Named the Chicago Tribune’s 2020 Person of the Year in Jazz, Tammy McCann is an internationally recognized Jazz Vocalist and is currently Artist in Residence for the Music Institute of Chicago. Her powerful, sultry, and emotionally charged voice paints pictures and tells stories by merging Classical vocal technique and Gospel esthetic with Jazz to create a sound that is completely her own. Chicago Tribune’s Arts Critic, Howard Reich says McCann has, “A voice that soars in all registers, at all tempos, on all occasions… a voice that inspires wonder!”
Tammy is a storyteller who draws emotion from and makes connections with her audiences world- wide. Her warm delivery allows her audience to go on the musical journey with her and her engaging personality imprints the memory of her performance on their hearts. Inside Jazz Magazine Music Critic, Nora McCarthy says, “She came bearing natural gifts and with raw talent in hand, she stepped up to the mic and into the hearts of everyone in the room.”
As an educator, Tammy has shared her expertise with Jazz lovers young and old. Lecturing for Jazz at Lincoln Centers, Swing U, as well as Princeton University. She believes singing is a part of every human community; bringing us together and helping us to interact with one another. McCann says, “There is a pedagogy to Jazz vocal instruction which requires an approach that can combine the classroom and the bandstand in a seamless way.” Her teaching style meets the vocal student where they are and all instruction has a classical foundation with a focus on Jazz. All lessons help to develop a natural technique and allow the student to progress at their own pace. Through which the students gain the confidence they need to audition and perform.
Tammy McCann has performed with such luminaries as Chicago’s own NEA Jazz Masters Ramsey Lewis & Von Freeman. As well as John Clayton, Branford Marsalis, Charles McPherson, Dee Dee Bridgewater, and toured as a ‘Raelette’ with the great Ray Charles. McCann has thrilled audiences in festivals and clubs world-wide from Bangkok, Thailand to the to the Odeon of Herodes Atticus in Greece. As well as the nation’s premier concert and Jazz venues, Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Birdland, The Blue Note, Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola and Chicago’s own Jazz Showcase. Cultural & Jazz Critic Stanley Crouch says, “Her pitch is superb…clear on the top and startling at the bottom, while all of the steps in between are polished with swing.”
