Celia McDermott and her All Star Band return to the Velvet Note on Jan. 17

A native of Boston, vocalist Celia McDermott’s philosophy to singing is to get inside the song, and sing it from the deepest place in her soul…until her toes buzz. An early love of singing brought her to study arranging and vocals at Berklee College of Music, where she was introduced to the world of jazz, and the concept of using the voice as an instrument. She remembers sitting in Berklee’s listening library at age 18, hearing Sarah Vaughn for the first time, and weeping from the beauty and richness of Sarah’s instrument, while singing along in the middle of the library. It was Berklee- it didn’t matter! After Berklee, she performed locally with and without her guitar in the Boston, New York, and Atlanta areas for years in many various groups, featuring many varied styles of music.

She served many years as an assistant choir director, spent ten years directing and singing in “Cheaper Than Therapy”, an a cappella group, has been a featured singer on many recordings, and has performed with many different musicians in the Atlanta area, spanning genres to create a brand that has been dubbed “honey granola jazz” … Thrilling highlights of her career have been having the honor of singing solos for several years with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s gospel choir, as well as co-creating and performing with fellow musicians and Ms. Tamara Fuller, in a musical review, “The Piano Man”, in which she played the character ironically named “Celia”, for the Velvet Note. After two sold out, very fun shows last year, she is excited to be returning home to the Velvet Note with her all-star band consisting of Ken Gregory on guitar, trumpet, and trombone, Arthur D. Turner on keys, Tim Aucoin on upright and electric bass and Paul Fallat on drums.

The Velvet Note is a beautiful, intimate listening room, with limited seating, so purchase of tickets is highly recommended, by visiting the website: www.thevelvetnote.com. Each attendee will receive a complimentary copy of Celia’s CD, “Penny Candy”. Hope to see you there!