Jenny Evans

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Jenny Evans on Corso Leopold , Munich May 2019

Jenny Evans (born October 20, 1954 in London - some databases give 1956 as the year of birth) is an English-born jazz singer . Time named her as “ the leading female jazz singer in Germany .” The Munich native also drew attention to herself as an actress , voice actress and restaurateur .

Live and act

Evans, born in Highgate , grew up in Beckenham in the south-east of London and, after graduating from school in 1973, began studying foreign languages ​​and teaching, which also took her to Munich , where she initially worked as an au pair . In 1979 she passed her teaching examination and sang with the university choir and the motet choir . She had already trained as a singer in England and from 1966 to 1971 piano with Trevor Pinnock .

After completing her studies, she became a jazz singer, initially in the Dixieland area. Then she performed with Benny Bailey , Al Gray , Buddy Tate , Dusko Goykovich and Siggi Gerhard as well as Paul Kuhn , Hugo Strasser and Freddie Brocksieper, who is world-famous in Munich . In 1978 she became a founding member of the sextet Old Socks, New Shoes , which presented new standards.

She has been an actress since 1983. Until 1984 she played the title role in the play " Educating Rita ", also by Willy Russell . In 1985 she opened her jazz club "Jenny's Place" on Munich-Schwabing , on the corner of Georgenstrasse and Nordendstrasse. In addition to the night café, the club was a unique selling point in Munich's nightlife.

In 1987, in the Tatort episode “ Spielverderber ”, she played the friend Jenny of the popular commissioner “ Horst Schimanski ”, portrayed by Götz George . The restaurant Jenny's Place in which Schimanski met with Jenny was, in fact, Jenny's Place , her jazz club in Munich, although he in the scene than in Duisburg was expelled located. She also performed the song she wrote, Jenny's Place , which was re-released on Girl Talk: Live at the Allotria in 1993 . The accompanying pianist was Edgar Wilson. After she had the club closed, she played the lead role of Mrs Johnstone in Willy Russell's musical Blood Brothers (Blood Brothers) at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg.

In 1991 she played the role of Bianca in the Cole Porter musical Kiss Me, Kate at the Deutsches Theater in Munich. From 1997 to 1998 she was seen in Marathon Dancing at the Staatstheater Darmstadt . She also worked as a dubbing and studio announcer.

In 1988 her debut album Whisper Not, recorded in 1987, was released . Another nine albums should follow by 2011. Particularly noteworthy are the albums Shiny Stockings , which received the highest rating from MAX magazine , and Nuages , which landed on the list of the best in 2004 at the German Record Critics Prize for Jazz. Ralf Thomas from Jazzthing described Nuages ​​as "a way out of the dead end of the eternal standards that many singers like to sing over and over again" and considered it to be "daring and musically implemented with great attention to detail." In addition to the standards from the Great American She interpreted songbook , swing or hardbop tracks on the Nuages albums and the 2008 album Lunar Tunes, including classical music by Henry Purcell , John Dowland , Carl Orff and Antonín Dvořák .

Guest tours have taken her to Szeged, Belgrade, Bucharest, Tokyo, Eindhoven, Leningrad, Moscow, Lebanon and Portugal, among others. It was part of the program on cruise ships in the Baltic Sea and on the Black Sea.

Evans is a founding member of the Munich Jazz Musician Initiative and also a member of the Munich Writers group , of which she was chairman between 2003 and 2007. Since 1995 she has also been teaching jazz singing .

In 2011, Bayerischer Rundfunk, which has broadcast numerous recordings of her concerts over the years, dedicated a portrait to her in its series of life lines . In later years Evans also gained a reputation as a watercolourist . In 2016 she received the Schwabing Art Prize as a jazz singer, entertainer and actress . Evans has had type I diabetes since she was 22 years old .

Marriage to Rudi Martini

She met her husband, Rudi Martini, who was born in Gmund am Tegernsee on August 14, 1940 , when she was trying to publish a record. In a conversation, bassist Wolfgang Schmid recommended that she get in touch with Martini. He was a passionate jazz musician from a young age and trained in piano, clarinet and drums at the Munich Municipal Orchestra School. He also completed an apprenticeship as an industrial clerk and advertising specialist. Professionally, he first became advertising manager and PR manager at the renowned Swiss percussion instrument manufacturer Paiste . From the beginning of the 1970s he did the same at the newly founded German branch of the record company WEA . After Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor surprisingly announced his departure from the band, he suggested to the band to sign Ron Wood from the dissolving Faces to Rod Stewart . From 1980 to December 1981 he worked as a promotion manager and head of artists and repertoire at the Global Music Group of Peter Kirsten .

In 1982 he started his own business and found time for live performances as a musician, specializing primarily in drums. He was soon to be seen frequently at Jenny's Place . He directed the production of their first record Whisper Not, which was published in 1988 by the Peter Herbolzheimers company . In the years to come, he produced all of Jenny Evans' other records until 2010 and was also her drummer on most of the recordings. He also became more and more her manager, booker and PR man. In 1999 they got married. At that time he published over 200 mostly jazz-oriented titles with his company Edition Soundmaster Musikproduktion , including for Martin Schmitt and Häns'che Weiss .

In April 2009 Rudi Martini was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease . Over time, his physical abilities also deteriorated and he became severely paralyzed. In April 2013, he stopped talking. He died on May 4, 2015 in Munich.

Discographic notes

  • 1988: Whisper Not , Bell Records with Lee Harper (tp), Fritz Pauer (p), Paulo Cardoso (b), Aldo Caviglia (dr)
  • 1993: At Lloyd’s , ESM, with the Rudi Martini Quartet
  • 1997: Shiny Stockings , Enja , with Dusko Goykovich (who also contributed his own arrangements and compositions, with texts by Jenny Evans)
  • 1999: Girl Talk , Enja, live recording with Gerhard Bickl (p), Karsten Gnettner (b), Stephan Eppinger (dr)
  • 2000: Gonna go fishin , Enja, live recording with Walter Lang (p), Peter O'Mara (git), Ingmar Heller (b), Guido May (dr), Biboul Darouiche (perc)
  • 2001: Nuages , Enja, “A European songbook”, with songs from 400 years of European musical heritage, with Mulo Francel , Walter Lang, Chris Lachotta , Rudi Martini and Robert Kainar
  • 2005: Christmas Songs , Enja
  • 2008: Lunar Tunes , Enja, (songs about the moon, from classical to Glen Miller and Sting , with the trio of Walter Lang (p) with Rudi Martini and Thomas Stabenow , the string quartet Ensemble Laurier, the Brazilian saxophonist and flutist Márcio Tubino)
  • 2010: Are You The Man? a new Peter Kreuder songbook , ESM, with Walter Lang (p), Sven Faller (b), Hajo Hadeln (dr), Felix Sapotnik (sax, cl, fl).
  • 2011: The Four Seasons of Love , Personality Records, with Paulo Morello (g), Sven Faller (b), Felix Sapotnik (sax, cl, fl)
  • 2016: Be What You Want to , ESM, with Matthias Bublath (org, acc), John Paiva (g, voc), Stephan Eppinger (b, voc), Otto Staniloi (ts, ss, bcl), Manfred Mildenberger (dr)

Collaboration:

Awards

literature

Web links

Databases

Interviews with Jenny Evans

Web presence

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sebastian Heise: artist with a big voice and a big heart. In: VdK newspaper archive. September 25, 2014, accessed June 16, 2019 .
  2. ^ Caring. In: jenny-evans.de. Retrieved June 16, 2019 (interview with Evans).
  3. ↑ Jenny Evans: And yet I sing. German Alzheimer's Society , December 21, 2014, accessed on June 24, 2019 (December 2014 is not specified as the publication time, but is to be assumed as follows: At the top is "No. 20", but at the bottom, unlinked, "To the overview: 25 stories" Page 25 years of the German Alzheimer's Society - 25 stories on self-help and dementia from December 1, 2014, “25 stories” will be announced, which will appear daily from December 2, 2014. The first is linked to a page designed analogously to And yet I sing Martini, who died in May 2015, is still alive in the text.): "I turned 60 in October."
  4. ↑ Charlotte Dillon: Jenny Evans. Artist Biography. In: Allmusic . Retrieved June 16, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Jenny Evans. Actress. In: castforward.de. Retrieved June 17, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Jenny Evans. In: itunes. apple .com. Retrieved June 24, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Norm databases according to the end of the article, filmportal.de , radioswissjazz.ch ( Swiss radio and television company ), SecondHandSongs . All accessed June 24, 2019.
  8. ↑ “Nachtcafé” closes its doors. In: Merkur.de . March 27, 2009, accessed June 17, 2019 .
  9. ↑ The song Jenny's Place on YouTube , published there by Naxos of America .
  10. ^ Georg Kleesattel: Culture: Bicycle or Rolls Royce? In: evening newspaper . April 13, 2008, accessed June 17, 2019.
  11. ↑ Edition Soundmaster Musikproduktion: CD publications
  12. ↑ mourning for jazz musicians Rudi Martini In: SZ.de . May 4, 2015, accessed June 17, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Evans, Jenny
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British jazz singer
DATE OF BIRTH October 20, 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH London