Doors 7.45pm, music 8.30pm
Line-up
Anita Wardell – Vocals
Graham Harvey – Piano
Matyas Hoffecker – Bass
Joe Dessauer – Drums
About
Born in Guildford, UK, Anita moved to Australia with her family as a child. Anita’s formative years were spent soaking up the Rodgers and Hammerstein and Cole Porter classics. She also explored her father’s collection of big band albums by Duke Ellington, Count Basie and many more.
During her teens, she started to get to grips with the complexities of modern Jazz when she discovered Clifford Brown, Cannonball Adderley, Miles Davis and Charlie Parker. At the same time she learned her vocal craft from greats such as Ella Fitzgerald, Mark Murphy, Carmen McRae, Betty Carter, Jon Hendricks and Eddie Jefferson and many more.
After attending secondary School she completed her degree in Music at the Adelaide University. In 1990, Anita relocated back to the UK where she continued studying at the Guildhall school of music and drama.
In 1997 Anita was invited along with Dee Dee Bridgwater and Kurt Elling to take part in a documentary on Ella Fitzgerald for Ovation Television. She was interviewed extensively on Ella’s Scat Style and demonstrated live on the show.
Anita’s recording career began in 1995 with her CD, Why do you Cry? featuring pianist Liam Noble.
In 1998 she released Straight Ahead with international star pianist Jason Rebello. Japan’s most popular jazz publication, Swing Journal, gave its endorsement, writing, “she’s the real thing who can fluently scat and sing vocalese!”
Her longstanding musical relationship with pianist Robin Aspland started with the release of Until The Stars Fade in 2001 also featuring the exciting US drummer Gene Calderazzo and Jeremy Brown on bass. Jazzwise Magazine called her “energetic and inventive” while The Guardian proclaimed her “a model of the Jazz singer’s art”, highlighting her clarity, improvisational skills and emotional resonance.