Rubin, Vanessa
Rubin, Vanessa
Rubin, Vanessa , pop/jazz singer who performed with Cleveland and N.Y. jazz groups; b. Cleveland, Ohio, 1958. Like many of the pop/jazz singers who dominated the charts in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Vanessa Rubin is blessed with a beautiful, rich voice and she can swing effectively, but tends to stick close to a song’s melody rather than improvise. At times her sound is reminiscent of a young Ernestine Anderson, though without as deep a feeling for the blues. Her first training was in the Western classical tradition and she later started working in jazz settings, singing at Cleveland nightspots with the Blackshaw Brothers organ combo and the Cleveland Jazz All-Stars, featuring Kenny Davis and Ernie Krivda. She moved to N.Y. in 1982 and worked with top-flight pianists such as Kenny Barren, John Hicks, Stanley Cowell, Harold Mabern, and Norman Simmons, and performed with the big bands of Lionel Hampton and Mercer Ellington and Frank Foster’s Loud Minority. She has recorded a number of fine albums for Novus.
Discography
Soul Eyes (1992); Pastiche (1993); I’m Glad There Is You (1994); Vanessa Rubin Sings (1995); New Horizons (1997).
—Andrew Gilbret