quotes
Critical acclaim for "Freedom Jazz Dance":
"Kelly is an artist with range: She can portray joy, but she can also render complex feelings like sadness tempered by irony and resignation... she has the kind of voice you want to spend time with. It projects vocal qualities that are in short supply, like personality and emotional integrity."
- Christopher Conrad, Stereophile Magazine
“Julie Kelly is one of those singers whose voice stops you sleeping - Julie London was another - and Julie II is way up in that league. Whether singing in English or in Portuguese, the message conveyed by the lyricist comes through. It's what great actors do and, in this case, what great singers do. What I particularly like about this latest offering is the material, the band and, of course the voice that could send shivers up and down your spine even if it were selling dog food!”
Lance Liddle, Bebop Spoken Here
“Classy interpretations… simple pleasures… a Carmen McRae mood of earthiness..”
George Harris, Jazz Weekly
“Freedom Jazz Dance is a road worth taking as it certainly offers stimulating music from a terrific vocalist and her outstanding first-call L.A. team.”
Nick Mondello, All About Jazz
“Kelly’s voice is seasoned and tempered into an attractive low alto, not unlike that of Rebecca Parris and Patti Wicks. Beautifully conversational, Freedom Jazz Dance conveys the wide perimeter of Kelly’s talent.”
C Michael Bailey, Wild Mercury Rhythm
Critical acclaim for "Kelly Sings Christy":
“…Kelly fills Thou Swell with strikingly original renditions of great songs – and isnt’ that precisely how Christy shaped most, if not all, of her brilliant career?”
- Christopher Loudon, Jazz Times
“When you hear her, it’s as if you are listening to a first-rate instrumentalist.”
- Zan Stewart, New Jersey Star Ledger
“Christy’s classic, Something Cool, is reborn with equal pathos and soul, in the hands of Studio City-based songstress, Julie Kelly.”
-Steve Eddy, Orange County Register
“Kelly” and “Christy” are joined by the art of singing, but though Kelly fondly remembers Christy the album is finally her own.”
- Michael Coyle, Cadence Magazine
“With her third release for Chase Music Group, the California based Julie Kelly has spawned a gem.”
- Richard Bourcier, JazzReview.com
“Kelly Sings Christy: Thou Swell” Julie Kelly’s homage to the late jazz singer June Christy, is pretty swell itself – sultry and swinging by turns.”
- Michael Joyce, Washington Post
Previous Quotes:
"Kelly's latest CD, Into The Light, is a revelation."
-Tom Surowicz, Minnesota Star
"...a singing style bounded by elegance, wit and lyrical sensitivity..."
-David Nathan, All About Jazz
"Julie Kelly sings jazz the way it's supposed to be sung. Her mezzo-soprano voice has a bell-like clarity but she can growl funky, too. She possesses a swinging rhythmic whammy that never overshadows the words, the story. She employs her intellect, but her intuition's the boss. She picks classy tunes, making each her "own by imbuing them with consummate spirit and feeling. Try not to be moved!"
-Zan Stewart, Los Angeles Times
"Listen to Julie Kelly sing and several words immediately come to mind. Words such as musicianship, versatility and intelligence. And, no, I'm not overlooking the more familiar adjectives associated with jazz singers - swinging, creative and stylish. The truth is that they all apply to Kelly, whose long and persistent labors in the jazz vineyards have produced one of the finest jazz vocal instruments of the nineties."
- Don Heckman, Los Angeles
"Julie Kelly's pure, clear voice draws you in to share in these stories because it blends street-wise confidence with a hint of vulnerability. Songs unfold themselves through her emotional honesty, intuitive phrasing, precise diction, and musical intelligence."
- Thomas Conrad, CD Review
"Julie Kelly is truly a singer's singer. A class act."
- Royal Stokes, Jazz Times
"The way she deals with time is perhaps the most striking attribute of her style. She pushes and pulls in ways that are not supposed to work. This is definitely not textbook swingin! It is also a style that is unlikely to be widely copied because of its unorthodox approach to almost everything! Isn't it nice to hear a singer doing her thing without sounding like someone else?"
- Bob Porter, WBGO Radio
"Her singing is full of a seemingly spontaneous expressiveness that belies the years of study, work and thought that have gone into building the art which she uses so artlessly. You get the feeling that it's a natural, unaffected, intuitive talent. Her intelligence and wit illuminate the material she chooses to interpret just as her vivacious personality illuminates the stage when she performs."
- Jim Gosa, KKGO-fm, Los Angeles