Courtney Fortune
Courtney Fortune |
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Courtney Fortune is an American jazz vocalist and songwriter from Bellingham, Washington. Her musical style is categorized as crossover jazz and pop. She currently lives and performs in Los Angeles, California. Her influences include Peggy Lee, Eva Cassidy, Andrew Bird and Ella Fitzgerald while her sultry sound and deep voice are similar to Norah Jones and Fiona Apple. [1]
"She is a steady warm presence, and she handles adeptly the balance of grace and appeal to sensuousness that is an earmark of many jazz-vocal greats. That's quite an accomplishment for a young performer of unquestionable beauty, especially at a time when marketers, and critics, offer dubious rewards for looks as much as talent. That she has talent, plenty of jazz fans in Kobe, Japan, can now testify, as have Fortune's nearer-to-home fans here in Seattle and up in Bellingham...Courtney has developed a textured, sultry, arrestingly mature torchsinger's delivery to which experience may eventually lend depth and credence." [2]
Career
Twenty year old Courtney Fortune grew up in Bellingham, Washington where she began performing at a very young age. Throughout her high school years, Fortune travelled back and forth from Seattle to play gigs. In 2004 Courtney Fortune and the Very Handsome Band competed in the EMPSoundOff at the EMP Sky Church. In March 2006 Fortune was named the winner of the second annual Seattle-Kobe Female Jazz Vocalist Competition, and that summer she toured Kobe, Japan for 10 days. [3] She also released her Almost Home EP that she co-produced with Chip Westerfield and Larry Knechtel in November of 2006. The following summer she returned to Tokyo, Japan to play at jazz clubs and record with Japanese musicians.
In 2007 Fortune moved to Los Angeles, California where she currently performs and studies music business at the University of Southern California. [4] In summer 2008 Courtney began recording her first full-length CD after returning from playing a string of shows in London, England.
Fortune will be releasing her debut album in 2009, which will be completed in collaboration with Grammy-nominated arranger/producer, Chris Walden. [5]
Discography
- Almost Home EP (2006)
References
- ^ Addicted to Noise
- ^ Monaghan, Peter (2006). ""Courtney Fortune: Our Voice in Kobe"" (PDF). Earshot Jazz.
{{cite magazine}}: Cite magazine requires|magazine=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help); Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ Monaghan, Peter (2006). ""Courtney Fortune: Our Voice in Kobe"" (PDF). Earshot Jazz.
{{cite magazine}}: Cite magazine requires|magazine=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help); Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ Dryden, Carley (2007-02-15). ""Fortune telling"". Daily Trojan. Retrieved 2008-07-08.
- ^ Chris Walden Web site
External links
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