered the Pacific Northwest's pre-eminent jazz singer.

By the end of the 1990s, King had become one of the leading jazz singers in the world. An improvising musician in the tradition of singers Sheila Jordan, Betty Carter, and Ella Fitzgerald, King is a master of the bebop-based scat singing style made famous by Louis Armstrong, as well as the vocalese approach developed by singer and lyricist Jon Hendrick.

She’s been called everything from a “Cult figure” and an “uncompromising artist,” (Earshot Jazz) to “the greatest living jazz singer,” (Herb Ellis). Nancy is one of the few improvisers in vocal jazz to master the vocabulary. Saxophonist John Handy once said King “puts horn players to shame.”

Nancy came to the San Francisco jazz scene of the early 1960’s from Springfield, Oregon. It was at the legendary Jazz Workshop that she met Sonny King, her future mate, and joined his band. They headlined Monday nights at the Workshop for two years. Others she worked with in San Francisco included Vince Guaraldi, John Handy, Sonny Donaldson, and Flip Nunez. Another major influence was meeting and studying with Jon Hendricks.

In ‘66 and ‘67, Nancy did the Playboy Club circuit and was a production singer in Las Vegas, then joined C. Smalls and Company, led by Charlie Smalls, who later wrote the music for “The Wiz”.

The first recording to feature Nancy King was “First Date”, an outing with saxophonist Steve Wolfe on the Inner City label. Joining them in the studio were Ray Brown, Jack Sheldon, Frank Strazzeri and Nick Ceroli.

Nancy’s collaborations with Glen Moore (bassist for the internationally known ensemble “Oregon”) include performances at NYC’s Town Hall, the Montreal Jazz Festival and several European festivals. Together as “King and Moore” they have recorded three albums on the Justice label beginning with “Impending Bloom” in 1991. That cd and the following release, “Potato Radio”, earned five star reviews from Downbeat Magazine. “Cliff Dance” was released in 1994.

Nancy has been performing locally and along the West Coast with pianist/composer Steve Christofferson since 1978. In 1993 they released a duo album “Perennial”, featuring guest appearances by Leroy Vinnegar, David Frishberg and Ralph Towner. During the mid-90’s Nancy and Steve were on the faculties of the Stanford University Jazz Workshop, Bud Shank’s Centrum Jazz Workshop and Jazz Camp West, and performed at festivals in France, the U.S., Israel and Canada. In 1997 Mons Records released “Straight Into Your Heart”, recorded in Holland and featuring Nancy and Steve with the fifty-one piece Metropole Orchestra.

In early 2000 Stellar Records released “Dream Lands”, a compilation of duet recordings with Steve Christofferson commissioned by the Canadian Broadcast Corporation.

In 2001 she was named to the Jazz Society of Oregon's Hall of Fame and in 2008 the city of Portland designated Feb. 22 as Nancy King Day.

In 2013 Nancy was awarded the Jazz Master Award by the Portland Jazz Festival

"A supple voice, a flawless ear and the instincts of a true jazz improviser."

- The Oregonian

"...her singing FLIES between our ears with a certainty of inevitable rightness that is at least... simply thrilling."

- Mark Murphy, jazz vocalist

"Gifted with the emotional depth of Carmen McRae, King holds standards up to the light and explores their nuances through the prism of her stunning technique. Moving and often challenging, she takes the lyrical ballad to new highs and lows."

- Willamette Week

One of America's leading song stylists who finds particular delight on preserving and interpreting the music of the Great American Songbook.

“When Rebecca sings, the sun comes out.” - Johnny Mandel

Rebecca Kilgore is one of America's leading song stylists who finds particular delight in preserving and interpreting the music of the Great American Songbook. She regularly performs worldwide at jazz festivals, jazz parties, and on jazz cruises. She is a frequent guest on NPR’s 'Fresh Air' with Terry Gross, has appeared at Carnegie Hall with Michael Feinstein, Lincoln Center, Birdland (NYC), and on Garrison Keilor’s ‘A Prairie Home Companion’. Rebecca has recorded with Bucky Pizzarelli, John Pizzarelli, Dave Frishberg, Harry Allen, Jeff Hamilton, Nicki Parrott, Dan Barrett, and Mike Renzi to name a few.

Rebecca is honored to have been invited to perform at New York’s Mabel Mercer Cabaret Convention at Town Hall in NYC and to have been inducted to the Oregon Music Hall of Fame and to the Jazz Society of Oregon’s Hall Of Fame. Her most recent recording, “The Rebecca Kilgore Trio, Vol. 1” with Randy Porter on piano and Tom Wakeling on bass, (Heavywood label), has garnered stellar reviews. She is currently working on a tribute to the music of Dave Frishberg with her trio plus a string quartet.

“Listening to Rebecca's new recording fills me with joy. Her song choices are masterful and interpretations sublime. It's simply a pleasure to listen to such wise musicality coupled with lyric interpretations that turn every song into a mini play. Thanks, Rebecca!”

- Michael Feinstein

“Rebecca Kilgore is a jazz singer whose fluent voice conjures sunlight glinting on running water, Ms. Kilgore infuses everything she performs with a sense of lighthearted enjoyment.” - The NY Times

If Benny Goodman were alive today, he'd hire Becky to sing in his band! - Bucky Pizzarelli

Becky sings with a beautiful clear sound, a great sense of time and swing, and a heartfelt unpretentiousness.

Dave Frishberg

2014 Gordon Lee

2013 Shirley Nanette

2012 David Friesen

2011 Phil Baker

2010 Tall Jazz (Mike Horsfall, Dan Presley, Dave Averre)

2009 Art Abrams

2008 Darrell Grant

2007 Glen Moore

2006 Thara Memory

2005 Eddie Wied (May of 2005, a special off-season induction)

2005 Dan Balmer

2004 Tom Grant

2003 Rebecca Kilgore

2002 Ron Steen

2001 Nancy King

2000 Dave Frishberg

1999 Mel Brown

1998 Leroy Vinnegar

Host or Publisher Alberta Abbey