Tierney Sutton

Only five years after her first professional performance, Boston newspapers were complementing Tierney Sutton with comparisons to the great Ella Fitzgerald. For most, the use of such a comparison would simply be exaggeration. Yet, for this Wisconsin-born choir girl with superb intonation, rhythmic skills, and the ability to improvise, with or without lyrics, the complements are both honorable and well-deserved.

Tierney Sutton was a Russian major at Wesleyan University when she first heard the greats and fell in love with jazz. A scholarship took her to Berklee College of Music in Boston, where within a few years she performed throughout New England, opening for such notables as Max Roach and the Billy Taylor Trio. In 1998, she was a semi-finalist in the Thelonious Monk Jazz Vocal Competition. Her first solo CD, Introducing Tierney Sutton (1999), was released to rave reviews and nominated for a 1999 Indie Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album.

Since her second solo album release, Unsung Heroes (Telarc, 2000), in which she took popular jazz standards that are usually performed instrumentally and put vocals to them, Tierney has become one of the critics’ most talked about jazz musicians.

With the release of her latest Telarc CD, Blue in Green (2001), and subsequent national tour, Tierney has received glowing reviews and filled jazz venues across the country. In Blue in Green Tierney’s multi-colored voice penetrates the soul with pensive and warmhearted intimacy with music written by or associated with pianist Bill Evans.

Tierney also heads the Jazz Vocal department at the University of Southern California (USC), and has given vocal clinics throughout the U.S. and abroad.

A versatile studio singer, Tierney’s unique voice has been featured on a variety of movie and television soundtracks as well as on commercials for BMW, Coca Cola, Dodge and J.C. Penney.

Tierney’s band features world-class pianist Christian Jacob, Trey Henry on bass, and Ray Brinker on drums. The quartet has been touring and recording together for seven years.