Tessa Souter

?Souter's crystalline contralto and impeccable phrasing are mighty arrows in her quiver, but it is her ability to become one with a song, finding its intrinsic core and allowing its sentiments to grow organically, that enables her to score successive bull's eyes....? Christopher Loudon, JazzTimes (March 2010) "I would not now be a singer, had I not lived in San Francisco in my 30s. And although I sometimes wish I'd started earlier, I think coming to it late was a good thing for me," says London-born...

in her quiver, but it is her ability to become one with a song, finding its intrinsic core and allowing its sentiments to grow organically, that enables her to score successive bull's eyes....? Christopher Loudon, JazzTimes (March 2010)

"I would not now be a singer, had I not lived in San Francisco in my 30s. And although I sometimes wish I'd started earlier, I think coming to it late was a good thing for me," says London-born, New York-based, Anglo-Trinidadian singer, composer and lyricist Tessa Souter, who has been praised as much for the expressive way she brings her life experience to her music, as for her "strikingly beautiful voice, which really serves great lyrics, using the beauty of her voice to unearth and get to the core of great songs." [Sirrius Radio]

Her unique style, which infuses jazz with the soul and passion of flamenco, Middle Eastern and Brazilian music, is born of her unusual life story. And her new CD, Obsession -- a multicultural banquet that reflects her African, Indian, and English bloodlines -- is her third. "Compelling and utterly original." Paul Quinn, Jazzwise magazine. "The best thing is that Souter sounds different." [Karl Stark, Philadelphia Inquirer]. "There's no one doing what Tessa does," enthused critic Will Friedwald.

"One of the most imaginatively programmed vocal sets of recent memory." said the Los Angeles Times, in a rave review of her California debut in 2002. Soul jazz singer Jon Lucien said of Listen Love. "Magnificent! I couldn't stop playing it over and over. She blew me away!" Sheila Jordan says, "She's at the top of my list of great talent. I love her voice. She really moves me." Howard Johnson says she is "an important musician ... whose brilliant lyrics and songs make her stand out from the pack so very much, not to mention how well she sings other people's material." Legendary drummer Joe La Barbera says of her, "Tessa is a unique voice in jazz."

"Striking, soulful, enchanting...." Mike Joyce, Washington Post

Her first CD, Listen Love, won critical raves for her "crystal clear voice and diamond cut phrasing" (Michael Harrington, Philadelphia Inquirer) and "direct, soulful sound" (Will Friedwald, Village Voice). Her sophomore CD, Nights of Key Largo, recorded on the Japanese audiophile label, Venus, with all-stars Kenny Werner, Billy Drummond, Jay Leonhart, Joel Frahm, and Trio de Paz's Romero Lubambo, won the coveted Gold Disc award in January 2009's Swing Journal, which said of her, "there are traces of Billie Holiday and Carmen McRae in her phrasing, and Julie London and Peggie Lee in her delicate breathing, which harbors a touch of sorrow." Obsession, her latest, was heralded as "a gripping display of her ability to do it all with a startlingly far reaching collection of material." Don Heckman, International Review of Music

Formerly a features journalist for the international press, Tessa was cited by San Francisco author Po Bronson, in his best-selling What Should I Do With My Life, as someone who successfully transformed her life. After moving from London to San Francisco in the early 90s, she juggled cleaning houses with penning articles for the London Times, Guardian and Vogue, on everything from lesbians taking testosterone to create a third sex, travel, celebrity interviews and general interest to her own experiences as a teen mother. She was one of the original six members of the now famous literary haunt, the Writer's Grotto.

Despite success as a writer (her book, Anything I Can Do You Can Do Better was published in the UK in 2006, and she is currently working on a memoir on the discovery at the age of 30 that her birth father was black Afro-Trinidadian, not Spanish as she had been led to believe), she never let go of her long-held dream to be a singer. One night she sang at the Mint Karaoke Bar up the road from the Writer's Grotto original space on Market Street, which started a chain of events which led to Tessa moving to New York. There she started sitting in on jam sessions, before winning a scholarship to Manhattan School of Music, which she left to be mentored for four years by jazz vocal legend Mark Murphy, who says of her "she is a true musician, extraordinary and very moving ... completely captivating audiences."

"Subtle yet sizzling ... Souter shimmers." Ken Dryden, AllMusicGuide

Heralded by Don Heckman of the Los Angeles Times as "a must-see for lovers of world class jazz", Souter is a riveting live performer. To quote a recent live review [of her sold out return to the Rochester International Jazz Festival 2009]: "To say that Souter enchanted the audience would be an understatement .... The capacity crowd seemed to be transfixed by Souter's gorgeous voice and wonderful personality." (Ron Netsky, Rochester City Paper). "Better still, she delivers it with a wit and a wink worthy of the toniest joints in town." (Time Out New York)