Cynthia Sayer

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Cynthia Nan Sayer (born May 20, 1962 in Waltham (Massachusetts) ) is an American jazz musician ( banjo , vocals, also piano).

Live and act

Sayer, who initially wanted to learn the drums , began playing the banjo at the age of 13, which her parents had given her as a replacement. She graduated magna cum laude in English from Ithaca College and in 1979 preferred her musician career to law school.

Sayer played with Freddie Moore in 1981 and recorded music with Marvin Hamlisch for the feature film Sophie's Decision in 1982 . She was a founding member of Woody Allen's New Orleans Jazz Band , with whom she played and toured for over ten years; she can also be seen in the documentary Wild Man Blues and on the album The Bunk Project (1993). Together with Eddy Davis she had a trio and founded the New York Banjo Ensemble , with which two albums were created.

Sayer then founded her bands Cynthia Sayer & Joyride, Cynthia Sayer & Sparks Fly and Cynthia Sayer's Women of the World Jazz Band (with Shannon Barnett among others ), with whom she toured internationally. She can be heard on her album Attractions with Bucky Pizzarelli and on Joyride with Charlie Giordano . She has performed at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows, including the National Public Radio Show , Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz , the NDR Talk Show , the British Woman's Hour and Woodsong's Old-Time Radio Hour . She was portrayed in the documentary Give Me the Banjo (2011), which was featured on Down Beat in 2013 .

Between 1981 and 2018 she was involved in 35 recording sessions in the field of jazz, including a. also with Doc Cheatham , The Dixie Peppers ( Hot and Sweet , with Art Baron , David Hofstra , Lou Grassi ) and with the Ghost Train Orchestra ( Hot Town 2018, inter alia with Curtis Hasselbring , Colin Stetson , Andy Laster , Petr Cancura ). She was involved in the score for Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway with Dick Hyman and the Three Deuces .

In 2006 she was inducted into the National Four-String Banjo Hall of Fame .

Discographic notes

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Entry (Banjocafe)
  2. Tom Lord : The Jazz Discography