Ladies of Jazz by Maximillien de Lafayette

Marsh taught her as he would teach a horn player. Her goal was to improvise as freely as a great jazz musician would, using all the vocal colors that her classical and jazz training had given her. In 1977, Ms. Niemack moved to New York City to pursue her career as a jazz vocalist. Her first major performance was a week at the Village Vanguard with Warne Marsh in 1978. Her first recording, “By Heart”, was released that year on Seabreeze Records. Since then she has performed in most of the major clubs in N.Y.C., including The Blue Note, Sweet Basil, Fat Tuesday’s, The Village Gate, Visiones and The Rainbow Room. She has toured the U.S. A. in concerts and festivals with several major jazz orchestras, including those led by Larry Elgart and Peter Duchin with whom she performed at the White House. She has given concerts celebrating the songs of George Gershwin, Cole Porter and Irving Berlin. Internationally, Ms. Niemack began by singing in Italy at the PISA Jazz Festival in 1982 and has since appeared in Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Japan, the Philippines, Rumania, Spain and Poland. Judy is currently performing in jazz clubs, concerts and festivals in Europe and the United States. She now lives in New York City and Berlin, heading the Pop/Jazz vocal department at the Hanns Eisler Music Conservatory as Germany’s first Professor of Vocal Jazz. Some of the musicians she has performed with are: Toots Thielemans, David Byrne, George Benson, James Moody, Lee Konitz, Clark Terry, Dave Brubeck, Lew Tabackin, Warne Marsh, Gary Bartz, Kenny Barron, Billy Higgins, Cedar Walton, Ray Drummond, Joey Baron, Fred Hersch, Billy Hart, Victor Lewis, Kenny Werner, Hein van de Geyn, Jim Mc Neely, Joe Lovano, Adam Nussbaum, Jeanfrançois Prins, Kirk Nurock, Michel Herr, Steve Kuhn, Mark Feldman, Eddie Gomez, Harvie Swartz, Kirk Lightsey and the New York Voices.

Judy Niemack was born in Pasadena, California and began singing publicly at the age of 7 in church. Throughout her school years, she sang in every kind of vocal ensemble: madrigals, chamber choir, musical theatre productions, folk groups, rock bands, and eventually a vocal jazz quartet. When she was 17, she decided that singing was her life, and began to study classical voice with a teacher of “bel canto”. At 18, she heard and met the great tenor saxophonist Warne Marsh, and became fascinated by jazz and improvisation. She attended Pasadena City College, studying classical voice, and jazz improvisation with alto saxophonist Gary Foster. Continuing her classical studies for the next six years, while singing in jazz clubs at night, she studied at New England Conservatory in Boston, attended the Cleveland Institute of Music Opera Workshop, and, realizing that her true path lay in improvised music, returned to California to study vocal improvisation with Warne MARSH. Marsh taught her as he would teach a horn player. Her goal was to improvise as freely as a great jazz musician would, using all the vocal colors that her classical and jazz training had given her. In 1977, Ms. Niemack moved to New York City to pursue her career as a jazz vocalist. Her first major performance was a week at the Village Vanguard with Warne Marsh in 1978. Her first recording, “By Heart”, was released that year on Seabreeze Records.

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