Numerous artists have paged through the Great American Songbook.  And then there’s Sylvia Brooks, whose warmth and charm, combined with a commanding stage presence and sonic clarity have set her head-and-shoulders above the rest—with a white-hot streak of adds on more than 500 Jazz and Adult Contemporary stations across the country for her debut album “Dangerous Liaisons,” a plethora of rave reviews, and a trail of packed-houses to attest to it.

A Florida native, creativity and classic musicianship are in her blood. The combination of her father, a jazz stalwart, playing with such giants as Stan Getz, Peggy Lee, Sarah Vaughan and Dizzie Gillespie, and her mother, a trained opera singer, who also dazzled audiences at the Fontainebleau and the Eden Roc, left little doubt that Sylvia’s growth as an artist in her own right would see her come to embody that unique parentage. 

Timeless Jazz

Striking out on her own for the first time, Sylvia was drawn to the theatre, studying at the prestigious American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, which led to her invitation to join the Company. A series of national tours and periods spent with other companies ensued, but a true expression of her abilities was still yet to blossom.  While working with one of Hollywood’s top acting coaches, Sylvia realized that as an actor, she had little actual control over the kind of artistic fulfillment she sought.  And that realization brought her back to the musical fold, the wellspring of her personal creativity and joy.

Solidly ensconced in the cabaret tradition of such stellar torch singers as Lena Horne (her personal idol), Diana Krall and Ella Fitzgerald, Sylvia has taken the role of “jazz singer” in an entirely new direction.  Rather than ceding the stage to the music, she remains steadfastly in front of it—all the better to act as a bridge between her musicians and her audience, and in the process, forge a connection for the two, between the traditional and the contemporary, unlike any other performer. 

An auburn-haired version of classic Hollywood sultriness, “Brooks sings precisely the way she looks,” writes Christopher Loudon of Jazz Times, “a dark, smoky sound with impressive firepower,” which makes her versions of “the Mt. Rushmore of 3:00am tunes” such as “Sophisticated Lady,” “Lush Life,” “One For my Baby,” and “The Man That Got Away,” modern classics of musical storytelling. Discover Sylvia Brooks for yourself.  You’ll be glad you re-opened the Great American Songbook with such a stunning interpreter.