Press Reviews & Articles
March 4, 2016
West Coast vocalist plays sold-out show in Norfolk
By Mark Robbins
West Coast vocalist Clairdee performed a sold-out show at the historic Attucks Theater in Norfolk, VA., in late February. Backed by John Toomey (piano), Jimmy Masters (bass) and Chuck Redd (drums), the San Francisco-based singer introduced each song with a humorous anecdote. See Article
December 16, 2015 (Music Issue)
Clairdee: The Gift of Music with Style and Class
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Clairdee was the star of the evening, whose silky and warm voice projected an honest interpretation of every song. You could see her tasting every word before it escaped to our ears, inviting us to feel every nuance of the text.
Clairdee: Feinstein's at the Nikko
Clairdee is the Bay Area’s great treasure. A song stylist’s stylist, she imbues each tune with a genuine feel for the lyric, coaxing out a blend of the songwriters words with her own intuitive reading of the emotion she imparts. Read full article
January 24, 2014
Jazz singer Clairdee at Silo's
If the joyful and elegant Bay Area vocalist Clairdee were to say that she would go to the ends of the earth to perform and teach jazz, it would not be an exaggeration. In March, she'll be heading to Russia for a three-week tour followed by a residency at the Novosibirsk Music College in Siberia.
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August 11, 2013
Jazz stars show the Shedd they've got that swing
Clairdee and [Byron] Stripling provided vigorously swinging vocals in both renditions of the tune that reached as high on the Richter scale as Count Basie and his band's best performances.
May 12, 2013
Rrazz Room, San Francisco
Local Bay Area jazz stylist Clairdee can sing the phone book and make it swing. Backed by compatriots Ruth Davies on bass, John Hoy on guitar and Jim Zimmerman on drums, Clairdee provided a menagerie of love songs in all their various shades.
February 2013
Clairdee loves to perform and enjoys teaching. She's taught youth classes through the San Francisco Symphony's education department, in which she explained that jazz liberates performers to make things up, and taught students how to scat sing. She's a constant learner herself, and knows that it's as important to listen as it is to sing. She reveres the phrase that one should always "work with people, not on people."
August 12, 2012
Clairdee: A Singular Performer
Clairdee has her work cut out for her at the Oregon Festival of American Music. The California jazz singer is performing four different concerts today, Friday and Saturday as the festival wraps ups its 2012 run. She grew up in Denver, one of eight musical children. "I really didn't know that I was singing jazz, growing up," she said. "My father loved all kinds of music. I grew up in the church, so we sang gospel and I was exposed to that." Read full article
June 1, 2011
Clairdee brings experience, talent, grace and inventive qualities to the stage
Her gorgeous presence leaves you spellbound as she expresses her take on a jazz standard or an original modern and new melody. She always keeps you listening and anxious to hear her next rendition or improvisation on a song.
May 4, 2011
Turning it into something good
When the vocalist Clairdee plays a Mother's Day concert at Half Moon Bay's Douglas Beach House, she'll be thinking of her own cherished mother. "I wish that my mother was alive, so she could come and be part of this," Clairdee said. "She finally understood what I was trying to do." Read full article
September 2005
Jazz: San Francisco Style
Those of us who are thrilled to discover a world-class talent — someone with that exceptional ability before he or she breaks into the rarified air of national stardom — ought to get the name Clairdee into our consciousness. Read full article
January 19, 2000
CD Release Concert Review
Clairdee had capacity houses for her two-set "Destination Moon" CD-release celebration at Yoshi's. She made it clear from the start of her performance that she is among the most skilled and appealing singers around — fine songs, beautiful voice, great moves. Read full review
July 2005 CD Review
Clairdee: Music Moves
There's a vitality and intensity in Clairdee's singing that makes all 10 numbers highly enjoyable, while she's also able to alternately surprise and amaze listeners with her vocal charm and charisma.
May 6, 2013
Musicians Teach Kids About Jazz, Then Play the Real Thing for Healdsburg
If your kids come home from school this week and say, "I want to play saxophone!" Or maybe, "I want to be Dizzy Gillespie!" Or perhaps, "I want to sing like Clairdee!" then you know this must be the week for Operation Jazz Band in Healdsburg area schools. Read full article
July 25, 2011
American Clairdee made her Scottish debut in a tribute show to Louis Armstrong with show-stopping interpretations
Louis Armstrong was — as singer Clairdee pointed out at the tribute concert at the Queen's Hall on Saturday — the first great jazz innovator and an influence on every player who followed him. Read full review
May 28, 2011
Clairdee: Douglas Beach House Concert Review
Clairdee strolled down the aisle toward the stage, smiled warmly and kicked off with Irving Berlin's "Cheek to Cheek," her phrasing and the polish of enunciation refreshingly smooth, with just the right touch of elegance. Clairdee projects an unmistakable aura on stage. Read full review
April 9, 2011
Mad About Gershwin
Clairdee's performances in her home town are special occasions, so rare that she made her Rrazz Room debut with her buoyant love-fest for the Gershwin brothers. Her arrangements challenge the traditional interpretations just enough to elicit keen interest in Clairdee's stylings. By the show's closing, her love of the Gershwins' timeless classics was palpable, exciting and fresh.
August 13, 2009
Oregon Festival of American Music offers lively, fresh look
at American music
In a time when jazz vocalists are either hard to find or flat-out bogus, Clairdee's the real thing. Notes and words are deep inside her, as are jazz harmonies, and with a beautiful, unforced voice, she's an exceptional artist. Read full review
October 2005 CD Review
Clairdee: Music Moves
On the surface, these 10 tracks, recorded live at Yoshi's earlier this year, show the effervescent, Nancy Wilson-esque Clairdee in sassy, solidly assured, crowd-pleasing form. But dig a little deeper and you'll discover a whole lot of interpretive brilliance going on. Read full review
June 2005 CD Review
Clairdee: Music Moves
No less than the illustrious Nancy Wilson has said of the soulful and jazzy force of interpretive nature called Clairdee, "In the tradition of all great vocalists, she infuses each song with her own unique style while always remaining true to the song itself." That dead-on assessment applies to her two studio albums on Declare Music. Read full review
December 14, 2003 CD Review
Clairdee: This Christmas
San Francisco-based singer Clairdee has put together an engaging collection of Christmas numbers for her second CD. Her choice of tunes ranges well beyond the usual holiday lineup. Read full review
December 18, 2003 CD Review
Making a Holiday Album List
Clairdee, This Christmas. The jazz vocalist leads her band through swinging renditions of traditional tunes. See full list
November 2003 CD Review
Clairdee: This Christmas
Soul-jazz singer Clairdee reveals a heartfelt connection to the holidays with her Christmas album, This Christmas. The 10-song set swings (Bringing In a Brand New Year), grooves (This Christmas), and (Winter Wonderland), and soothes (A Child is Born), the latter with a luminous ensemble vocal arrangement worthy of Manhattan Transfer. She transforms Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas into a Brazilian samba and Let it Snow into a country fireside serenade (complete with harmonica and acoustic guitar). Four of the songs also feature male vocalist Nicolas Bearde, who helps make Merry Christmas Baby and Baby, It's Cold Outside extra sexy affairs. The closing number, Peace, is an instrumental featuring Glenn Appell on flugelhorn that may become your Christmas Eve lullabye for years to come.
March 2001 CD Review
Clairdee: Destination Moon
If a singer chooses to perform a program of standards in a laid back, relaxed manner, the vocalist had better have the chops to sustain slow tempos because there's nowhere to hide. Clairdee pulls it off going away. Read full review
February 2005 CD Review
Clairdee: Music Moves
Clairdee is a singer who ropes in her audience even before she begins singing. She proves without a doubt on Music Moves that she should be considered as one of the jazz vocalists certainly deserving of wider recognition.