Have you met Grace Kelly

[Bluebrew]

If you really should. She is a monster at 15 years old. She does it all plays alto, writes her own tunes, has a great vocal style and she swings. You can hear samples of her here:

http://cdbaby.com/cd/gracekelly3

What she's accomplished in her first 15 years.

Recipient of the ASCAP Foundation 2007 Young Jazz Composers Award for the title track of “Every Road I Walked”

Winner of 2007 Downbeat Student Music Award, Arrangement “Summertime” (Every Road I Walked)

Berklee College of Music Superior Musicianship Award at 2007 Berklee High School Jazz Festival.

Winner of four 2006 Downbeat Student Music Awards, Jazz Instrumentalist, Pop/Rock/Blues Instrumentalist, Original Composition – “Fast Metabolism” (Times Too), Jazz Vocalist – Outstanding Performance.

Grace Kelly was the youngest ever winner of Fish Middleton Jazz Scholarship at the 2006 East Coast Jazz Festival.

Winner of two International Songwriting Contests in 2006 & 2007 for her composition “Filosphical Flying Fish” (Every Road I Walked)

Grace Kelly was judged the top woodwind soloist and the top vocal alto soloist at the 2007 Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival.

Grace currently studies saxophone with Lee Konitz, Jerry Bergonzi, and Allan Chase. Grace has also studied jazz with Cedar Walton, Phil Woods, Jimmy Heath, Dr. Billy Taylor, Dr. Nathan Davis, Curtis Fuller, Chip Jackson, Winard Harper, Carmen Lundy, Rebecca Parris, Steve Wilson, Willie Jones III.

Grace has completed the four year certificate program at New England Conservatory Prep School as well as Brookline Music School

Some Notable upcoming performances : Dave Brubeck Quartet,
Twin Cities Hot Summer Jazz Festival, Dakota, Marblehead Jazz Festival,
Tanglewood Jazz Festival, Detroit Jazz Festival, Pittsfield Jazz Festival,
2008 Kennedy Center Mary Lou Williams Woman in Jazz Festival

www.gracekellymusic.com
www.myspace.com/gracekellymusic1

[Lois Gilbert]

Grace Kelly w Russell Malone Quartet at Detroit Jazz Fest

Part 1

http://tv.jazzcorner.com/view_video....a0c2b5b6645201

Part 2
http://tv.jazzcorner.com/view_video....056ac56f8953d2

[Jason Palmer]

I play trumpet in Grace's band and let me tell you, she is a prodigy!! I've never used that word to describe someone, but she is an exception. Her playing conjures up an old soul, moreso than a lot of players my age. Great to hear people here mentioning her. She's destined for great things in the near future.

Take care,

Jason Palmer
www.youtube.com/user/pogo56
www.myspace.com/jasonpalmercollective

[Bluebrew]

Grace may be from New England but she's right at home in Deetroit. The last time i heard a kid that young play that good was Terry Jennings in 1956 and that was 51 years ago!!!

Thanks for those videos Lois.

[Robert de St. Loup]

Wadda dish:

[hornplayer]

Originally Posted by Lois Gilbert

Grace Kelly w Russell Malone Quartet at Detroit Jazz Fest

Part 1

http://tv.jazzcorner.com/view_video....a0c2b5b6645201

Part 2
http://tv.jazzcorner.com/view_video....056ac56f8953d2

I listened to those clips, and the person I thought of was the young Terri Lyne Carrington... I;m one of those "oldsters" who remembers Terri at 10.

[saxagent]

Grace Kelly is a well promoted player heavily promoted by well financed parents. Prodigy? I do not think so. There is much lacking in her history which translates into a lack of musical ingenuity and inventiveness. I have heard her and was not impressed. Money can buy many things.

[Coda]

I've met Grace when she was in her parents store - The Wild Goose Chase. That is my favorite gift shop store in all of Boston. The parents sure have a good eye for art.

I fall in-between Pogo's comments and SaxAgents. I like her but don't feel that she has developed her own sound. At 15, I don't hold that against her for she surely is way ahead of most musicians. I think the next 5 years will be very telling for her as she does have the potential to develop into a great artist. I hope she spends time learning music theory and composition.

[Pete C]

Promises, promises.

[claude]

She's very talented, I just hope that she doesn't get swallowed up by the business. I hope that she gets the time and space to develop her own thing. Seems as though there is always one prodigy or another on the scene but very few of them seem to make it stick.

[clinthopson]

I've heard Grace Kelly's playing on XM and she definitely has talent.

She in a huge group of youngsters who seem to have great chops and technical mastery. Now, all we have to do is wait for them to develop their own sound.

[steve(thelil)]

I met her when she was Princess of Monaco. She looks older. Pretty, though.

[GoodSpeak]

Originally Posted by saxagent

Grace Kelly is a well promoted player heavily promoted by well financed parents. Prodigy? I do not think so. There is much lacking in her history which translates into a lack of musical ingenuity and inventiveness. I have heard her and was not impressed. Money can buy many things.

Geez.

She's 15 fer crissakes.


See me in five years. I will personally buy you a slice of humble pie.

[GoodSpeak]

Originally Posted by clinthopson

I've heard Grace Kelly's playing on XM and she definitely has talent.

She in a huge group of youngsters who seem to have great chops and technical mastery. Now, all we have to do is wait for them to develop their own sound.

Tallan Latz would be another; a 9 year-old who plays Blues guitar.

[gonzo]

is she for reals or just another chris hollyday?

[bigtiny]

Let me guess:

-gigs around town and guest shots with luminaries who praise her as a prodigy ...check

-affiliation with 'jazz factory' schools who capitalize on her noteriety....check

-next up - major label deal...I'm thinking Blue Note

-three albums later (which don't sell)....she settles in new york and does the occasional gig/recording

-five years from now she's on the faculty at Berklee

SNORE....

bigtiny

[GoodSpeak]

The funny thing about that is nobody says this stuff about the teenagers playing Pro Tennis or LPGA golf.


Russell Malone is no slouch and I seriously doubt he would allow a kid up on stage who didn't possess the chops to pull it off. Personally, I'm going to apply Clint's wait-and-see method of judgement. Just my two cents.

[Paul B]

Originally Posted by GoodSpeak

The funny thing about that is nobody says this stuff about the teenagers playing Pro Tennis or LPGA golf.


Russell Malone is no slouch and I seriously doubt he would allow a kid up on stage who didn't possess the chops to pull it off. Just my two cents.

Jazz isn't a sport, the comparison is weak. You can have all the musical technique in the world as a teenager, but nobody that age has their own voice yet, assuming they ever arrive there. So if you're just looking for chops, I'm sure Grace Kelly is a thrill. If you're looking for something deeper, well...Bigtiny hit it on the head in the post above yours.

[Mike Schwartz]

Originally Posted by bigtiny

Let me guess:

-gigs around town and guest shots with luminaries who praise her as a prodigy ...check

-affiliation with 'jazz factory' schools who capitalize on her noteriety....check

-next up - major label deal...I'm thinking Blue Note

-three albums later (which don't sell)....she settles in new york and does the occasional gig/recording

-five years from now she's on the faculty at Berklee

SNORE....

bigtiny

This one is a very nice effort....a bit more "out of the box" and shows a lot of maturity.


Forgetting some of the other bandmates at the moment....Matt Wilson on drums who is a big fan of this up & comer.

[GoodSpeak]

Originally Posted by Paul B

Jazz isn't a sport, the comparison is weak. You can have all the musical technique in the world as a teenager, but nobody that age has their own voice yet, assuming they ever arrive there. So if you're just looking for chops, I'm sure Grace Kelly is a thrill. If you're looking for something deeper, well...Bigtiny hit it on the head in the post above yours.

Tell that to a pro athlete, Paul. What, do you suppose, is the average age of a college recruit or a rookie in a pro sport? 50? There is a 17 year-old kid in the 4th round of the US Open right now. No chops only technique...really?

Or, more to the point, tell any pro musician this isn't a competition. Perhaps you believe that Mozart didn't have the chops in his early years either. YoYo Ma? Miles Davis? Just exactly when does this maturity in having chops begin?

Being a pro musician is, in fact, more competitive than any sport you care to name. My childhood friend who is a pro Jazz musician, composer and film score writer [with three Emmy Awards] sent an e-mail to my son stating that if you want to be a performance major, then get in line with the 600 other musicians competing for that one spot in an orchestra, musical performance or as a movie score performer.


Nobody, especially not me, is saying there isn't room for growth. All I'm saying is that there needs to be a starting point and you aren't going to find that without a beginning no matter how young the individual. Growth happens, Paul. But you simply cannot judge that growth based upon the starting point. It's a process, Paul. Seriously.


It is not where you start...it is where you end up.

[Paul B]

Sports and music can't be compared, though I guess for a simpleton the analogy works. There's simply no commonality.

Finding a voice and creating great art can take decades. I'm sorry, but Grace Kelly and other prodigies like her (Alex Han is another getting lots of buzz these days) simply don't have one iota of originality at this point—just chops. Unlike Mozart or Charlie Parker, they're not geniuses, simply very gifted players, and there is a big difference there.

Perhaps they will turn out like Donny McCaslin, Chris Potter, or James Carter, who were equally talented at that age. But I wouldn't have bought a record from any of those three when they were teenagers, and I wouldn't buy anything Grace Kelly records now. Somebody mentioned Christopher Hollyday above, and he's a perfect case in point: hot when he was young, washed up by the time he'd put out two or three unoriginal and uninspiring records.

If that works for you, great. I think most people are a little more discerning about these things.

[GoodSpeak]

Originally Posted by Paul B

Sports and music can't be compared, though I guess for a simpleton the analogy works. There's simply no commonality.

Finding a voice and creating great art can take decades. I'm sorry, but Grace Kelly and other prodigies like her (Alex Han is another getting lots of buzz these days) simply don't have one iota of originality at this point—just chops. Unlike Mozart or Charlie Parker, they're not geniuses, simply very gifted players, and there is a big difference there.

Perhaps they will turn out like Donny McCaslin, Chris Potter, or James Carter, who were equally talented at that age. But I wouldn't have bought a record from any of those three when they were teenagers, and I wouldn't buy anything Grace Kelly records now. Somebody mentioned Christopher Hollyday above, and he's a perfect case in point: hot when he was young, washed up by the time he'd put out two or three unoriginal and uninspiring records.

If that works for you, great. I think most people are a little more discerning about these things.

Why the insult, Paul? Totally unnecessary....but I guess that is your competitive nature, eh?

No one is saying "voice" doesn't take years to develop, but you were making the point she only has technique...now you are saying she has more? I wish you'd make up your mind.

So you wouldn't buy a recording of her early work. Many would just to watch that growth. And as a person who owns well over 50 recordings of Miles Davis [who started professionally as a teenager, too; age 16-17] the development of his voice is just phenomenal. Over the, what, 50 years he played you can pick out any time during that period and hear a different stage in that development. That, for me, is enjoyable. And, if I might add, his chops were well defined clear back to the late 30s or early 40s.

Let me offer this, then: Hollyday is just one example, Paul. He competed and it didn't work out for him. I don't know that he stands as a comparison for all players.

[Mike Schwartz]

Watch it now boys....Paul's goin' to go all Bellerman on your ass in a minute, and it won't be pretty

[Paul B]

Originally Posted by GoodSpeak

No one is saying "voice" doesn't take years to develop, but you were making the point she only has technique...now you are saying she has more? I wish you'd make up your mind.

No, I'm not saying she has more (don't know where you got that); she's all chops, no voice. As I said, that could change, though likely it won't. Also, comparing young prodigies like Kelly with Miles or Bird or Rollins is pointless; as I said, there's a difference between a prodigy—which, after all, is just a young person with incredible technique—and the much rarer creative genius.

[Dennis Gonzalez]

We complain when young people don't listen to jazz because we don't know how to reach them and our artform is dying. We complain when young people play jazz pretty well and try to keep our artform alive.

[Paul B]

Nobody is complaining about young people playing jazz, but I think it's fair to comment on the hype every new prodigy seems to get (I'd say the same for classical musicians, there are plenty of similar cases). Jazz is supposed to be about moving forward, so it seems strange to put somebody like Grace Kelly, who is so markedly looking backwards, on a pedestal, as if she were the second coming. Glad she's doing her thing, but I'm looking for something else in this music.

[Pete C]

To be fair to her, though, if we can agree that somebody so young couldn't be expected to have the emotional depth of a more seasoned player, we also can't expect somebody that young to push the boundaries until she gains some more experience. What this whole discussion may suggest, however, is the danger to a young artist of too much attention too soon.

[Paul B]

Originally Posted by Pete C

this whole discussion may suggest, however, is the danger to a young artist of too much attention too soon.

Well, I guess that's my point. On one hand I suppose it's natural, but on the other I really don't get what wows people so much about young players with high levels of skill; you'd think jazz fans would be beyond that sort of pedestrian way of thinking, but apparently not.

[Pete C]

I think the allure of the prodigy or wunderkind is widespread and has a long history. The press realizes this. There are very few who turn out to be Mozart.

[Dennis Gonzalez]

Hype or not, prodigy or just a great instrumentalist, we should be writing notes of encouragement and thanks to these young people of which we speak for this brave and great work that they are doing. We seem to have forgotten the younger ones in our everyday praise and involvement and choose to see them from our old and tired eyes and hear them through our old and world weary ears.

It would be interesting to hear the conversations that some of us would have with one such as Grace Kelly if we were to meet her face to face. "Yeah, yer cool kid, but you ain't no Mozart! Why, it took Coltrane 30 years before he finally got to a place where I'd consider him a genius..."

When my young students perform in front of others, all I have is praise for them. Genius or not. It's just the sheer beauty of what they are doing that takes my breath away.