TD James Moody Democracy of Jazz Festival Sarah Vaughan Competition Winners

NEWARK, N.J. - Oct. 8, 2013 - PRLog -- In 1942, a teenage Sarah Vaughan won the Apollo Theater’s amateur singing competition in a performance that was a launching pad for a career that transformed one of America’s original art forms and elevated the craft of jazz vocal music. Last year, Cyrille Aimee focused the world on vocal jazz in Newark again as the first-ever winner of the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition, part of the TD James Moody Democracy of Jazz Festival (www.njpac.org/moody). For the second installment of the awards, a distinguished panel of musicians, music industry executives, NJPAC leadership and online voters culled through hundreds of submissions from the around the globe, including United States, Switzerland, Australia, Japan, Luxembourg, Belgium, Hungary and Canada, to choose five finalists and a “Rising Star” for the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition, the largest competition of its kind in the world.

Online voters listened to songs submitted to the contest over 100, 000 times. Today, NJPAC, JAZZ ROOTS™ and WBGO Jazz 88.3 announced the five competition finalists who will perform in front of an iconic panel of judges and a live NJPAC Victoria Theater audience on November 10, 2013 at 3pm. The finalists are competing for a chance to win the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition SASSY AWARD, a $5, 000 prize. The first runner-up will win $1, 500, the second runner-up $500. The Competition and final performance are produced by award-winning producer Larry Rosen and powered by Indaba Music (IndabaMusic.com), the leading online community of musicians and marketplace for music opportunities.

Judging the finals at the performance will be seven-time GRAMMY Award-winner Al Jarreau, GRAMMY Award-winning singer with the Manhattan Transfer Janis Siegel, Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocals Competition-winner Gretchen Parlato, WBGO Jazz 88.3FM music director Gary Walker, and producer of JAZZ ROOTS and co-founder of GRP Records, Larry Rosen.

Through three preliminary rounds, public voting on the IndabaMusic.com website (with nearly 2, 500 votes cast), jazz vocalists, members of the Jazz Education Network (JEN) and Larry Rosen narrowed down the field to five finalists in an effort to discover vocalists who embody Sarah Vaughan with swinging, thought-provoking and inspiring performances reflecting their own understanding of the work. Contestants were judged on vocal quality, musicality, technique, performance, individuality, artistic interpretation and ability to swing.

The finalists:
Teira Church, a native of Los Angeles, is a senior at UCLA, where she studies jazz voice in the Herb Alpert School of Music's ethnomusicology department. In 2007, she placed second in the National Association for Negro Musicians' Scholarship Competition, and the following year enrolled at Hamilton High School's Music Academy where she joined its award-winning vocal jazz ensemble.  Teira was the only female popular music vocalist in the nation selected for the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts' Young Artist 2010 competition. She received the Bronze medal in the popular voice category and was a semi-finalist for the Presidential Scholar in the Arts

Lydia Harrell (aka The Lovely Singer) has performed with the Boston Pops and sang the National Anthem for the Boston Celtics.  Consistently singing in more than 150 shows a year, this Bostonian sings in all different styles and settings.  In addition to her own bands, Lovely Singer and Platinum, Lydia provides back-up vocals for the Steely Dan tribute band No Static. In 2011, she was selected over 200 talented singers by Sony Music Latin to provide lead vocals for the Bob Marley tribute album, “One Love.” In 2012, she released her EP “The Way.”

Jazzmeia Horn was last year’s “Rising Star” winner of Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition. From Dallas, Texas, she attended the prestigious Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. She currently attends The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City and has performed with artists such as Ali Jackson, Vincent Gardner and NEA Jazz Masters Jon Hendricks, Ellis Marsalis, and Delfeayo Marsalis. Her soulful sound and understanding of the jazz idiom has earned her comparisons of classic vocalists, like Betty Carter, Sarah Vaughan, and Teri Thornton.

Barbra Lica was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario. She discovered jazz for the first time at the age of six while shuffling through her dad’s CD collection and immediately began to sing along to the music of Doris Day, Ella Fitzgerald and Peggy Lee. In 2012, Barbra's debut album, “That's What I Do,” was released with a live-to-air concert celebration on Toronto’s Jazz.FM91. She performs regularly in the Greater Toronto area, presenting a wide repertoire of both jazz standards and original music, and was recently named one of Canada’s top five female jazz singers by CBC radio.

Camille Thurman is a saxophonist, flutist, vocalist, composer and educator. She has performed with jazz and R&B greats such as Dr. Billy Taylor, Chaka Khan, Benny Golson, George Coleman, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Terri Lyne Carrington, Stephanie Mills, Russell Malone, Nicholas Payton, George Benson, Yolanda Adams, Bebe Winans, Lew Tabackin, Alicia Keys, India Arie, Dave Valentin, Anthony Hamilton, Eric Benet, Brandy, Missy Elliot and others. Camille leads her own quartet, which has performed at The Kennedy Center, the International Women in Jazz Festival, the Super Jazz Ashdod Israel Festival, The Jazz Gallery and other jazz venues around the world.

Rising Star Award
Each year one outstanding young artist is chosen as a Rising Star.The Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition Rising Star award was created for the purpose of discovering young talented jazz vocal artists that deserve wider recognition and mentoring in their career as a jazz singer, while keeping in the tradition of Sarah Vaughan.

Kate Davis is originally from Portland, OR, where she received national recognition in high school for bass and singing through the National Young Arts Program. She is a recipient of four Downbeat Magazine Student Music Awards, a double invitee to the Brubeck Summer Jazz Colony, and bassist in the Grammy Jazz Ensemble. In 2009, she was selected as a Presidential Scholar of the Arts.  ASCAP selected Kate to attend the prestigious 2012 ASCAP Foundation Paul Cunningham writing workshop, where she was the recipient of the Robert Allen award for her original song, “Movie.”